McKinley Park - Chicago, IL - Illinois Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This marker details the history of McKinley Park, part of Chicago's historic boulevard system. The opposite side of the marker has information about the boulevard system. The marker is located in the green space of Western Boulevard at the intersection with Archer Avenue.

Full text:

McKinley Park

McKinley Park, which was dedicated in 1902, is one of the first "neighborhood parks" in the country. Named in honor of President William McKinley, who had been assassinated one year earlier, McKinley Park proved to be an instant success. The park's popularity not only encouraged the city's South Park Commission to create a network of neighborhood parks, but it also inspired similar efforts nationwide. President Theodore Roosevelt referred to this Chicago innovation as "on of the most notable civic achievements in any American city."

Prior to the turn of the century, [illegible] were designed to serve residents from large regions of the city. The notion of a new kind of park emerged in Chicago in the late 1890s, after hundreds of thousands of European immigrants settled in what became overcrowded tenement districts which were often distant from the existing parks. Social reformers such as Jane Addams responded by creating playlots and ballfields in these areas. Inspired by such efforts, the superintendent of the South Park Commission, J. Frank Foster, proposed a series of small, but beautifully landscaped, recreational areas in some of the city's most densely populated neighborhoods.

When the Illinois General Assembly, in 1899, authorized the city's three park commissions to acquire additional property for neighborhood parks, the South Park Commission quickly moved ahead with plans to purchase a 34-acre site northwest of the Union Stockyards. Three years later, McKinley Park opened to the public with facilities seldom seen in a public park, such as a swimming lagoon, ballfields, playgrounds, an open-air gymnasium, and a community center. More than 100,000 people swam in the park's lagoon pool during its first year, and the park's showers gave many people their only access to running water.

Pleased with the park's success, the commission hired the team that created the fairgrounds for the World's Columbian Exposition (Olmsted Brothers and D.H. Burnham & Co.) to design a system of 14 neighborhood parks, which includes Bessemer Park, Davis Square, Hamilton Park, Palmer Park, and Sherman Park.

The following year, McKinley Park was doubled in size and additional improvements were made too serve the area's growing population. Another year later, in 1905, the McKinley Monument by Charles J. Mulligan (a stone cutter until his discovery by Chicago's most famous sculptor, Lorado Taft) was installed; a modern swimming pool was build (allowing the lagoon to be used primarily as a landscape feature); and a field house was constructed.

The opposite side reads:

The Boulevard System

A brief history

In 1837, when Chicago selected its motto Urbs in Horto ("City in a Garden"), there were very few parks here. This was not uncommon: New York City did not start building Central Park until the 1850s, and construction of Boston's "emerald necklace" did not begin until 30 years after that.

So, in 1849, when Chicago developer John S. Wright proposed a vast network of parks and boulevards with the hopes of encouraging development, he was suggesting something new:

"Of these parks I have a vision. They are all improved and connected with a wide avenue extending to and along the Lake shore on the north and south, and too surrounding the city with a magnificent chain of parks and parkways that have not their equal in the World."

It took two decades for Wright's innovative idea to gain public support. The 1869 Illinois "parks bills" established three regional park commissions to create a unified system of parks linked by pleasure drives.

The South Commission hired Frederick Law Olmsted, America's premier landscape architect, who styled landscapes with informal groupings of trees and meandering pathways. The West Commission's lead designer was William Lebaron Jenney, whose formal rows of trees complemented the geometric paths he planned. Later, Jens Jensen, founder of Prairie-style landscape architecture, created a more natural look for the west parks and boulevards using native plantings. Legal challenges precluded construction of the North Commission's design for Diversey Parkway.

Much of Chicago's boulevard system was constructed during the real estate boom of the late 19th century. As these boulevards were completed, they became popular recreational and social destinations. Chicagoans promenaded and rode horses and carriages along the smoothest roads of their era. As John Wright and others had hoped, the boulevards gradually attracted residential developers. The most magnificent mansions were built along Grand (now King Drive) and Drexel boulevards.

When Chicago held the 1893 World'S Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park and along the Midway Plaisance, it showcased a grand park system that few American cities could match. Inspired by this display, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C., initiated the development of their own park and parkway systems.

In the early 1930s, the three park commissions were consolidated to become the Chicago Park District. The Park District maintained the boulevards until 1959, when the responsibility was turned over to the City of Chicago. Today, the parks and boulevards remain a testament to the vision that helped establish Chicago as a national model.

County: Cook Historical Society: City of Chicago Dedication Date: 1995 Location: In the green space of Western Boulevard at the intersection with Archer Avenue Website: Not listed

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