CHAPTER 6:
Landscaping the Memorial Grounds (continued)

C. The Landscapers Get Down to Business

1. The Cooper Bros. Projects

By the end of July, Cooper Bros. workmen were demolishing the Hartigan building on the alley between Main and Vigo. Space gained was used for a curve in the realignment of 2d Street. Main Street, between 1st and 2d, was widened, to form a border driveway for the memorial grounds. Second Street, between Main and Church, was changed. From Main to the alley between Main and Vigo, the street was widened to 50 feet; and west of there the drive circled a plaza, 50 feet wide by 140 feet in length. At the west end of the plaza was to be erected the statue of Father Gibault.

Barnett Street, from 2d to Water, was closed as a driveway and converted into a walkway. A curbing wall was erected at the 2d Street terminus, and the street resurfaced with asphalt. At the memorial grade, a flight of six granite steps was constructed. Both Barnett Street sidewalks were removed and the space used for landscaping. Dubois Street was extended to join the projected boulevard.

All streets and drives in the park were to be surfaced with Trinidad street asphalt. The walkways were to be finished in asphalt with pebbles showing on the surface. One walkway was to extend from the west terrace of the bridge approach, parallel to the old Catholic cemetery, and, after connecting with the Barnett Street walkway, link up with the walkway encircling the memorial. Another walkway, bordered by German lindens, was to extend from the bridge terrace to the memorial steps. [16]

Work on the walkways was started on September 11 by Cooper Bros. employees. The first section built was the five-foot-wide walkway paralleling the seawall. Next, they began constructing the walks encircling the memorial and connecting the memorial with the bridge approach. [17]

The Cooper Bros. people made rapid progress. By late October the walkways on the memorial grounds had been completed, and the concrete base for relocated Second Street, around the plaza, had been poured. Before 1933 had passed into history, Cooper Bros. had fulfilled both their contracts with the commission.

2. The Muellermist Contract

Muellermist had developed a revolutionary method for sprinkling lawns, which had been widely employed at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The system to be installed at the park consisted of a maze of pipes of many sizes to bring water from a 12-foot gravel pocket well. This well, capable of pumping 600 gallons of water per minute, was located about 400 feet west of the memorial structure. It was controlled automatically by the custodian from the basement of the memorial. The Muellermist system consisted of 1001 spray heads, about three-fourths of them to be spaced 30 feet apart and the rest 20 feet. The spray heads were supplied by heavy duty copper pipe and brass fittings. [18]

While Muellermist employees were excavating trenches for the sprinkler system, they unearthed a human skull and bones. The bones were embedded in gravel about four feet below the ground level. Soon after being exposed, they began to rapidly deteriorate. Local historians speculated that as the bones were deep in the gravel, where the earth had not been disturbed, they were probably those of a soldier or Indian buried in the 18th century. [19]

When the system was completed and tested, onlookers compared the extra-fine mist to that seen above Niagara Falls. [20]

3. The Hubert Hunsucker Contract

In mid-October 1933, Hubert Hansucker and his gardeners arrived. Around the memorial building and on the west side of the bridge approach, they set out a large number of horizontal junipers. These plants would lie close to the ground to serve as a covering shrub. On the bridge approach, a background of Japanese yews and some evergreens were set out. At the same time employees of Lenahan & Konen were laying top soil. [21]

gero/hsr/hsr6b.htm
Last Updated: 17-Sep-2001