Last updated: June 6, 2024
Place
Jackson Park
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Before the idea of a World’s Fair came to Chicago, State legislature first passed a bill calling for the creation of a system of parks and parkways spreading across the whole city of Chicago. The year is 1869, the Civil War has been over for four years, and Chicago’s South Park Commission has just been established to oversee the development of the city’s green spaces.
Immediately, Central Park’s great duo of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux are contacted. Chicagoans were already familiar with the pairs work, since they had designed Riverside village. Olmsted always made sure his designs incorporated natural features of the site, and Jackson Park was no different. Water was meant to be the unifying feature of Chicago’s parks, and was a big reason why Olmsted chose Jackson Park as the site of the World’s Fair: the view of Lake Michigan.
When writing about where both the park and fair should be, Olmsted said “There is but one object of scenery near Chicago of special grandeur or sublimity, and that, the lake, can be made by artificial means no more grand or sublime. The lake, may, indeed, be accepted as fully compensating for the absence of sublime or picturesque elevations of land”
Olmsted was able to begin designing the inland portion of the park before The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 hit, which put all developments on hold as Chicago worked to rebuild itself. Construction on Jackson Park wouldn’t begin again until 1890, at which point Olmsted began splitting his time between Chicago, and the Biltmore in North Carolina.
Before Olmsted arrived in Chicago, the site of Jackson Park was a marshy, uninviting, wind-swept dune. However, out of this environment Olmsted was able create a series of basins and lagoons along the shore, protecting visitors and creating a more peaceful environment. Olmsted’s objective in the environment he created was to elicit the intense emotion that nature and beauty cause.
Source: "Jackson Park," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Olmsted Online