Jackson Park (Chicago)

1893 World's Fair Court of Honor and Grand Basin in Jackson Park

After the state legislature created the South Park Commission in 1869, the designers of New York's Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, were hired to lay out the 1,055-acre (4.27 km²) park (which included the Midway Plaisance and Washington Park). Lois Willie explained in her book Forever Open, Clear, and Free, "Olmstead said Jackson Park should be water oriented, with a yacht harbor, winding walkways around the lagoons, small bridges, bathing pavilions, and plenty of space for boating."[2] However, their designs were not put into place at that time, and Jackson Park remained untouched until Chicago was chosen to host the World's Fair several years later.[3] One of the landmarks that recalls the 1893 Columbian Exposition is the Statue of The Republic, only it is now a replica one-third the size of the original The Republic statue. The designers used the Statue of Liberty as inspiration when they were creating the original. Today the 1/3 size statue of The Republic stands at the site of the 1893 Expositions Administration Building.[4]

Known originally as "South Park", the landscape had eastern and western divisions connected by a grand boulevard named the Midway Plaisance. The eastern division became known as "Lake Park"; however, in 1880 the commission asked the public to suggest official names for both the eastern and western divisions. The names "Jackson" and "Washington" were proposed. In the following year, Lake Park was renamed "Jackson Park" to honor Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh president of the United States.

In 1890, Chicago won the honor of hosting the World's Columbian Exposition. In 1891, Jackson Park was selected as its site.[3] Olmsted and Chicago's architect and planner, Daniel H. Burnham, with his partner John Wellborn Root, laid out the fairgrounds. A team of architects and sculptors created the "White City" of plaster buildings and artworks in Beaux-Arts style.[3] The historic World's Fair opened to visitors on May 1, 1893. It was Root's last project, as he caught pneumonia and died in January 1891, two years before the fair's opening. After the fair closed, the site was transformed back into parkland, as the fair buildings were not designed to be permanent structures.[5]

Jackson Park featured the first public golf course west of the Alleghenies, which opened in 1899.[6] Colonel B. J. D. Irwin, a retired military surgeon and local golfer, sought democratization of recreation in Chicago, and ensured that Jackson Park Golf Course be made open to the public for free, such that "golfers of limited means... can play at almost nominal cost, and cheaper facilities in Chicago would permit of a number enjoying the game who at present are debarred by the dues demanded by the local clubs".[7]

Most of the park burned to the ground after the fair closed. A headline from January 9. 1894 read "THE WHITE CITY IN FLAMES; FIRE DESTROYS THE FAIREST OF THE BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS".[8]

On May 16, 1896 the Jackson Park Yacht Club (JPYC) was organized with incorporation on June 3 but the original organization failed. Rights to the club were purchased and a new JPYC was formed with thirty-eight members with about twenty boats. The Park Commission's aid was sought to dredge and clear a channel through the wreckage of the exposition. By 1901 membership had expanded to 149 with 105 boats. By 1902, with the club house built of scrap lumber on a purchased scow, the club joined the Lake Michigan Yachting Association. Over the next years the club grew in membership and in competitive yachts. By 1915 plans were underway for a new club house with sixteen life memberships the core of the funding for the new structure which was dedicated on Memorial Day 1916 by Governor Edward F. Dunne, who arrived on William A. Lydon's 181 foot steam yacht Lydonia.[9][10]

The Palace of Fine Arts decayed after the fair until it was reopened as the Museum of Science and Industry in 1933. Sears, Roebuck & Company president Julius Rosenwald donated the initial investment.[11] During World War II, vandals severely damaged the Japanese Garden. The Chicago Park District waited for decades before considering repairing it. Eventually, the city of Osaka donated money for the refurbishment.

During the Cold War, part of Jackson Park contained a Nike Surface-to-Air Missile site and the nearby "Point" was used as its radar station.[12]

In the 1950s, Jackson Park's Wooded Island was almost leased to the Army to become the location of an anti-aircraft installation, but was strongly protested against, as the Park District had given the Army other location options and Jackson Park's Wooded Island was spared.[13]

In 1965 the people of South Chicago were growing tired of the traffic jams on Lake Shore Drive, so the city made plans to widen the road, straighten its curves and run it straight through Jackson Park. Women and children then conducted protests and rallies around tree stumps. The efforts eventually brought results and the city halted roadwork after it had already gone halfway through the park.[13]

In 1972 Jackson Park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.[14]

Jackson Park Lagoon

A nonprofit organization called Project 120 began collaborating with the Chicago Park District in 2012 to restore Jackson Park to designer Frederick Law Olmsted's vision. The group's plans include improving the park's green space, creating a music pavilion, and creating a great lawn for park-goers to use for leisure activities. In October 2016 Yoko Ono unveiled a permanent artwork called Skylanding on the Wooded Island; it is Ono's first permanent art installation in the United States.[15] Ono said she was inspired during a visit to the Garden of the Phoenix in 2013 and that she feels a connection to the city of Chicago.[16]

Jackson Park has a number of volunteers who help maintain the park,[17] but Project 120 aims to go beyond cleanup and plant maintenance. At a cost of about $8.1 million,[18] habitat restoration on Jackson Park's Wooded Island began in 2015 and will continue until 2019.[19] Restoration will take five years to complete and another 25 years reach ecological maturity. The restoration is being done as part of the Army Corps of Engineers Great Lakes Fishery & Ecosystem Restoration (GLFER) program.[20] Improving the park's green space and enhancing its wildlife are meant to improve the appearance and popularity of a park that has been in decline. Some aspects of the restoration, especially plans for a music pavilion, have generated controversy.[21][22]

The Garden of the Phoenix in Chicago's Jackson Park, with a view of the Museum of Science and Industry

Jackson Park's Japanese gardens were originally created during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, with a garden and a Japanese Ho-O Den (Phoenix Temple) for the government of Japan as a pavilion for the exposition.[28] The pavilion was based on the Ho-o-Do (Phoenix Hall) of the Byodo-in Temple in Kyoto. The phoenix emblem was a reference to Chicago rising like the mythical firebird from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After the 1893 Fair, most of the Fair structures were burned or torn down, but the garden and the Ho-O Den Pavilion remained intact.

In 1933 the government of Japan constructed a traditional tea house at the Century of Progress World's Fair and also created a garden on Wooded Island's northeast side and refurbished the Ho-O Den.[29] After WWII the pavilion and tea house were destroyed by fire and the garden was abandoned. After the city of Osaka became Chicago's sister city, one the goals of the Sister Cities program became to revive the Japanese Garden in Jackson Park. With the collective efforts of the City of Osaka and the Chicago Park District, the gardens were restored and named "Osaka Garden" in 1993 in honor of that city's help and friendship.[27][30]

The gardens were renamed Garden of the Phoenix in 2013.[29]

The pavilion at the Osaka Garden

There is a koi pond within the garden. The garden in itself is very peaceful, and the simplicity of the pond and the large fish swimming calmly inside provides a serene atmosphere. The stones within the park carry an old legend which says they are laid in a zigzag because evil spirits can only move in a straight line, so if you cross the stones, any evil spirits will just fall into the water.

The Kasuga Lantern is one of the lamps that survived from 1893. It takes its name from the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan. The deer panel is one of the four traditional symbols, the others were a stag, the sun, and the moon, most of which are damaged.

The garden holds American plantings, but it also holds unique Japanese plants, usually found only in Japan. The theme of the garden, from 1893 to the present, is peace. It holds a harmony of the peace and balance possible between countries and cultures, between nature and city. Its wandering, stone pathways are designed to encourage a sense of peace around and within its visitors. The garden is meant to resemble natural scenery but at a small scale, with representation of mountains, islands and lakes. The garden is intended to provide a tranquil space for meditation.[31]