Sherman Park

Last updated

Sherman Park
Sherman Park.jpg
Chicago locator map.png
Red pog.svg
USA Illinois location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationBounded by W. 52nd St., Racine Ave., Garfield Blvd., and Loomis Blvd., Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates 41°47′48″N87°39′27″W / 41.79667°N 87.65750°W / 41.79667; -87.65750
Area60.6 acres (24.5 ha)
ArchitectBurnham, D.H. & Co.; Olmsted Bros.
Architectural styleBeaux Arts
MPS Chicago Park District MPS
NRHP reference No. 90000745 [1]
Added to NRHPMay 21, 1990

Sherman Park is a sixty-acre park in the New City neighborhood of South Side, Chicago.

It was designed by renowned landscape architects John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and celebrated Chicago architect Daniel Burnham. It opened in 1905.

The park's recreational facilities include two gymnasiums, a fitness center, a swimming pool, as well as outdoor space for basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer and football. [2]

The park was named for John B. Sherman, Burnham's father-in-law and a founder of Chicago's Union Stock Yards. [3]

The park was designed specifically to enrich the immigrant, working class residents of the surrounding neighborhood. [4]

Murals

In 1912, eight students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago painted murals in the Sherman Park fieldhouse that came to be known as the American History Series. These murals commemorate events such as the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the Marquette-Joliet Expedition of 1673, and George Rogers Clark's Illinois Campaign of 1778. [5]

Over the years the murals became severely damaged due to accumulated soot and varnish. In 2004, restoration on the murals commenced with the park's inclusion in the Mural Preservation Effort, a joint project between the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Conservation Center. [6] The restoration of the Sherman Park murals was completed in mid-2005. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Burnham</span> American architect and urban designer (1846– 1912)

Daniel Hudson Burnham was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the Beaux-Arts movement, he may have been "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ever produced."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Law Olmsted</span> American landscape architect (1822–1903)

Frederick Law Olmsted was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the United States. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his partner Calvert Vaux. Olmsted and Vaux's first project was New York's Central Park, which led to many other urban park designs, including Prospect Park in Brooklyn and Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey. He headed the preeminent landscape architecture and planning consultancy of late 19th century United States, which was carried on and expanded by his sons, Frederick Jr. and John C., under the name Olmsted Brothers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riverside, Illinois</span> Village in Illinois, United States

Riverside is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population of the village was 9,298 at the 2020 census, up from 8,875 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of Chicago, located roughly 9 miles (14 km) west of downtown Chicago and 2 miles (3 km) outside city limits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Beautiful movement</span> Architectural and urban planning movement (1890s–1900s)

The City Beautiful movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the progressive social reform movement in North America under the leadership of the upper-middle class, which was concerned with poor living conditions in all major cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City and Washington, D.C., promoted beauty not only for its own sake, but also to create moral and civic virtue among urban populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Park (Chicago)</span> Public park in Chicago, Illinois

Jackson Park is a 551.5-acre (223.2 ha) urban park located on the South Side of Chicago. The park was designed in 1871 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, then greatly remodeled in 1893 to serve as the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, making it one of the largest and most historically significant parks in the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Chicago</span> Regional architecture

The buildings and architecture of Chicago reflect the city's history and multicultural heritage, featuring prominent buildings in a variety of styles. Most structures downtown were destroyed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parks in Chicago</span>

Parks in Chicago include open spaces and facilities, developed and managed by the Chicago Park District. The City of Chicago devotes 8.5% of its total land acreage to parkland, which ranked it 13th among high-density population cities in the United States in 2012. Since the 1830s, the official motto of Chicago has been Urbs in horto, Latin for "City in a garden" for its commitment to parkland. In addition to serving residents, a number of these parks also double as tourist destinations, most notably Lincoln Park, Chicago's largest park, visited by over 20 million people each year, is one of the most visited parks in the United States. Notable architects, artists and landscape architects have contributed to the 570 parks, including Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jens Jensen, Dwight Perkins, Frank Gehry, and Lorado Taft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palmer Park (Chicago)</span> United States historic place

Palmer Park is an urban park at 201 E. 111th Street on the far South Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denver Civic Center</span> Neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, USA

The Denver Civic Center is a civic center area that includes two parks surrounded by government and cultural buildings and spaces. Civic Center is located in central Denver, Colorado, on the south side of Downtown Denver. Much of the area is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. A somewhat smaller area was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2012 as one of the nation's finest examples of the City Beautiful movement of civic design. Denver Civic Center lies partially within the north end of an official Denver neighborhood also named Civic Center. It includes the Colorado State Capitol building, in the west end of Denver's official Capitol Hill neighborhood, and it includes a few buildings in the south end of Denver's Central Business District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.</span> American landscape architect (1870–1957)

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was an American landscape architect and city planner known for his wildlife conservation efforts. He had a lifetime commitment to national parks, and worked on projects in Acadia, the Everglades and Yosemite National Park. He gained national recognition by filling in for his father on the Park Improvement Commission for the District of Columbia beginning in 1901, and by contributing to the famous McMillan Commission Plan for redesigning Washington according to a revised version of the original L’Enfant plan. Olmsted Point in Yosemite and Olmsted Island at Great Falls of the Potomac River in Maryland are named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richardson Olmsted Complex</span> Building in Buffalo, New York

The Richardson Olmsted Complex in Buffalo, New York, United States, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The site was designed by the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson in concert with the landscape team of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of New York City's Central Park, and Calvert Vaux in the late 1800s, incorporating a system of treatment for people with mental illness developed by Thomas Story Kirkbride. Over the years, as mental health treatment changed and resources were diverted, the buildings and grounds began a slow deterioration. In 2006, the Richardson Center Corporation was formed to restore the buildings. The building was renovated and opened in 2023 at The Richardson Hotel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana–Thomas House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Dana–Thomas House is a home in Prairie School style designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built from 1902–1904 for the philanthropist Susan Lawrence Dana, it is located along East Lawrence Avenue in Springfield, Illinois. The home reflects the mutual affection of the patron and the architect for organic architecture, the relatively flat landscape of the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Japanese aesthetic as expressed in Japanese prints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allentown, Buffalo</span> United States historic place

The Allentown district is a neighborhood in Buffalo, New York. The neighborhood is home to the Allentown Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marquette Building (Chicago)</span> United States historic place

The Marquette Building, completed in 1895, is a Chicago landmark that was built by the George A. Fuller Company and designed by architects Holabird & Roche. The building is currently owned by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It is located in the community area known as the "Loop" in Cook County, Illinois, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Park (Chicago park)</span> Public park in Chicago, Illinois

Washington Park is a 372-acre (1.5 km2) park between Cottage Grove Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive, located at 5531 S. Martin Luther King Dr. in the Washington Park community area on the South Side of Chicago. It was named for President George Washington in 1880. Washington Park is the largest of four Chicago Park District parks named after persons surnamed Washington. Located in the park is the DuSable Museum of African American History. This park was the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic swimming venue for Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Washington Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riverside Historic District (Riverside, Illinois)</span> Historic district in Illinois, United States

The Riverside Historic District, also known as Riverside Landscape Architecture District, encompasses what is arguably one of the first planned suburbs in the United States. The district encompasses the majority of the village of Riverside, Illinois, a suburb just west of Chicago. It was planned and designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted and features a number of architecturally distinguished buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilford, Baltimore</span> United States historic place

Guilford is a prominent and historic neighborhood located in the northern part of Baltimore, Maryland. It is bounded on the south by University Parkway, on the west by North Charles Street, Warrenton and Linkwood Roads, on the north by Cold Spring Lane and on the east by York Road. The neighborhood is adjacent to the neighborhoods of Tuscany-Canterbury, Loyola-Notre Dame, Kernewood, Wilson Park, Pen Lucy, Waverly Oakenshawe, Charles Village, and the universities of Johns Hopkins and Loyola University Maryland. The neighborhood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Buffalo, New York</span> Overview of the architecture in Buffalo, New York

The Architecture of Buffalo, New York, particularly the buildings constructed between the American Civil War and the Great Depression, is said to have created a new, distinctly American form of architecture and to have influenced design throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Moore (city planner)</span> American journalist, historian and city planner

Charles Moore (1855-1942) was an American journalist, historian and city planner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamilton Park (Chicago)</span> United States historic place

Hamilton Park is a public park at 513 W. 72nd Street in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The park opened in 1904 as part of a plan led by the South Park Commission to add small neighborhood parks on Chicago's South Side. It was the first public park in Englewood. Landscape designers the Olmsted Brothers and architecture firm D. H. Burnham & Company collaborated on the park's design. The park opened with a fieldhouse, baseball field, wading pool, and walkways; within the decade, the designers added gymnasiums, a playground, and tennis courts. The fieldhouse has a Beaux-Arts design, and its inside features several murals of prominent figures in American history. The park was heavily used after it opened, and the fieldhouse in particular was booked so consistently that it was expanded in the 1920s.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "Sherman Park". Chicago Park District. Retrieved on September 15, 2016.
  3. Sherman Park. Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved on December 7, 2010.
  4. Sherman Park. Biking the Boulevards with Geoffrey Baer. Retrieved on December 7, 2010.
  5. American History Series. Chicago Park District. Retrieved on September 15, 2016.
  6. Barbara Keer. Chicago's Depression-Era Murals Restored. Splash Magazine. Retrieved on September 15, 2016.
  7. Charles Sheehan. Art in parks revival to get financial boost with matching funds. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on September 15, 2016.