On September 4, 1842,[4] the city received a 3-acre (12,000m2) parcel that was donated by the members of the American Land Company for use as a public park. The property had once been a cow path with a well for farmers to water their cattle.[4] The donors stipulated the name Washington Square. Between 1869 and the 1890s, the city improved Washington Square with lawn, trees, bisecting diagonal walks, limestone coping, picket fencing, and an attractive Victorian fountain. By the time Alderman McCormick became President of Drainage Board in 1906, the fountain had been razed and the park had deteriorated. Alderman McCormick devoted his aldermanic salary to improving the park. He donated a $600 fountain, and the city allocated an additional $10,000 to rehabilitate the park. By the 1910s, the neighborhood surrounding Washington Square had become more diverse.[5]
Development
The original purpose of the neighborhood park was as a place of assembly to discuss community issues.[3] Chicago has a long storied history of public speeches both for entertainment and educational purposes. The Haymarket Riot first started as an anarchist workers rally. Daniel Burnham's March 27, 1897 lecture for the Commercial Club of Chicago inspired the club to provide $80,000 to publish the Burnham Plan.[6]
Washington Square Park has been the geographic center of Chicago public speeches. By the 1890s the park acquired its Bughouse Square moniker. Soapbox orators waxed on topics ranging from gender relations to Communism.[6] It served as a home for soapbox orators on warm-weather evenings from the 1910s to the mid-1960s. Like Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park, Washington Square became a popular spot for soap box orators. Artists, writers, political radicals, and hobos pontificated, lectured, recited poetry, ranted, and raved. A group of regulars formed "The Dill Pickle Club," devoted to free expression. For years Washington Square orators appointed their own honorary "king."[5] In its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, revolutionary left soapboxers were occasionally joined by poets, religionists, and cranks.[2] In 1959, the city transferred Washington Square to the Chicago Park District.[5] In 1964, Life featured an article saying that it was a meeting place for cottaging among homosexuals.[7] Six years later, it played host to Chicago's first Gay Pride March.[8][9]
Washington Square Historic District is a historic district in Chicago, Illinois that includes Washington Square Park, Chicago. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 21, 2003.[1][10] The Washington Square District was declared a Chicago Landmark on May 16, 1990. The original 1990 Washington Square Park District Chicago Landmark designation included the park, Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street and 915 to 929 North Dearborn Street. The first Chicago Landmark district extension on July 10, 2002 included 22-28 and 27-31 West Chestnut Street and 802-818, 827-867, 1012, 1023-1029, and 1150-1154 North Dearborn Street. The May 11, 2005 extension added the Isaac Maynard Row Houses located at 119-123 West Delaware Place.[11] The National Register of Historic Places included Washington Square as well as North Dearborn Street from West Walton Street to West Chicago Avenue.[12]
Today
The restored fountain at the center of the park.
Every July, the Bughouse Square Committee continues to oversee the annual Bughouse Square Debates free speech gathering in conjunction with the Newberry Library's annual book sale.[2] The debates are part of an annual festival to recreate the atmosphere of speeches and debates by soap box orators that once flourished in the park.[4]
Although Alderman McCormick's fountain was removed in the 1970s, in the late 1990s, the park district, the city, and neighborhood organizations agreed on a restoration plan for Washington Square. Improvements include a reconstructed historic fountain, period lighting, fencing, and new plantings.[5] In the west part of the park, there is a memorial tablet designating the park as "Chicago's Premier Free Speech Forum."[4]
1 2 3 Rosemont, Franklin Bughouse Square, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago, pp. 99. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN0-226-31015-9
1 2 Pacyga, Dominic A., Playgrounds and Small Parks, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago, pp. 622. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN0-226-31015-9
1 2 Boehm, Lisa Krissoff, Lectures and Public Speaking, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago, pp. 466. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN0-226-31015-9
↑ Note: A National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination document describing the district should be available upon request from the National Park Service, although it appears not to be available on-line from the NPS Focus search site.
1 2 Rosemont, Franklin Free Speech, Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago, pp. 316. The University of Chicago Press, ISBN0-226-31015-9
Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hull, opened to serve recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had expanded to 13 buildings. In 1912, the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club. With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement; by 1920, it grew to approximately 500 settlement houses nationally.
The Compass Players was an improvisational theatre revue active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago and St. Louis. Founded by David Shepherd and Paul Sills, it is considered to be the first improvisational theater in the United States.
Washington Park is a community area on the South Side of Chicago which includes the 372 acre (1.5 km2) park of the same name, stretching east-west from Cottage Grove Avenue to the Dan Ryan Expressway, and north-south from 51st Street to 63rd. It is home to the DuSable Museum of African American History. The park was the proposed site of the Olympic Stadium and the Olympic Aquatics Center in Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Austin is one of 77 community areas in Chicago. Located on the city's West Side, it is the third largest community area by population and the second-largest geographically. Austin's eastern boundary is the Belt Railway located just east of Cicero Avenue. Its northernmost border is the Milwaukee District / West Line. Its southernmost border is at Roosevelt Road from the Belt Railway west to Austin Boulevard. The northernmost portion, north of North Avenue, extends west to Harlem Avenue, abutting Elmwood Park. In addition to Elmwood Park, Austin also borders the suburbs of Cicero and Oak Park.
The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop. The Near South Side's boundaries are as follows: North—Roosevelt Road ; South—26th Street; West—Chicago River between Roosevelt and 18th Street, Clark Street between 18th Street and Cermak Road, Federal between Cermak Road and the Stevenson Expressway just south of 25th Street, and Clark Street again between the Stevenson and 26th Street; and East—Lake Michigan.
The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a centralized processing area. By the 1890s, the railroad capital behind the Union Stockyards was Vanderbilt money. The Union Stockyards operated in the New City community area for 106 years, helping Chicago become known as the "hog butcher for the world," the center of the American meatpacking industry for decades. The yards became inspiration for literature and social reform.
Little Italy, sometimes combined with University Village into one neighborhood, is on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. The current boundaries of Little Italy are Ashland Avenue on the west and Interstate 90/94 on the east, the Eisenhower Expressway on the north and Roosevelt to the south. It lies between the east side of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus in the Illinois Medical District and the west side of the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. The community was once predominantly Italian immigrants but now is made up of diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds as a result of immigration, urban renewal, gentrification and the growth of the resident student and faculty population of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Its Italian-American heritage is primarily evident in the Italian-American restaurants that once lined Taylor Street. The neighborhood is home to the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame as well as the historic Roman Catholic churches Our Lady of Pompeii, Notre Dame de Chicago, and Holy Family.
The American Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The inaugural American Derby was held at Chicago's old Washington Park Race Track on the city's South Side and raced there until 1905 when the facility was closed following the state's ban on gambling, and horse racing and the track was demolished. 1893's American Derby was the 2nd richest race in the U.S. during the 19th century.
The Bughouse Square Debates was an annual event sponsored by the Newberry Library in Chicago. The debates took place across from the Newberry, in Washington Square Park. Soapboxes located throughout the park gave a series of scheduled speakers platforms from which they shared their opinions on a variety of issues related to education, labor, sports, religion, technology, national security, and other topics. Every year, a panel of judges presented the champion soapboxer with the Dill Pickle Award, a nod to the Dill Pickle Club, a bohemian gathering place located near the park in the early twentieth century.
The Burnham Plan is a popular name for the 1909 Plan of Chicago coauthored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett and published in 1909. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railroad and harbor facilities, and civic buildings. Though only portions of the plan were realized, the document reshaped Chicago's central area and was an important influence on the new field of city planning.
Charles Henry Wacker was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was vice chairman of the general committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and in 1909 was appointed chairman of the Chicago Plan Commission by Mayor Fred A. Busse. As commission chairman from 1909 to 1926, he championed the Burnham Plan for improving Chicago. His work to promote the plan included addresses, obtaining wide publicity from newspapers, and publishing Wacker's Manual of the Plan of Chicago as a textbook for local schoolchildren.
Paul Cornell was an American lawyer and Chicago real estate speculator who founded the Hyde Park Township that included most of what are now known as the south and far southeast sides of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. He turned the south side Lake Michigan lakefront area, especially the Hyde Park community area and neighboring Kenwood and Woodlawn neighborhoods, into a resort community that had its heyday from the 1850s through the early 20th century. He was also an urban planner who paved the way for and preserved many of the parks that are now in the Chicago Park District. Additionally, he was a successful entrepreneur with interests in manufacturing, cemeteries, and hotels.
The Hyde Park House was a four-story wood frame upscale hotel in Chicago, built and run by Paul Cornell, that served as the centerpiece for Hyde Park social life from 1857 until 1879. It was located on 53rd Street adjacent to Lake Michigan on land currently occupied by the Hampton House.
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.
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.
Central Station is a residential development project in the South Loop section of Chicago, Illinois. Originally planned as a 69 acres (28 ha) development, it was later expanded to 72 acres (29 ha), and is now 80 acres (32 ha). Being planned by the city government, it encompasses the former rail yards and air space rights east of Michigan Avenue between Roosevelt Road and 18th Street.
The Wigwam was a convention center and meeting hall that served as the site of the 1860 Republican National Convention. It was located in Chicago, Illinois, at Lake Street and Market near the Chicago River. This site had previously been the site of the Sauganash Hotel, Chicago's first hotel. This is where supporters ushered Abraham Lincoln to the party nomination and the eventual U.S. Presidency. The location at Lake and Wacker was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002. The name "Wigwam" was later associated with host locations for both the 1864 Democratic National Convention and the 1892 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Sauganash Hotel is a former hotel; regarded as the first hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1831, it was located at Wolf Point in the present day Loop community area at the intersection of the north, south and main branches of the Chicago River. The location at West Lake Street and North Wacker Drive was designated a Chicago Landmark on November 6, 2002. The hotel changed proprietors often in its twenty-year existence and briefly served as Chicago's first theater. It was named after Sauganash, an interpreter in the British Indian Department.
Culture Coast Chicago is a collection of artistically vibrant neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Known for its high concentration of museums, music and theater ensembles, performance venues, cultural nonprofits, and arts education opportunities, the region spans from just south of McCormick Place to the South Shore Cultural Center and is bordered by Lake Michigan to the east and the Dan Ryan Expressway to the west.
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