Grant Park: The Evolution of Chicago's Front Yard

4. Making the White City Permanent

65 4 Making the White City Permanent As John Coleman Adams, Protestant pastor and book author, observes in “What a Great City Might Be—A Lesson from the White City,” the World’s Columbian Exposition offered a model for the modern city on the eve of the twentieth century. Chicagoans set about envisioning their Midwestern industrial metropolis, drawing upon the expertise of urban planners, landscape designers, and architects who embraced the concept of the City Beautiful. Exemplified by the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, Daniel H. Burnham, and Edward H. Bennett, the City Beautiful featured large landscapes punctuated by imposing civic structures, glorifying the nation and suggesting social order.1 These two ideals—the White City and the City Beautiful—merged in the proposals for the development of Lake Park and ultimately set out a plan for Chicago. Why was there this focus on the lakefront, instead of on Chicago’s downtown or City Hall? Plans for the World’s Columbian Exposition had drawn attention to Lake Park’s potential, and the agreement to build a structure in Making the White City Permanent 66 the park in which the world congresses would meet during the exposition and that the Art Institute would occupy afterward, represented a first step toward realizing that potential. Not only did Lake Park already belong to the city but it also was fresh ground as an ambitious landfill project had created much of its acreage. Here, the semblance of natural, open space would contrast with overcrowded tenements, dirty streets, and noisy packinghouses. This tumultuous urban environment had produced the Haymarket Square uprising of 1886, but, in contrast, a well-groomed park would provide a disciplined , healthful environment, symbolic of the social order, or so hoped the capitalist elite.2 Equally important, Chicagoans envisioned Lake Park as their communal front yard, a space to put their values and achievements on display. As architect Burnham, who had been the director of works at the World’s Columbian Exposition, declared, “Our self-respect before our neighbors and all nations and the world must be maintained and to this end we must . . . make inviting our front door yard.”3 To the casual observer, it looked as if it would be just a matter of time before a number of neoclassical buildings would be added to Lake Park. As a consensus grew within Chicago, Burnham set out an increasingly larger vision that soon included a boulevard to connect Lake Park and Jackson Park and expanded his vision into the Plan of Chicago (1909), which encompassed the entire city and, in the process, transformed its lakefront. In the sweep of progress, one man vociferously opposed the seemingly inevitable development of the park. Aaron Montgomery Ward, Michigan Avenue property owner and mail-order magnate, opposed the development of Lake Park. In keeping Lake Park free of structures, Ward was both protecting his rights as a property owner and promoting his vision of the proper use and appearance of the park by maintaining its original designation as free and open land. From 1890 through 1910, Ward filed four court cases that derailed the grand plans for the park. In spite of Ward, advocates for the development of Lake Park carried forward with their efforts to build a new “White City” in Lake Park. Constructing Cultural Icons The World’s Columbian Exposition had already left its stamp on Lake Park with the World’s Congresses Auxiliary Building. As planned, at the close of the exposition the directors of the Art Institute of Chicago renovated and redecorated the building to create a massive museum. The new neoclassical facade facing Adams Street provided a fitting structure for conspicuous cultural display while its low, horizontal orientation contrasted with the skyscrapers of the Loop. Architects separated the building from the commercial center by placing a margin of eighty feet between the Art Institute and Making the White City Permanent 67 Michigan Avenue (see fig. 4.1). Visitors were required to ascend the building’s formal stairs and move into the space of the building inside the park. Remaining true to its original charter, the Art Institute provided for both the display of art and for education. As part of its mission, it also offered free admission on certain days of the week. By moving into Lake Park, the museum became a far more public and recognizable institution. At the same time, the Art Institute’s board of...