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 Midway Plaisance, Chicago, Illinois Posted by:  JimmyEv
N 41° 47.252 W 087° 35.789
16T E 450436 N 4626358
The Midway Plaisance, originally intended to be a canal linking the lagoons of Jackson and Washington Parks to Lake Michigan, is now an integral part of the University of Chicago, holding soccer fields, artworks, gardens and a skating rink.
Waymark Code: WM27V4
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/18/2007
Views: 104
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The history of the Midway Plaisance extends back to 1849, when Chicago developer John S. Wright proposed a network of parks and boulevards along the suburban edge of the city. Two decades later, the State of Illinois created three regional park commissions for Chicago: the North Commission, the West Commission and the South Commission.
The South Commission hired the firm of noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design their park and boulevard system. By 1871, Olmsted had developed a plan to connect two large parks, filled with lagoons, by a canal. The two large parks became Jackson and Washington Parks; the proposed canal, running between East 59th and East 60th Streets, became known as the Midway Plaisance. At 750 feet wide, it was the widest boulevard in Chicago’s boulevard-park system, separating the neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Woodlawn.
Before the canal was built, Chicago had been selected as the site for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The city located the main area of the Exposition on the grounds of the undeveloped Jackson Park. Olmsted and Daniel Burnham were hired to design the Exposition buildings and grounds. The Midway Plaisance became the revenue-generating area of the Exposition - a mile-long strip of concessions and entertainment for the masses. The centerpiece of the Midway Plaisance was the world’s first Ferris Wheel, a massive, 26-story-tall structure.
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After the Exposition, the temporary concessions and Ferris Wheel along the Midway Plaisance were taken down. The area under the elevated railroad tracks at the eastern end of the park was filled-in, creating an uncrossable hill that effectively isolated the eastern block of the park from the remainder of the park. The word ‘midway’ came to mean the main strip of any fair or festival. The park reverted to a sunken grassy field destined to become a canal.
In the 1920s, Lorado Taft built upon Olmsted’s design for the Midway Plaisance. The canal would be crossed by sculpted ‘bridges of time.’ The very beginning of Taft’s plan was implemented, with the sculpture Fountain of Time being installed where the Midway Plaisance met Washington Park. But the canal was never dug and the bridges never built. The Midway Plaisance remained a sunken grassy field.
In the throes of urban renewal during the 1950s, urban planner Erno Saarinen proposed another plan for the park - a suburbanization plan. The idea of a canal was abandoned. The streets crossing the Midway would be turned into cul-de-sacs. Buildings along 62nd Street would be torn down, replaced by an Expressway whizzing people to and from the Midway Plaisance and the University of Chicago. This was one plan of urban renewal that Chicago didn’t follow. The park remained a sunken grassy field.
In 1955, the Masaryk Memorial, an equestrian statue sculpted by Albin Polasek, was erected near the effective eastern end of the park, in front of the hillock built for the railroad tracks. A statue of Swedish botanist Carlyon Linne was relocated from Lincoln Park to the Midway Plaisance in 1976.
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The last plan proposed for the Midway Plaisance, by the University of Chicago, has been partially implemented. In 2000, a skating rink/sports court was installed. A few years later a beautifully landscaped Winter Garden was built to screen the ice rink’s chiller plant. Adjacent to the Winter Garden, surrounding the Carlyon Linne Monument, an equally beautiful Readers’ Garden was landscaped. Future plans call for more gardens along the periphery of the park, allowing the sunken grassy fields in the center to remain soccer fields. |
Name: Midway Plaisance
Street Location: 1130 Midway Plaisance North
Local Municipality: City of Chicago
State/Province, etc.: Illinois
Country: USA
Web Site: [Web Link]
Memorial/Commemoration: Yes.
Date Established: 1871
Picnic Facilities: No.
Recreational Facilities:
Jogging track, soccer fields, ice skating rink, sports court
Monuments/Statues: Yes.
Art (murals/sculpture, etc.): Yes.
Fountains: Yes.
Ponds/Lakes/Streams/Rivers/Beach: No.
Special Events: Yes. During the summer, Wednesday movies in the park.
Traditional Geocaches: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
One photo of the park that is a different view from the one on the page, and give the date and description your visit.
Add any additional information that you may have about this park. A GPSr photo is NOT required.
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