Midway Plaisance
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| Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Register of Historic Places) | |
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| Location: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Built/Founded: | 1871 |
| Architect: | Frederick Law Olmsted; Taft,Lorado |
| Architectural style(s): | Other |
| Added to NRHP: | December 15, 1972 |
| Reference #: | 72001565 [1] |
| Governing body: | Local |
Midway Plaisance is a linear park located near Lake Michigan in the Woodlawn community area on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA approximately 8 miles from the downtown "Loop" area and midway between Washington and Jackson Parks. Known locally as simply the Midway, it served as a center of amusements during the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, lending the name "Midway" to areas at county and state fairs where sideshows are located. It runs through the University of Chicago campus.
Laid out with long vistas and avenues of tree at the turn of the century, the Midway in part followed the vision of Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the creators of New York City' famous Central Park, but without his impracticable dream of creating a Venetian canal linking the lagoon systems of Jackson Park and Washington Park.
Later designers and artists added (or sought to add) their vision to the Midway. A pet project of the University of Chicago and almost a part of its campus, it has remained essentially a green area.
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[edit] Origin of the name
The word "plaisance" is a quaint obsolete spelling for "pleasance", itself an obscure word in this context meaning "a pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water."
[edit] The South Park Commission plan
The Midway Plaisance began as a vision in the 1850's of Paul Cornell, a land developer, to turn an undeveloped stretch of infertile land south of Chicago into an urban lakeside retreat for middle and upper class residents seeking to escape the crowds and dirt of the booming city. The area was a lakefront marsh ecosystem.
In 1869, Cornell and his South Park Commission were granted the right to set up a complex of parks and boulevards that would include Washington Park to the west, Jackson Park to the east on the lakeshore, and the Midway Plaisance as a system of paths and waterways connecting the two (see Encyclopedia of Chicago Map). The firm of Olmsted, Vaux, and Co., famous for creating New York City's Central Park, was hired to design the urban oasis. Part of their plan was that the Midway would function as "a magnificent chain of lakes," allowing boaters to go from the ponds to be built in Washington Park to the lagoons to be developed in Jackson Park and through the lagoons to Lake Michigan.
Unfortunately, the South Park Commission office, where all the detailed plans were stored, was burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The expense of rebuilding the city eliminated the funds to cover expenditures that the plans would have entailed, and the South Park area remained largely in its natural swampy state.
[edit] World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was held in the underdeveloped parts of the South Park. The worldwide celebration of Columbus's transfer of "the torch of civilization to the New World" in 1492 was one of the most successful and influential of world's fairs. It covered over 600 acres (2.4 km²) and attracted exhibitors and visitors from all over the world.
For the Exposition, the mile-long Midway Plaisance, running from the eastern edge of Washington Park on Cottage Grove Avenue, to the western edge of Jackson Park on Stony Island Avenue was turned over to the theatrical entrepreneur Sol Bloom, a protegé of Chicago mayor Carter Henry Harrison. It became a grand mix of fakes, hokum, and the genuinely educational and introduced the "hootchy-cootchy" version of the belly dance in the "Street in Cairo" amusement; it was the most popular, with 2.25 million admissions. George Ferris' first Ferris Wheel had 1.5 million riders. The Midway's money-making concessions and sideshows made over $4 million in 1893 dollars, and it was the more memorable portion of the Exposition for many visitors.
In the years after the Exposition closed, midway came to be used commonly in the U.S. to signify the area for amusements at a county or state fair, circus, or amusement park.
[edit] University of Chicago
Following the Exposition, the Midway Plaisance was returned to a park setting, under the renewed plans of Frederick Law Olmsted. He hoped to create a Venetian canal between the lagoon systems of Jackson and Washington Parks, but this part proved unfeasible. The land slopes downward from east to west and the proposed canals would have drained Lake Michigan into Washington Park. The Midway has gradually become a part of the University of Chicago which expanded in 1926 to be located on either side of it. Later designers and artists, including Lorado Taft, and Eero Saarinen added or sought to add their vision to the Midway. Statues of the father of modern taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus, and the founder of Czechoslovakia, Tomáš Masaryk, grace the Midway.
It has remained essentially a green area, a public resource subject to much speculation, and various periodic plans of redevelopment. The sunken panels, home now to soccer players and a new ice skating and sports facility, the cross-street "bridges," and the east-west lines of trees, pay homage to Olmsted's vision.
In 1999, a new master plan for the Midway Plaisance was unveiled by the University of Chicago and the Chicago Park District.
The proximity of the Midway to the University gave the school's early football teams, the Maroons, a second nickname, "Monsters of the Midway", a name later applied to the Chicago Bears when the U of C dropped its football program.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2006-03-15).
[edit] External links
- Chicago Park District - Midway Plaisance Park official website
- Midway Plaisance Park webpage
- Chicago's Midway Plaisance Walking Tour website
- Midway Plaisance Plan at the University of Chicago
