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| The Field Museum of Natural History -- south of Grant Park JWB Photo |
At
the conclusion of a meeting of the South Park Board of Chicago on this date, February 18,
in 1903 the news was that the city was to receive a ”mammoth lake front museum”
through a gift of ten million dollars from Marshall Field – with just one big
“if.”
In
order to secure the donation Field required that an act be passed “giving
control of all the Lake Front park to the South park commissioners.” [Chicago Tribune, February 19, 1903]
The
wheels were already turning as the south park board and “citizens interested in
the improvement of the lake front park” were pressuring the legislature to pass
an act that transferred the portion of the park north of the Art Institute, a
tract of land that was under state control, to the park commissioners and “to
vest all the park rights with the park commissioners and to remove the
obstacles which property owners at present may put in the way of buildings on
the lake front – such obstacles as Montgomery Ward has set up in the past.”
H.
N. Higinbotham, Marshall Field’s representative in the affair, stated, “What we
want is a centralization of control in the park board . . . There are no
obstacles which cannot be removed, an when they have been removed it will be
time for consideration of a museum plan.
Then, if Mr. Field wants to build a museum, it will be possible.”
The
plan was to fill in the lake east of the Illinois Central tracks, followed by
the construction of a building that would “eclipse anything of the kind ever
undertaken in the city.”
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| Aaron Montgomery Ward |
A
day later the obstacle to the ambitious plan presented itself in the form of
Aaron Montgomery Ward. His attorney,
George P. Merrick, stated, “This much coveted strip of land is reserved for
park purposes for all time to come. It
is for the people, and will be kept free from buildings. Signatures of a majority of the abutting
property owners will not open the way for the erection of buildings. Every owner must consent before a building
can be constructed lawfully on any part of the street. Mr. Ward is not actuated by any other motive
than to preserve the tract of land as a public park.” [Chicago
Tribune, February 20, 1903]
in
the preceding June the Illinois Supreme Court, in Bliss vs. Ward, affirmed the 1839 plat for this area of Chicago,
part of the Fort Dearborn addition, which read “Public ground forever to remain
vacant of buildings.” Litigation
concerning that section of the city, known as Lake Park in 1903, much of which was
under water when the 1839 plat was drawn, would last another six years until it
was finally determined that the museum could not legally be built on this
section of lakefront property.
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| Grant Park in 1910, a year after its future was secure |
Ward
would only live on another four years after that decision, having worked in one
way or another to preserve the city’s central lakefront for the better part of
two decades. When in 1909 the case was
finally decided and the fight to save the lakefront park had been won, Ward
declared, “Had I known in 1890 how long it would take me to preserve a park for
the people against their will, I doubt if I would have undertaken it. I think
there is not another man in Chicago who would have spent the money I have spent
in this fight with the certainty that even gratitude would be denied as
interest. I fought for the poor people of Chicago, not the millionaires...
Perhaps I may yet see the public appreciate my efforts.”
We
appreciate those efforts today, Mr. Ward.
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