February 12, 1949 -- A spokesman for the North Central association charges that construction of a huge water filtration plant on 55 acres north of Navy pier would cause property values on the near north side to plummet. Frederick M. Bowes, vice president of the association, said that if the city attempts to build the plant it would be in violation of a contract signed by the former Lincoln Park board when riparian rights were obtained for the construction of what is now the inner drive, and he promised that the association would fight in the courts to have the project stopped. Harry L. Wells, the business manager for Northwestern University, which controlled a significant chunk of land in the area (and still does), said, "We'd like to see a fine territory developed around the university. When you start putting a filtration plant there it isn't going go be that kind of territory." The purification plant was, tied up in court for years, but it finally opened in 1968 as the James W. Jardine Water Purification Plant in the exact spot for which it was originally proposed.
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