Lakefront Tour Point to 51st

Lakefront Walking Tour

The Point to 51st

56th Street is the great divide. When we cross over to the north of the 57th Street Beach, we enter Burnham Park, created in 1896 after Burnham had worked on the Columbian Exposition. He wanted to have a park and an "Outer Park Boulevard" that connected Jackson Park and Grant Park. In 1911, the South Park Commission got the riparian rights from the Illinois Central and Gulf railroad--meaning they could create landfill, lagoons, canals, and islands to the east of the tracks--though the legal wrangling continued until 1920 (they had to dislodge all the property owners--including claims by the Potawatomie Indians). Burnham's original vision was of a Venetian experience of protected waterways and manmade islands all the way along the lakefront. Only Northerly Island and Burnham Harbor were built.

The Point is entirely landfill. It was begun in 1929, but the Depression slowed the construction. It was finished in 1939. The landscaping was designed by Alfred Caldwell. The landscaping was restored in 1989, supervised by the then 86-year-old Caldwell, however the wildflowers and perennials that were part of his 1938 planting plans aren't around. The Burnham Park Framework Plan of the Park District calls for "preserving the historic Caldwell landscape and setting for Promontory Point. The point created in 1920's.int b

The Point from the top of the Del Pradorcing historical plantings with young trees, shrubs, and flowers maintaing the original design intent."

The Museum of Science and Industry looks Venetian to me, when looking back from the Point

grooves not from blast bores, but wedges. Bedford Limestone.expnd the steel, crack the blocks.(Wiggers 2004 tour)

The original revetment was two parallel rows of closely spaced timber piles , which were back filled with stone and topped with massive limestone blocks (2 to 5 tons), to create a series of steps. As the water level of the lake fluctuates the stone fill starts to wash out and the timber rots.

In my time in Hyde Park, I've seen the lake water levels getting lower and lower.

The southside is nearly intact but the northside is crumblings into the lake

Carvings--my favorite one, eroded by thousands of footsteps and almost vanished (enhanced here so it's legible)

The view from the Point North on a crisp fall day.

The Wallach fountain guards the underpass under the drive and provides water for people and dogs.

The fawn was stolen once. Luckily, a Hyde Parker shopping in an architectural remnat warehouse stumbed across it and realized what it was.

granite, textured, crystals pop when carved, polished stone reduces weathering. Egyptians realized. ruby red grantie, purple = feldspar, mica, maybe from Wausaw Wisconsin--1.9 billion years old Alp size mountains that eroded. (Wiggers 2004 tour)

rocks on the point--glacier rocks used as ornamentals. from here would have seen a dry lake bed with a blue haze in the distance in Chippewa ice age. sand high at another point we'd be 20 feet under water. Most of the great lakes onshale--original stream gotscooped out where the rock was softer. Wisconsin was hard. (wiggers 2004 tour)

blocks limestone bedford slump blocks set in sediments, erosion undercuts, stronger than concrete.

This view will be permanently altered by the Morgan Shoals project.

Modern Lake Michigan was the highway used by the Lake Michigan Lobe of the Wisconsin ice sheet (13,000 to 25,000 years ago) as it pushed its way south. (Wiggers, 2004 Geology tour). there have been 20 glaciations but only the last 4 have left marks since each one wipes out evidence ofthe previous one.

Morgan Shoals--breakers--Silurian bedrock hill. (Wiggers 2004 tour)

One of the oddest bits of Point history was its use in 1954 as a Nike anti-aircraft missile site, which included support facilities, radar installations, and barracks, covering about 7 acres. They were removed in 1962.

The pavillion is meant to look like a lighthouse. It was designed by E. V. Buchsbaum. Apparently there's a lower level of the house that's not accessible right now.

The center section was originally open, but it was seen as more useful to glass it in and have doors.

Not all fill, some look like original trees on path from 55th toward the pedestrian bridge at 51st.

The massive trees along this stretch mark the original drive

This is the new revetment. The design is a steel sheet pile, and reinforced concrete. They want a wide concrete promenade--25 to 35 feet deep, about 3 feet above lake level, with concrete steps that are 2 to 3 feet high. No one sits here. It's an empty stretch.

We're heading toward a modern concrete "passarelle at 51st Street

This would be the southernmost tip of the new Morgan Shoals development that would stretch down to 47th Street. They want to create a naturalistic dune landscape that existed here before development. A series of ridges, dunes, and sloughs planted with native plants, with a boarkwalkand interpretive signs.

Regents Park--site of the Chicago Beach Hotel--"standing right on the shore of Lake Micigan"--covering 16 acres of building and grounds. Several ballrooms. Once the drive cut it off from the beach, it lost its clientele. In WWII the US Army took it over to use as barracks. Then as HQ of the fifth Army for 20 years.Razed in the late 1960s.

450 rooms, four blocks from the expo, furnished throughout with solid mahogany. 5 dollars a day. first class summer resort. landscaped, veranda, a pierjutted out and huge raked sand beach right in front of the hotel. In the 1920s started to lose the beach as the landfill arrived so added on to the east. where Regents park south is now

This great circular mystery is the Model Yacht Basin, constructed in 1929 as part of the original design for Burnham Park. In one of the plans, the Park District suggested converting the yacht basin into a skating rink, but I haven't heard anything further on that.

They're talking about putting a parking lot by the 51st Street bridge on the north side so that people can access the new Morgan Shoals area.

There is a plan to redo the lakefront from 41st to 47th as a bit of natural landscape--creating a dune and a wetland. Burnham's Jack Tassel lamented the loss of the lakefront by 1893--"The wild shore was changed, cultivated, and trimmed into order according to fashion now, like the young people who once disported over it in free country fashion." (clover 48

Powhattan mosaics in the pool suggest nurals in Midway Gardens, where Morgan worked, being torn down at that time. Pastel 1920s bathrooms. ballroom on top with terraces North and South. "all the luxuries of an ocean liner" newspaper article. Ameriocan Indian references throughout (Harris p. 66) 1927-29, De Golyer architect. 22 stories. Chicago BeachHotel surrendered its riparian rights so got a neighborhood. Art Deco extravagant. Influenced by Eliel Saarinen's 2nd place entry in Chicago Tribune competition. Ass. Architect was Charles L. Morgan. graphic artist.

Narragansett 1928-29, same builders. Leichenko and Esser arch. p. 64. less opulent. American Indian heads in terra cotta. small camels and elephants. zodiac, art deco lobby.

Chicago Beach district to rival Streeterville. 300 feet north of old Chicago Beach Hotel 5000 East End. 28 stories, tallest building south of the Loop for 20 years. (Harris p. 58) Many more were planned in the district

The Point to 51st 56th Street is the great divide. When we cross over to the north of the 57th Street Beach, we enter Burnham Park, created in 1896 after Burnham had worked on the Columbian Exposition. He wanted to have a park and an "Outer Park Boulevard" that connected Jackson Park and Grant Park. In 1911, the South Park Commission got the riparian rights from the Illinois Central and Gulf railroad--meaning they could create landfill, lagoons, canals, and islands to the east of the tracks--though the legal wrangling continued until 1920 (they had to dislodge all the property owners--including claims by the Potawatomie Indians). Burnham's original vision was of a Venetian experience of protected waterways and manmade islands all the way along the lakefront. Only Northerly Island and Burnham Harbor were built. The Point is entirely landfill. It was begun in 1929, but the Depression slowed the construction. It was finished in 1939. The landscaping was designed by Alfred Caldwell. The landscaping was restored in 1989, supervised by the then 86-year-old Caldwell, however the wildflowers and perennials that were part of his 1938 planting plans aren't around. The Burnham Park Framework Plan of the Park District calls for "preserving the historic Caldwell landscape and setting for Promontory Point. The point created in 1920's.int b The Point from the top of the Del Pradorcing historical plantings with young trees, shrubs, and flowers maintaing the original design intent."

	The Museum of Science and Industry looks Venetian to me, when looking back from the Point
	grooves not from blast bores, but wedges. Bedford Limestone.expnd the steel, crack the blocks.(Wiggers 2004 tour) The original revetment was two parallel rows of closely spaced timber piles , which were back filled with stone and topped with massive limestone blocks (2 to 5 tons), to create a series of steps. As the water level of the lake fluctuates the stone fill starts to wash out and the timber rots. In my time in Hyde Park, I've seen the lake water levels getting lower and lower. The southside is nearly intact but the northside is crumblings into the lake
	Carvings--my favorite one, eroded by thousands of footsteps and almost vanished (enhanced here so it's legible)
	The view from the Point North on a crisp fall day.
	The Wallach fountain guards the underpass under the drive and provides water for people and dogs. The fawn was stolen once. Luckily, a Hyde Parker shopping in an architectural remnat warehouse stumbed across it and realized what it was. granite, textured, crystals pop when carved, polished stone reduces weathering. Egyptians realized. ruby red grantie, purple = feldspar, mica, maybe from Wausaw Wisconsin--1.9 billion years old Alp size mountains that eroded. (Wiggers 2004 tour)
	rocks on the point--glacier rocks used as ornamentals. from here would have seen a dry lake bed with a blue haze in the distance in Chippewa ice age. sand high at another point we'd be 20 feet under water. Most of the great lakes onshale--original stream gotscooped out where the rock was softer. Wisconsin was hard. (wiggers 2004 tour)
	blocks limestone bedford slump blocks set in sediments, erosion undercuts, stronger than concrete.

	This view will be permanently altered by the Morgan Shoals project. Modern Lake Michigan was the highway used by the Lake Michigan Lobe of the Wisconsin ice sheet (13,000 to 25,000 years ago) as it pushed its way south. (Wiggers, 2004 Geology tour). there have been 20 glaciations but only the last 4 have left marks since each one wipes out evidence ofthe previous one. Morgan Shoals--breakers--Silurian bedrock hill. (Wiggers 2004 tour)
	One of the oddest bits of Point history was its use in 1954 as a Nike anti-aircraft missile site, which included support facilities, radar installations, and barracks, covering about 7 acres. They were removed in 1962. The pavillion is meant to look like a lighthouse. It was designed by E. V. Buchsbaum. Apparently there's a lower level of the house that's not accessible right now. The center section was originally open, but it was seen as more useful to glass it in and have doors.
	Not all fill, some look like original trees on path from 55th toward the pedestrian bridge at 51st. The massive trees along this stretch mark the original drive
	This is the new revetment. The design is a steel sheet pile, and reinforced concrete. They want a wide concrete promenade--25 to 35 feet deep, about 3 feet above lake level, with concrete steps that are 2 to 3 feet high. No one sits here. It's an empty stretch.
	We're heading toward a modern concrete "passarelle at 51st Street This would be the southernmost tip of the new Morgan Shoals development that would stretch down to 47th Street. They want to create a naturalistic dune landscape that existed here before development. A series of ridges, dunes, and sloughs planted with native plants, with a boarkwalkand interpretive signs.
	Regents Park--site of the Chicago Beach Hotel--"standing right on the shore of Lake Micigan"--covering 16 acres of building and grounds. Several ballrooms. Once the drive cut it off from the beach, it lost its clientele. In WWII the US Army took it over to use as barracks. Then as HQ of the fifth Army for 20 years.Razed in the late 1960s. 450 rooms, four blocks from the expo, furnished throughout with solid mahogany. 5 dollars a day. first class summer resort. landscaped, veranda, a pierjutted out and huge raked sand beach right in front of the hotel. In the 1920s started to lose the beach as the landfill arrived so added on to the east. where Regents park south is now
	This great circular mystery is the Model Yacht Basin, constructed in 1929 as part of the original design for Burnham Park. In one of the plans, the Park District suggested converting the yacht basin into a skating rink, but I haven't heard anything further on that. They're talking about putting a parking lot by the 51st Street bridge on the north side so that people can access the new Morgan Shoals area.
	There is a plan to redo the lakefront from 41st to 47th as a bit of natural landscape--creating a dune and a wetland. Burnham's Jack Tassel lamented the loss of the lakefront by 1893--"The wild shore was changed, cultivated, and trimmed into order according to fashion now, like the young people who once disported over it in free country fashion." (clover 48
	Powhattan mosaics in the pool suggest nurals in Midway Gardens, where Morgan worked, being torn down at that time. Pastel 1920s bathrooms. ballroom on top with terraces North and South. "all the luxuries of an ocean liner" newspaper article. Ameriocan Indian references throughout (Harris p. 66) 1927-29, De Golyer architect. 22 stories. Chicago BeachHotel surrendered its riparian rights so got a neighborhood. Art Deco extravagant. Influenced by Eliel Saarinen's 2nd place entry in Chicago Tribune competition. Ass. Architect was Charles L. Morgan. graphic artist. Narragansett 1928-29, same builders. Leichenko and Esser arch. p. 64. less opulent. American Indian heads in terra cotta. small camels and elephants. zodiac, art deco lobby. Chicago Beach district to rival Streeterville. 300 feet north of old Chicago Beach Hotel 5000 East End. 28 stories, tallest building south of the Loop for 20 years. (Harris p. 58) Many more were planned in the district

Lakefront Walking Tour

The Point to 51st

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