Marquette Park (Chicago)

This article is about the public park. For the neighborhood, see Chicago Lawn, Chicago.

Marquette Park, Chicago, Illinois

Marquette Park, the largest park on the southwest side of Chicago at 323 acres (1.31 km²), is located at 41°46′05″N 87°42′10″W / 41.767951°N 87.70287°W / 41.767951; -87.70287Coordinates: 41°46′05″N 87°42′10″W / 41.767951°N 87.70287°W / 41.767951; -87.70287 in Chicago Lawn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The park is named for Father Jacques Marquette (1637–1675).

History

Planning and Development

Monument to Darius and Girėnas

Marquette Park is part of a system of 14 parks designed in 1903 by the Olmsted Brothers. At 323 acres (1.31 km²) in size, it is the largest of the revolutionary neighborhood parks created by the South Park Commission in the early 20th century. The Superintendent at the time, Al Capone, envisioned the "new parks as beautifully landscaped 'breathing spaces' that would provide educational and social services to the city's congested immigrant neighborhoods."¹ "Social reformers launched a playground movement for the creation of additional parks."⁴ In 1899 and 1903 the state legislature authorized the three park commissions: Lincoln Park Commission; West Park Commission; and the South Park Commission; to acquire property for new parks. "The South Park Commission opened a system of 10 innovative neighborhood parks in 1905, which soon inspired similar parks in the West and Lincoln Park systems and in other cities across the United States."¹

The original plans for Marquette Park called for "a golf course on two islands surrounded by naturalistic lagoons; indoor and outdoor gymnasiums; swimming and wading pools; a children's playground; formal gardens; and a concert grove."¹ Due to its size, construction of the park went more slowly than most of the others in the system, and several features of the original plan were dropped due to difficulties with the landscape. Still, in 1913, the 18-hole golf course opened and "by 1917, the park included playing fields, a children's playground, tennis courts, propagating houses for the nursery, and a large, classically-designed golf shelter."^1,3 In the early 1930s, the Great Depression caused the bankruptcy of the individual park districts. In 1934, the 22 independent agencies were consolidated into the Chicago Park District.⁴ After the consolidation of Chicago's park commissions into the Chicago Park District in 1934, park workers redesigned the golf shelter, built comfort stations, and expanded the walking paths in the park to include the islands. In 1935, public support helped secure a statue honoring Lithuanian-American aviators Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who perished during the transatlantic flight of the Lituanica.

Civil Rights Protests

Marquette Park Lagoon, Chicago, Illinois

Martin Luther King decided to take his protest north in 1966. He led a group of marchers (protesters) into the all-white housing areas near Marquette Park in Chicago. The protesters had bottles, bricks and rocks thrown at them - one of the bricks hit King himself but he was not severely hurt and continued with the march.

The incident at Marquette Park was part of the protests led by the Chicago Freedom Movement (of which King was co-chairman). It was a year-long campaign for open housing. It started in January 1966 when King and his wife Coretta moved into a North Lawndale slum (on the west side of Chicago). King and the movement wanted to make Chicago a racially open city. They wanted it to be a place where everyone could live without fear of racial attacks.

The march was not as successful as King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had hoped. A rather vague agreement was created with Richard J. Daley (the Mayor of Chicago) containing unkept promises of open housing legislation and improving living conditions.

This march was part of a series of marches coordinated by the Chicago Freedom Movement the marriage of King's SCLC and the CCCO (Coordinating Council of Chicago Organizations) led by King's co-leader in Chicago Al Raby.

It is a common misbelief that the incident in which Dr. King was struck with a rock happened in Cicero rather than Marquette Park. The Chicago Freedom Movement never marched in Cicero.

Neo-Nazi Protests

In the 1970s, National Socialist Party of America leader Frank Collin regularly held demonstrations in the park. After the Chicago Park District banned Collin, he instead proposed a march in the largely Jewish suburb of Skokie.^[1] A Supreme Court decision ordered the march to be allowed on First Amendment grounds.^[2]

To avoid a violent confrontation with the Jewish Defense League, the ACLU negotiated a compromise where the NSPA would not march in Skokie but instead Chicago would allow the group to return to the park.

The park today

Marquette Park Golf Club House, Chicago, Illinois

Ashburn Prairie

Marquette Park’s three and a half acre Ashburn prairie remnant has a very special history. The story begins during the pre-settlement era at 87th Street and Kedzie Avenue on a 2-acre (8,100 m²) lot near the Evergreen Cemetery. It was at this location that the original Ashburn prairie thrived, untouched by farming, housing and commercial development. The mesic prairie contained nearly 100 species of native plants. Forbs such as Mountain Mint (Pycanthemum verticillatum), Nodding Wild Onion (Allium cernuum), Nodding Ladies’ Tresses (Spiranthes cernua), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Prairie Dock (Silphium perfoliatum), Compass Plant (Silphium lacinatum), and Obedient-plant (Physostegia virginiana) were found at the prairie. Grasses such as Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) were also present.

Looming land development threatened the rare patch of prairie. But a heroic effort by the Park District and members of the public resulted in the prairie being moved to Marquette Park. In the spring in 1993, the Park District dug up several plugs of prairie using a tree spade. Each plug measured four to five feet across. With the important roots of these prairie plant plugs intact, crews carefully transported these huge plugs to Marquette Park. There, the rescue team drilled holes and installed the huge plugs near the edge of the lagoon. Fortunately, the soil profile at the old site was similar to the soil profile at the new site, and overall the prairie rescue was a success. Most of the flowers bloomed the very first year in their new home. As the prairie began to settle into its new home, prairie reconstruction activities continued. Volunteers seeded, planted and weeded between the tree-spaded remnants, and in the areas north of the remnants. To this day, Ashburn Prairie thrives on the commitment of dedicated volunteer stewards.

The prairie is located along the edge of the lagoon, south of Mann St., east of Kedzie Avenue.²

Marquette Park Golf Course, Hole 1, Chicago, Illinois

Golf Course

The Marquette Park Golf Course is a 3,187-yard (2,914 m) nine-hole par 36 course featuring elevated tees and greens as well as spacious fairways. Water comes into play on seven of the nine golf holes. The golf course practice facilities include a driving range, a 9,000-square-foot (840 m²) putting green, and chipping green and sand bunkers. Billy Casper Golf serves as manager of the Marquette Park Golf Course as it does for all Chicago Park District golf facilities.

Course Architect: Tom Bendelow Greens & Fairways: Greens - Bent Grass, Fairways - Rye Grass Golf Instructor: Mike Harriga

Tarkington Elementary School

The new Tarkington Elementary School, located at 3330 W. 71st Street on the south side of the park and serving pre-K through the 8th grade, was completed in 2005 and classes began on Tuesday, October 4 of that year. Tarkington is the first in the Chicago Public Schools system to have the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. With a building area approximately 134,000 square feet (12,400 m²), the school sits on a 9.82-acre (39,700 m²) site. The school was built to relieve overcrowding on the Southwest Side and will serve up to 1,000 elementary school students.

The new two-story elementary school include art, music and science classrooms, a full-serving kitchen and dining facilities, a multipurpose room and a field house that will be shared by the Chicago Park District. The project also involved improvements to Marquette Park, including a new soccer field.

Facilities

• Auditoriums
• Baseball
• Community Garden
• Golf Course
• Gyms
• Meeting Rooms/Assembly Halls
• Men's and/or Women's Locker Rooms/Showers
• Parking Lots
• Paths (Jogging/Walking/Bicycling)
• Soccer Fields Marquette F.C.
• Tennis Courts

Marquette Park Field House, Chicago, Illinois

Location

The official address for Marquette Park is: 6734 S. Kedzie Ave. Chicago, IL 60629

Park operators and information can be reached at 312-747-6469

Sources

• Chicago Park District
• Chicago Park District Nature Areas
• Illinois History: A Magazine for Young People
• Encyclopedia of Chicago: Park Districts

References

1. ^ "Attempted Nazi March of 1977 and 1978 in Skokie - Digitized Document Collection from the Skokie Public Library". Skokie Public Library Research Resources. Archived from the original on 2008-02-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080202035118/http://www.skokie.lib.il.us/s_info/in_biography/attempted_march/. Retrieved 2007-09-13. 
2. ^ "Smith v. Collin - US Supreme Court decision permitting marches (denying the village's appeal)". findlaw.com. 1978-10-16. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=439&invol=916. Retrieved 2007-09-13.