Garfield Park

Garfield Park. . In 1871, William Le Baron Jenney (best known for his innovations in skyscraper technology) created a master plan for the city's West Park District, consisting of three parks and connecting boulevards. In what would later become Garfield Park, he took advantage of a swampy site by creating a lagoon with two wooded islands and a suspension bridge. Jenney also created a semicircular drive at the park's Washington Boulevard entrance, which included two fountains and a children's play area. , , Originally called Central Park, due to its position in the middle of the master plan, the park was renamed in 1881, following the assassination of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. The park was extended westward in the early 1880s, according to plans by Oscar F. Dubuis, who had previously worked under Jenney. , , In the 1890s, when bicycling was at the peak of its popularity, a dirt horse racing track that had been built in 1875 was replaced with a concrete one to accommodate horses and bicycles. A Flemish Revival-style powerhouse and an octagonal bandstand with a formal promenade, now known as Music Court Drive, were also built at that time. , , The unfinished sections of the park were completed after the turn of the century, when Jens Jensen, creator of the "Prairie style" of landscape architecture, was appointed superintendent of the West Park Commission. One of his most notable additions was the Garfield Park Conservatory (1906), which he designed with the New York architectural firm of Hitchings and Company. Intended as a "landscape under glass," whose form suggested the haystacks of the Midwest, it was considered revolutionary at the time for its naturalistic design scheme. Two works by Chicago's best known sculptor, Lorado Taft, Pastoral and Idyll, are on display in the conservatory. , , Jensen also created formal garden between the bandstand and the lagoon, which included pergolas, specially designed benches, a water court, and a sculpture of Scottish poet Robert Burns. When horse racing was outlawed in 1906, Jensen replaced the track with a golf course, the first public course on the city's west side, whose edges he landscaped with masses of native plantings. However, the construction of Jackson Boulevard through the park in the 1930s divided the golf course. The two meadows are now used for team sports. , , In 1927, a major bond issue led to the construction of a Spanish Revival style headquarters building for the West Park Commission, which was designed by the Chicago firm of Michaelsen and Rognstad, famous for their high quality, picturesque buildings. Following the consolidation of the city's three park commissions into the Chicago Park District in 1934, this "Gold Dome Building" became the Garfield Park Fieldhouse.