Title
AUTHORIZATION TO CONSENT TO THE DESIGNATION OF PROMONTORY POINT IN BURNHAM PARK AS A CITY OF CHICAGO LANDMARK
Body
To: The Honorable Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Park District
I. Recommendation
It is recommended that the Board of Commissioners adopt an order directing the General Superintendent or her designee to provide Chicago Park District consent to landmark designation of Promontory Point in Burnham Park as a City of Chicago Landmark. The request to make Promontory Point a City Landmark was initiated with the City of Chicago by members of the surrounding community and has the support of the local elected Alderwoman representing the area.
II. Explanation
History of Promontory Point in Burnham Park
Promontory Point lies within historic Burnham Park, which totals about 600 acres, and sits on Chicago's Lakefront just south of Grant Park. The park was named for Chicago's famous architect and planner Daniel H. Burnham, who envisioned a south lakefront park with a series of manmade islands, linear boating harbor.
Renowned architect, Daniel H. Burnham envisioned a great south lakefront park with lagoons, islands, and a promontory, in his seminal 1909 Plan of Chicago. This concept eventually led to the creation of Burnham Park Landfill operations to create Burnham Park began in 1919,a breakwater was constructed and the Promontory Point area was filled in the mid-1920s.
In the early 1930s, lakefront improvements were halted and the South Park Commission was bankrupt due to the Depression. All twenty-two of the city's independent park commissions were consolidated into a single Chicago Park District in 1934. The following year, the Chicago Park District began acquiring funding through President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA). The development of the 55th Street Promontory was one of fifty-three WPA projects originally approved for the Chicago parks in 1935. Improvements resumed in 1936 and were complet...
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