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35-544: Intended as part of the Chicago boulevard system , the park came to prominence when the Midway was laid-out to host popular amusements at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, which hosted the world's first Ferris Wheel, later lending its name, " midway ", to areas at county and state fairs and amusement parks with sideshows . The park is also featured as one of the main settings in

70-429: A "ribbon of parks and pleasure drives encircling the city." The landscaped boulevards connecting the parks were themselves conceived as places of leisure activity, parks "spun out". While intended as a "unified park and boulevard system", it was to be developed by separate park commissions on the north, west and south sides of the city. A 2011 review describes its vision and realization: This ambitious 26-mile system

105-545: A complex of parks and boulevards that would include Washington Park to the west, Jackson Park to the east on the lakeshore, and the Midway Plaisance as a system of paths and waterways connecting the two (see Encyclopedia of Chicago Map ). The firm of Olmsted, Vaux, and Co., famous for creating New York City's Central Park , was hired to design the urban oasis. Part of their plan was that the Midway would function as "a magnificent chain of lakes", allowing boaters to travel from

140-696: A large number of the trees from the east that were planted throughout the city. Ferris left Nevada in 1875 to attend the California Military Academy in Oakland , where he graduated in 1876. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in the class of 1881 with a degree in Civil Engineering. At RPI he was a charter member of the local chapter of the Chi Phi Fraternity and

175-458: A major city in the United States." Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago and its developers, confronted questions concerning the provision urban parks and their relation to the city fabric. In 1849, John S. Wright, a real-estate investor, proposed an expansive system of parks connected by drives. The system was authorized by Illinois state legislation in 1869. The original plans foresaw

210-649: A member of the Rensselaer Society of Engineers . He was made a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame in 1998. Ferris began his career in the railroad industry and was interested in bridge building. He founded a company, G.W.G. Ferris & Co. in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , to test and inspect metals for railroads and bridge builders. Ferris House , his home at 1318 Arch Street, Central Northside ,

245-595: A mile north of the midway. The Midway, Lorado Taft's Boulevard of Broken Dreams, O'Connor, Jerome, Chicago Tribune, October 25, 1965. Chicago boulevard system The historic Chicago park and boulevard system is a ring of parks connected by wide, planted-median boulevards that winds through the north, west, and south sides of the City of Chicago . Neighborhoods along this historic stretch include Logan Square, Humboldt Park, Garfield Park, Lawndale, Little Village, McKinley Park, Brighton Park, Gage Park, Englewood, Back of

280-412: A name. It was a description. The Midway Plaisance began as a vision in the 1850s of Paul Cornell , a land developer, to turn an undeveloped stretch of infertile land south of Chicago into an urban lakeside retreat for middle- and upper-class residents seeking to escape city life. The area was a lakefront marsh ecosystem . In 1869, Cornell and his South Park Commission were granted the right to set up

315-418: A total capacity of 2,160. When the fair opened, it carried some 38,000 passengers daily, taking 20 minutes to complete two revolutions—the first involving six stops to allow passengers to enter and exit, and the second a nine-minute non-stop rotation, for which the ticket holder paid 50 cents. It carried 2.5 million passengers before it was finally demolished in 1906. After the fair closed, Ferris claimed that

350-481: A wheel from which visitors could view the entire exhibition, a wheel that would "out-Eiffel Eiffel". Ferris returned in a few weeks with several respectable endorsements from established engineers, and the committee agreed to allow construction to begin. Most convincingly, he had recruited several local investors to cover the $ 400,000 cost of construction. The Ferris Wheel had 36 cars, each fitted with 40 revolving chairs and able to accommodate up to 60 people, giving

385-494: Is both the French spelling of and a quaint obsolete spelling for "pleasance", itself an obscure word in this context meaning "a pleasure ground laid out with shady walks, trees and shrubs, statuary, and ornamental water". In the western area, Olmsted, (the park designer) labeled a section “Upper Plaisance.” In the eastern area, he had a “Lagoon Plaisance.” Connecting the two was a “Midway Plaisance.” In other words, Midway Plaisance wasn’t

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420-459: Is locally significant because, for the first time in Chicago, urban growth was thoughtfully planned and executed on a city-wide scale. The park and boulevard system not only provided a structure for orderly real estate development, it also provided an amenity that elevated the sophistication of the city by enriching both its visible character and its quality of life. The South Park Commission's part of

455-697: Is mostly known for creating the original Ferris Wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition . Ferris was born on February 14, 1859, in Galesburg, Illinois , the town founded by his namesake, George Washington Gale . His parents were George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Martha Edgerton Hyde. He had an older brother named Frederick Hyde, born in 1843. In 1864 when Ferris was five years old, his family sold their dairy farm and moved to Nevada . For two years, they lived in Carson Valley. From 1868 to 1890, his father, George Washington Gale Ferris Sr., owned

490-600: The Sears–Ferris House at 311 W. Third, Carson City, Nevada . Originally built in about 1863 by Gregory A. Sears , a pioneer Carson City businessman, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places for Carson City on February 9, 1979. Ferris Senior was an agriculturalist/horticulturalist, noteworthy in Carson City's development for much of the city's landscaping during the 1870s, and for importing

525-642: The University of Chicago , which expanded in 1926 to be located on either side of it. Today the Midway sits between the original main campus to the north and the professional graduate schools the University of Chicago Law School , the Harris School of Public Policy , the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice , and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies , as well as,

560-513: The University of Chicago Press to the south. Later designers and artists, including Lorado Taft , and Eero Saarinen added or sought to add their vision to the Midway. A statue of the father of modern taxonomy , Carl Linnaeus , and an equestrian statue by sculptor Albin Polasek of the Knight of Blanik, a legendary Czech savior who emerges from Blaník mountain in his nation's hour of need, grace

595-474: The Chicago boulevards. The Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District , which encompasses most of the Boulevard System, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. The approved listing, stretches approximately 26 miles, including 8 parks, 19 boulevards, and 6 squares, as well as adjacent properties that preserve structures built from the 19th century to the 1940s. Part of

630-454: The Midway is landscaped with a fosse , lawn covered depression, where the canal would have been, although in the winter parts of the grounds are turned over for ice skating . The Midway Plaisance has a variety of different elements for visitors to explore, including lakes, trails, bridges, and fields. Today, the park hosts many different programs, including: concerts, ice skating lessons, movie nights, and many other events. The word "plaisance"

665-431: The Midway. It has remained essentially a green area, a public resource subject to much speculation, and various periodic plans of redevelopment. The sunken panels, home now to soccer players and ice skating and sports facility, the cross-street "bridges", and the east–west lines of trees, pay homage to Olmsted's vision. In 1999, a new master plan for the Midway Plaisance done by OLIN , a landscape architecture firm,

700-539: The National Register district are several parks which are individually listed historic places: Garfield Park (listed in 1993), Humboldt Park (1992), Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance (1972), Sherman Park (1990), and Washington Park (2004). George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. (February 14, 1859 – November 22, 1896) was an American civil engineer . He

735-589: The Yards, and Bronzeville. It reaches as far west as Garfield Park and turns south east to Douglass Park. In the south, it reaches Washington Park and Jackson Park, including the Midway Plaisance, used for the 1893 World's Fair . Constructed from the 1870s through 1942, in 2018 approximately 26 miles of the system was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Nominated to the register as both nationally and locally significant, its national significance includes being, "the first comprehensive system of greenways for

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770-557: The area for amusements at a county or state fair , circus , or amusement park . The Midway Plaisance led visitors from the Midway Plaisance to the Women's Building and then to the White City. Following the Exposition, the Midway Plaisance was returned to a park setting, under the renewed plans of Frederick Law Olmsted . Over the ensuing decades, the Midway gradually came to be encompassed by

805-435: The book The Devil in the White City written by Erik Larson. Landscaped with long vistas and avenues of trees at the start of the 20th century, the Midway in part followed the vision of its designer Frederick Law Olmsted , one of the creators of New York City 's Central Park , but without his proposed feature of a Venetian canal down the Midway's center linking the lagoon systems of Jackson and Washington parks. Instead,

840-448: The boulevards. The Logan Square area boulevards pass through residential areas and are lined with homes in a variety of architectural styles. Four hundred buildings are designated "primary" and 118 are "secondary" contributing buildings in the district. Some of the most common designs are sandstone Romanesque houses, gray stone Victorian houses, and brick buildings with Tudor Revival and Prairie School styles. Also included in

875-669: The ponds in Washington Park through the lagoons in Jackson Park and into Lake Michigan. The South Park Commission office, where all the detailed plans were stored, was burned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The expense of rebuilding the city eliminated the funds to cover expenditures that the plans would have entailed, and the South Park area remained largely in its natural swampy state. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

910-558: The system had previously been designated, in 1985, as the Logan Square Boulevards Historic District , a linear historic district in the Logan Square community area of North Side, Chicago. It encompasses 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of the city's boulevard system and includes sections of Logan Boulevard, Kedzie Avenue , and Humboldt Boulevard. It also includes two parks, Logan Square and Palmer Square , which connect

945-635: The system was designed by William Le Baron Jenney . Extending from Logan Square, his 1871 plan linked Humboldt, Garfield and Douglas Parks. The north-side park commission, known as the Lincoln Park Commission, failed in its plan to develop Diversey Parkway as a pleasure drive connection to the other park commissions' boulevard system. Legal action against the Lincoln Park Commission prevented progress until widening Diversey Avenue to near Logan Boulevard became impractical. In 1934,

980-498: The system was designed by Olmsted, Vaux & Co. The firm's principals, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux , designed park and boulevard systems for Boston (its Emerald Necklace ), Buffalo, and other cities. This part includes the Midway Plaisance and other areas used in the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The south side system included boulevards to Washington Park and Sherman Park. The West Chicago Commission's section of

1015-701: The various park commissions were consolidated into the Chicago Park District . Almost all of the park and boulevard system's construction was completed by 1942. In 1959, the boulevard parts of the system were transferred from the Chicago Park District to the City of Chicago department in charge of streets -- the Park District retaining only the parks. An international architectural-concept competition, Network Reset, awarded prizes in 2011 for "rethinking"

1050-640: The western edge of Jackson Park on Stony Island Avenue , was turned over to the theatrical entrepreneur Sol Bloom , a protégé of Chicago mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. It became a grand mix of fakes, hokum , and the genuinely educational and introduced the "hootchy-cootchy" version of the belly dance in the "Street in Cairo" amusement; it was the most popular, with 2.25 million admissions. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. 's original Ferris Wheel carried over 1.5 million passengers. The Midway's money-making concessions and sideshows made over $ 4 million in 1893 dollars, and it

1085-627: Was added to the list of City of Pittsburgh Designated Historic Structures on June 28, 2001. News of the World's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1893, in Chicago, Illinois, drew Ferris to the city. In 1891, the Exposition's directors issued a challenge to American engineers to conceive of a monument for the fair to surpass the Eiffel Tower , the great structure of the Paris International Exposition of 1889. The planners wanted something "original, daring and unique". Ferris proposed

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1120-403: Was created in response to the belief that it would not only help create healthful, accessible and livable neighborhoods, but would also spur residential real estate development in what was then the outskirts of the city. As anticipated, the park and boulevard system attracted real estate development and in the process created one of the city’s most recognizable and lasting urban features. The system

1155-515: Was held in the underdeveloped parts of the South Park. The worldwide celebration of Columbus ' transfer of "the torch of civilization to the New World" in 1492 was one of the most successful and influential of world's fairs . It covered over 600 acres (2.4 km) and attracted exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. For the Exposition, the mile-long Midway Plaisance, running from the eastern edge of Washington Park on Cottage Grove Avenue to

1190-479: Was the more memorable portion of the Exposition for many visitors. The Midway also featured more scholarly exhibits which were overseen by Frederic Ward Putnam , head of Harvard University ’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology , and ethnologist Otis Tufton Mason of the Smithsonian Institution . In the years after the Exposition closed, " midway " came to be used in the United States to signify

1225-587: Was unveiled by the University of Chicago and the Chicago Park District . The proximity of the Midway to the university gave the school's early football teams, the Maroons, a second nickname, " Monsters of the Midway ", a name later applied to the Chicago Bears when the University of Chicago dropped its football program. The program has since been reinstated, and the Maroons play at Stagg Field on 55th street, half

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