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Then & Now & More

Then & Now & More

Chicago's Lakefront – A Timeline

  • 1673: Marquette and Joliet are first non-native people to see future site of Chicago
  • 1833: Incorporated as a town
  • 1837: Chicago incorporated as a city
  • 1862: Camp Douglas adapted to house captured Confederate soldiers
  • 1869: Water Tower built
  • 1871: Great Chicago Fire
  • 1893: Chicago Harbor Lighthouse built
  • 1893: World's Columbian Exposition
  • 1907: First Nobel Winner in Science (University of Chicago)
  • 1909: Burnham Plan published
  • 1924: Grant Park Stadium (Soldier Field) built
  • 1927: Buckingham Fountain built
  • 1930: Shedd Aquarium opens
  • 1930: Adler Planetarium opens
  • 1933: Century of Progress opens
  • 1933: Museum of Science of Industry opens
  • 1942: First controlled nuclear reaction (University of Chicago)
  • 1959: Queen Elizabeth visits/Opening of St. Lawrence Seaway
  • 1967: McCormick Place fire
  • 1968: Protests at the Democratic National Convention
  • 1977: First running of the Chicago Marathon
  • 1986: Lake Shore Drive S-Curve straightened
  • 1999: Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum opens
  • 2003: Meigs Field closed
  • 2004: Millennium Park opens
  • 2008: Barack Obama's Election celebration in Grant Park

Chicago is unique among the world's great waterfront cities because almost its entire lakeshore is public land – it belongs to all of us. But we didn't get it without a fight! The story of Chicago's Lakefront spans 10,000 years, from the formation of Lake Michigan at the end of the last ice age to the conquest of that lake and its shoreline by frontier fortune-hunters. It's a story of scoundrels who scarred the landscape for personal gain, and heroes who fought selfless (and thankless) battles to win back the lakefront for the public.


Highlights from the Show
 

  • The story of the Illinois Central Railroad which simultaneously saved and destroyed the lakefront.
  • The most unusual collection of relics on any lakefront in the world: A WWII German Sub (at the Museum of Science and Industry), the world's largest and most complete T-Rex (at the Field Museum), dolphins and whales and squid, oh my! (at Shedd Aquarium), and a virtual reality joy ride to the ends of the universe (at Adler Planetarium).
  • The Chicago Air and Water Show.
  • The 1933 "Century of Progress" World's Fair
  • Buckingham Fountain
  • The Magnificent Mile
  • The old Water Tower and Water Works (now home to Lookingglass Theatre Company)
  • Oak Street Beach
  • The Gold Coast
  • Lincoln Park Zoo
  • Lake Shore Drive

 


What's New on the Lakefront
 

  • The making of Millennium Park
  • Mayor Daley's midnight raid on Meigs Field, and the park that is emerging in its place
  • The controversial redesign of Soldier Field
  • A new wave of interest in the 1893 World's Fair with the publication of the best seller The Devil in the White City
  • Dramatic improvements to Burnham Park
  • Yet another new addition to McCormick Place
  • Massive new residential neighborhoods that have exploded south of the Loop and at the mouth of the Chicago River including Santiago Calatrava's "Chicago Spire" – planned to be the tallest building in North America if it is completed, and the wavy "Aqua" tower by Jeanne Gang – the tallest building in the world by a female architect
  • Chicago's plans to host the 2016 Olympic Games
  • The dramatic rebirth of Chicago's legendary Blackstone Hotel, where the term "smoke-filled room" was coined
  • The ultra-modern Spertus Institute along the stately Michigan Avenue Streetwall landmark district
  • The new Modern Wing at the Art Institute by acclaimed architect Renzo Piano
  • Another battle over a building in Grant Park, the planned Chicago Children's Museum
  • Growing environmental threats to Lake Michigan, including dropping water levels, invasive species, and questions about water quality
  • The bittersweet story of the ruin and rebirth of architect Alfred Caldwell's breathtaking Lily Pool near Lincoln Park Zoo
  • Barack Obama's victory celebration

 

Chicago's Lakefront

Camp Douglass

Chicago's Lakefront

Chicago Harbor Lighthouse

Chicago's Lakefront

Daniel Burnham

Chicago's Lakefront

Shedd Aquarium

Chicago's Lakefront

Queen Elizabeth

Chicago's Lakefront

Lakeshore Drive S-Curve

Chicago's Lakefront

Millennium Park

Chicago's Lakefront

Obama Victory in Grant Park