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An illustration of the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893

How Chicago’s Midway Plaisance Set the Stage for Modern Day Amusement Parks

An illustration of the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 Credit: Chicago History Museum, ICHi-061066; Charles S. Graham, artist

How Chicago’s Midway Plaisance Set the Stage for Modern Day Amusement Parks

In 1893, 27 million people from around the world visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The gleaming fairgrounds, nicknamed the “White City,” were adorned with neoclassical buildings, lush gardens, elegant promenades, and diverse pavilions representing 46 countries.

“It was a very formal showcase,” Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the City of Chicago, told Chicago Stories.

And then there was the Midway Plaisance, a narrow, mile-long stretch of land that jutted out from the main fairgrounds of the World’s Fair. It was far less formal, emphasizing the immersive experience and “showbiz”-style of entertainment as opposed to the elegant, educational aura of the main fairgrounds.

“The main part of the Colombian Exposition was there to impress,” Samuelson said. “You could go to the Midway, and you could just let loose. There’s a little bit of voyeurism in some of it. There’s a little bit of a salacious nature to it. There is a little bit of something for everybody.”

The Midway Plaisance, which was full of “crazy, corny things you wouldn’t even imagine,” Samuelson said, would set a new precedent for the modern American amusement park.

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Video: The World’s Fair and Midway Plaisance

At the time of the 1893 World’s Fair, amusement parks were by no means a new concept. According to Jim Futrell, director and historian for the National Amusement Park Historical Association, early iterations of amusement parks dating back to medieval Europe had “pleasure gardens” outside of crowded, busy cities to serve as a kind of retreat with such things as picnicking, music, dancing, fireworks, and some performances. Bakken, the world’s oldest theme park, opened in 1583 in Denmark. Prater, a famous park in Austria, opened to the public in 1766 and was the location of the 1873 World’s Fair. Amusement parks had begun to pop up in the United States in the 1800s, too, Futrell said.

But the Midway Plaisance introduced a new form of amusement. Rather than being away from the urban center, more sedate, and built around features in the natural environment, the Midway Plaisance brought the fun to the city.

“The Midway redefined what an amusement park could be. It was in the city; there was not a lot of attention paid to natural features,” Futrell told Chicago Stories. “It was much more action oriented, one concession after another, all vying for your attention. It was really a departure and really drove what an amusement park looked like through much of the twentieth century.”

The Midway Plaisance was a narrow strip of land set away from the main fairgrounds
The Midway Plaisance was a narrow strip of land set away from the main fairgrounds. Credit: University of Chicago

The Midway Plaisance was certainly full of action. Originally, the plans called for the Midway to be a place of “serious anthropological study,” Samuelson said. “Well, it didn’t turn out that way.”

Samuelson said it’s hard to categorize what exactly the Midway was. It was a “zone for entertainment,” had a small number of rides and attractions, shopping, food, entertainment, and plenty of spectacles, surprises, and oddities. Fairgoers were able to throw a baseball to knock over pins, kiss a piece of the Blarney stone, or purchase Venetian glass. Samuelson said there was a section of the Midway that recreated an entire street in Cairo using parts of buildings and windows from real places in the Egyptian city. Merchants set up shop along the street and sold goods. “It actually looked very convincing,” Samuelson said. There were also strange things such as the “Submarine Village.”

Cairo Street on the Midway Plaisance
Cairo Street on the Midway Plaisance Credit: Art Institute of Chicago

“You looked into a giant tank, and there were men underwater in diving suits. They were doing things like sawing wood underwater,” Samuelson said. “You could actually throw money into the tank for them to show your appreciation, and they would hold up a chalkboard that said, ‘Thank you.’”

Not all of the attractions would sit well with a more modern-day audience. According to Samuelson, there was also mistreatment of animals, and “You could see wild animals riding bicycles. This stuff sure wouldn’t play today.” There was also something called the “World’s Congress of Beauty,” which purported to show off the fashion of “40 women from 40 nations.” The villages that represented different cultures were billed as “primitive,” and other attractions were racist and dehumanizing, while the more formal fairgrounds exhibits excluded African Americans.

While there weren’t the kinds of rides amusement-park goers would expect today, visitors to the Midway could also hitch a ride on the “captive balloon,” which was basically a hot air balloon tethered to the ground that allowed people to float up to see the view of the fairgrounds. (It unfortunately was damaged in a gusty storm and was removed.) But no view was more spectacular – or thrilling – than the one from the showstopper of the Midway: the world’s first Ferris wheel.

The Ferris wheel, designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., was intended to be the icon of the fair, said Futrell, and to compete with the Eiffel Tower, which debuted at the 1889 Paris Exposition. But this Ferris wheel wasn’t your run-of-the-mill wheel with small, two-seater chairs. Each of the 36 cars on the 264-foot-tall wheel was the size of a streetcar that could accommodate up to 60 people.

“Most people had never been that high on a moving contraption that large, so naturally it was a draw for everybody,” Futrell said. “It created that sense of living life on the edge, which really fed into the whole thrill ride mythology of the amusement park industry – that you were on the brink of being in an uncontrolled situation…I think that was part of the appeal of those types of rides.”

The Ferris wheel on the Midway Plaisance Closer view of one of the Ferris wheel passengers cars
The Ferris wheel on the Midway Plaisance had massive, 60-passengers cars. Credits: Hathi Trust; Chicago History Museum, ICHi-002444

The Ferris wheel was later deconstructed and moved to Lincoln Park, and it was displayed again at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. After that, it was permanently demolished. Samuelson called it the “most memorable spectacle of the World’s Fair and something that stood out as a really amazing achievement amidst all the corny hoopla of the Midway Plaisance.”

In addition to the Ferris wheel, the Midway Plaisance also gave the world a new term that stuck: the midway.

“The Midway Plaisance is something that showed the potential of entertainment and spectacle all in one place,” Samuelson said. “It’s very telling that the term ‘midway’ actually survives in circuses and amusement parks as an area of entertainment and different things you can choose from – sideshows, games. That’s a name that sticks to this day, and it all goes back to the precedent of the Midway Plaisance.”