Grant Park

Grant Park is Chicago’s lakefront jewel and the city’s front yard. The 319 acre park features carefully landscaped formal gardens modeled after those at Versailles, and was an integral part of Chicago city planner Daniel Burnham’s vision of an expansive open lakefront that “by right belongs to the people.” Grant Park is home to some of Chicago’s most popular attractions, including Buckingham Fountain and the Art Institute of Chicago, and hosts free public programs throughout the year, such as Summerdance at the Spirit of Music Garden, and ice skating at Daley Bicentennial Plaza.

Grant Park: Chicago's Front Yard

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

In 1836, a year before Chicago's official incorporation as a city, someone scribbled a note on a subdivision map that specified an area along the Lake Michigan lakefront was to be "Public Ground -- A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of any Buildings, or Other Obstruction whatever."

In 1844, the city council added its official endorsement -- and Chicago had its Lake Park. In 1901, much expanded by landfill (some of it the waste created by the 1871 Great Chicago Fire), this territory east of Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street to Roosevelt Road became Grant Park.

Today's Grant Park, an integral element of planner Daniel Burnham's vision for the city -- "The lakefront by right belongs to the people," he wrote in 1909 -- is, indeed, gorgeous. Overwhelmingly open and clear (and free), it's the envy of cities all over North America who don't have anything like it on their waterfronts.

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