Jackson Park, MSI

Situated along the lakefront on the city’s South Side, the 500-acre park was designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and features lagoons and beaches, as well as a picturesque Japanese garden and even a golf course. Jackson Park may be most well-known, however, as the home of the Museum of Science and Industry, one of the world’s premier science museums and the Columbian Exposition’s only remaining building.

Celebrating the White City

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

Jackson Park, in 1893, was home to what may be history's most celebrated World's Fair. Today, it is home to the Museum of Science and Industry - which, in a way, was part of it.

The fair is history, of course. Literally. But even without most of what was called the White City, the park today remains a wonder.

Jackson Park's 600 acres of greenery, trails and lagoons sprawl along the eastern edges of the Hyde Park, Woodlawn and South Shore neighborhoods. Conceived in 1869 and designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the park - which initially included the present Washington Park - began as South Park, then was Lake Park after the two were split, and finally and forever, in 1880, was named for Andrew Jackson.

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