Chicago's open frontyard : Grant Park

The Grant Park area is actually a landfill made from the debris of the Great Fire of 1871. Following the colossal destruction due to the fire, when massive reconstruction projects were undertaken in the city; then there definitely were plans of making large buildings in the Grant Park area. But then there were objections. A Chicago visionary and mail-order magnet Aaron Montgomery Ward, wanted the place to remain open space… [*as was decided in 1836]. He brought the construction plan to the court in 1890. After about 20 years of battle, he won the case as in 1911 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Grant Park would remain "forever open, clear and free."

But the history of Grant Park goes further back to 1835, that is even before the “City of Chicago” was incorporated [in 1837]. The foresighted citizens, sought to protect the open space along the lakefront from commercial development. As a result, the 1836 Act of the Illinois Legislature, designated the Park area as a "public ground forever to remain vacant of buildings”. Now that explains how the huge slot of land of the Grant Park area remains an open space.