The Watchdog of the Lakefront
This chapter discusses the role of the Michigan Avenue property owners (or the Prairie Avenue owners) in opposing the ambitions of the Illinois Central Railroad on the lakefront. It examines how they became instrumental in blocking plans to locate the World's Columbian Exposition in Lake Park, and helped scuttle any number of settlement possibilities that would have allowed an expansion of the railroad's harbor facilities in the lake. The chapter highlights the Michigan Avenue owners' efforts to preserve the value of their property, and introduces the antagonists they had to contend with as Lake Park began to grow through additional landfilling and proposals proliferated to fill the lakefront with exhibition halls, armories, libraries, and museums. It investigates how the Michigan Avenue owners employed a legal tool called public dedication doctrine against proposed buildings in the park. The chapter refers to the public dedication doctrine as the right of a private landowner to enforce statements on publicly recorded plats and maps that certain lands will be devoted to public uses, such as streets, public squares, or parks. Ultimately, the chapter describes a growing number of precedents endorsing the public dedication doctrine from other jurisdictions — including several prominent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.