Conclusion

This chapter returns to the beginning of the book by seeking to explain how Chicago came to have the glorious lakefront we see today, with its parks, its Lake Shore Drive, its clean shoreline free of rotting docks and industrial facilities. It examines how Chicago, a city long dominated by private enterprise, ended up with such a relatively large quotient of public rights on its lakefront. The chapter then ventures to offer some thoughts to the questions, and recounts Chicago's specific factors like the absence of an outer harbor, the successful campaign of the Michigan Avenue property owners, the decision of the Illinois Supreme Court in the Revell cases to eliminate the common-law right of riparian owners to wharf out into the lake, and the creation of park districts as semiautonomous local government entities. It introduces some individuals such as Alonzo Mack, Ellis Chesbrough, Montgomery Ward, Daniel Burnham, Edward Brown and their influence on the Chicago lakefront. In emphasizing these Chicago-specific factors and the role of particular individuals, the chapter analyses the four broad categories of influence beyond the Chicago experience: the magnetic attraction of a large body of water such as Lake Michigan, the changing state of technology, the growth in the size and effectiveness of government institutions and the law.

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.

Introduction

In the June 1969 issue of Ebony, its editors used the popular “Backstage” feature to invite readers on a literary tour through the Chicago offices of parent company Johnson Publishing.1 The magazine’s audience was introduced to the circulation team, whose state-of-the-art IBM computers printed mailing lists for close to one million monthly subscribers, as well as other departments housed at the company’s imposing headquarters on South Michigan Avenue....

Introduction: A Movement Architect

On a wintry Monday in December 1969, a small contingent of African American protesters gathered at 1820 South Michigan Avenue just outside the main headquarters of the black-owned Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) in Chicago. Armed with picket signs and protest chants, they dramatically captured the attention of eyewitnesses and bewildered employees inside the building. Included among the demonstrators were several artists, intellectuals, and activists from a variety of local organizations—a genuine cross-section of the Black creative community in the city. In their efforts to seize the attention of JPC’s founding owner and president, John H. Johnson, the group staged the protest with the stated goal to make the company “truly representative of the Black community.”...

A COMPOSER IN THE PRAIRIES: WILLIAM LESTER AND HIS MUSIC

The 400 block of South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, is rich in musical associations. On the southern corner stands the Auditorium Building, the 1889 masterpiece of Sullivan and Adler. Inside its huge theatre were born both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Civic Opera. For this gilded space with its unusual acoustics, Prokofiev in 1919 composed The Love for Three Oranges.