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John Raffetto W R I T T E N BY
John Raffetto did not hesitate when asked what place he missed most since retiring as a horticulturist at the Chicago Park District. “The Fern Room at the Garfield Park Conservatory,” he said. “It is a special place, and in the winter, I would get out of the office, bring my lunch with me and sit on the bench. It was a nice retreat. But it also was special because of its plant material and history.” Stepping into the Fern Room is like stepping back in time. It is lush and swampy, with a lagoon and a waterfall. If you parted the large fronds, you would surely see dragonflies with two-foot wingspans swooping across the water or a Tullimonstrum gregarious looking up at you from the lagoon. (The Tully Monster, a marine invertebrate, is Illinois’ official state fossil.) “The Cycads that are in there are the oldest plants in the conservatory,” Raffetto said. Individual
Susy Schultz
like composer Felix Mendelssohn’s masterpiece “Spring Song.” “The Fern Room should be in the Art Institute of Chicago. It really is a masterpiece,” Raffetto said. Still, there is more than one marvel in the Chicago Park District spaces. And he should know. He worked all over. Raffetto started working in 1976 at the Lincoln Park Conservatory but transferred to Garfield Park in 1992. Yet, in his 35 years, he designed shows, readied crops, planted trees, and redid Savannah and prairies in the city’s natural areas and more than 610 parks. “There is so much green space in Chicago — small, medium and large parks,” Raffetto said, and that green “is a place of refugee for so many people.” “The parks have meant so much to me,” Raffetto said. So, when he retired in 2011, he wanted to give back. But it was when he discov-
“There is so much green in Chicagoand it is a refuge for so many of us.” plants can live up to 500 years; some in the Garfield Park Conservatory are over 300 years old. Jens Jensen designed it when he designed the conservatory in 1906. A prolific and brilliant landscape architect, Jensen had a hand in Chicago’s park development and evolution, Raffetto said. Jensen redesigned spaces and gardens such as Humboldt Park and the American Garden in Union Park, Columbus Park and the Garfield Park Conservatory. But the Fern Room is a bow to Jensen’s creativity and meticulous manner. He had the mason rebuild the room’s waterfall several times until the falling pitch and intensity of the water sounded to Jensen
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ered the Chicago Parks Foundation’s program to dedicate park benches to loved ones that he found how. Raffetto bought five benches. “I knew I wanted to do one for my mother, and that was in Chase Park — she took me there when I was a kid,” he said. “Then, I wanted one for my dad, aunts, and uncles. You could pick the park, and I knew some places where they were needed. After all, I had been working there for so long.” JOHN, THE POET: Although he retired from the Park District, he never retired from his other passion — poetry. “It’s all free verse, and I don’t
use rhyming, meters and all that,” Raffetto said. “I’m inspired by other poets, and I write about people. … But I have focused a lot on nature and plants.” His first book, Human Botany, came out in 2020. At the time, the retired reporter, author and poet Patrick Reardon wrote: “John Raffetto’s rich collection of words takes us on a journey that weaves together a sense of place, people, and bountiful history. …A poem about Chicago opens with the ‘flat prairie lake/ wild onion breeze / slow canoe by / DuSable Indians and Anglo fools.’” Concluding with: “With straightforward and layered language, John conjures whimsy and deep emotion without sentimentality. That’s a gift.” Raffetto keeps honing that gift. He works alongside his wife, Kathy Bergen, who took up short story writing after she retired from the Chicago Tribune. He also keeps his hand in gardening. On the second floor of their Georgian home near Legion Park, Raffetto and his wife converted a second-story porch into a greenhouse where he can garden or sit and enjoy the plants around him. Said Raffetto: “It’s pretty small, but it still does the trick. It scratches my horticultural itch.”
CHICAGO PARKS FOUNDATION
We first met John to help him dedicate park benches to remember his family members, and we were inspired to learn about his long and creative history with our parks.
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BETWE E N T HE LEAVES
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