BETWEEN THE LEAVES
CELEBRATING CHICAGO'S PARKS
PARK CONNECTIONS: Support the Parks
BETWEEN THE LEAVES PO Box 14147 Chicago IL 60614 (773) 505-9593 info@chicagoparksfoundation.org www.chicagoparksfoundation.org @ChiParksFdn
Every day at the Chicago Parks Foundation, we meet and collaborate with amazing park professionals and partners. We are honored to work together to help make our parks better. And now we get to share our park stories with you - what happens between the leaves.
A common theme of this issue is our natural environment. Yes, our parks are spaces for playing sports, taking classes, gathering with family and friends, attending fests and concerts, exploring playgrounds. They are home to historic fieldhouses and magnificent manicured green space.
But lush, biodiverse natural areas are important cornerstones of our parks. In fact, Chicago’s city motto is “Urbs in Horto” meaning “City in a Garden”. The parks were designed with intention, giving us access to an abundance of nature within an urban environment. We want to shine a light on these natural areas and the innovative folks who are dedicated to reinventing the idea of “public space” today.
We have added a new section to our recurring features - “Museums in the Parks”. Eleven of our most prominent museums are sited on park property, including the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, featured in this issue. These museums host millions of visitors every year, bringing world-class education to our city and showcasing yet another example of the impact of multipurpose public space.
As you learn more and enjoy the stories shared here, we ask that you please consider becoming a Chicago Parks Foundation Member. The support of our members helps us bring community ideas to action throughout our city, building a stronger connection between people and parks. Thank you for being with us.
We’ll meet you in the parks!
Willa Iglitzen Lang Executive Director, Chicago Parks Foundation
BRANCHING OUT:
Just Enough, Then More
A story of the ore walls, entropic ecosystems and the beauty left behind by the U.S. Steel South Works Steel Plant.
Steelworkers Park occupies but a speck of what formerly was the largest steelworks in the country, the U.S. Steel South Works Steel Plant.
The plant at 87th Street and South Lake Shore Drive was once home to about 20,000 workers, a hospital, a morgue, and the world’s largest blast furnace. It’s where weathering steel*—think the Picasso or the Civic Center — was fabricated.
A sculpture marks the long-gone manufacturing plant, dedicated to the steelworkers who once worked there. Yet, the statue is cast in bronze—an unintended irony?
This story is not about the statue or the current Steelworkers Park. It is rather about the potential of the adjacent site and how,
WRITTEN BY Dan Wheeler
with few modifications, it could still serve as an important place, an oasis, for the city.
The plant was decommissioned in the 1970s, the site was shuttered until the early 2000s. U.S. Steel and development partners developed a masterplan with the assistance of Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The structures were razed, infrastructure was added below to anticipate future development and U.S. Route 41 was redirected. Land was set aside for Steelworkers Park and donated to the Chicago Park District.
Given the economics and the lack of readily accessible rapid transit, it has remained undeveloped for 20 years. But nature kept busy, taking back these 16.5 acres from what man built. The takeover seemed
less an avaricious revenge and more of a gentle ceding, a cooperative endeavor.
Where once you could see across the lake, there are now volunteer trees planted by the more than 300 varieties of birds that frequent this place. They have reforested the site—entropy at work.
I am a cyclist and was oblivious to all this history until the route opened. What I encountered one day more than ten years ago is still vivid: the sight of four enormous ore walls, a half mile long, some 40 feet high, running west to east.
They were larger than anything I’ve seen in Egypt at Karnak or in Germany, where the coal plants were transformed into urban parks.
...the walls are part of a large-scale open terrarium project nature is conducting, complete with captured wetlands, cattails, milkweed, coyotes, fowl and a well-developed homegrown ecosystem.
These walls once were depositories for limestone and iron ore that came down the 60-foot-deep channel immediately to the north. The large, heavy, loaded barges from Minnesota demanded the depth for delivery.
Now a major element of an abandoned industrial and archeological site, the walls are part of a large-scale open terrarium project
commercial development. As an architect, I was able to do just that. I directed my architectural design studio at the University of Illinois, where I teach, to dream.
The result of the studio was “Just Enough, then More.” The premise was to envision what modest, surgical moves could be made to reawaken this place, bring renewed focus and promote access and use to the site. Just enough, priming the pump for more.
My students methodically assembled documents and did their research. We connected with representatives of U.S. Steel and their development partners, SOM’s planning department and the local Alderwoman (whose father used to be US Steel’s union chief).
The students saw this as a potential urban arboretum, a destination site for Chicago area residents, naturalists, tourists. Students envisioned deft, modest moves to engage with the site, all touching it minimally. A few images are indelible: Weathering steel footbridges cutting through the wall and floating over cattails; a tensile canopy with oculi covering a concert space—up lit and glowing at night; a helical ramp or tower, clad in steel with cutouts of names of long past workers, at its apex a panoramic view over the site to the lake and Chicago beyond.
Upon seeing this student work, Skidmore Owings and Merrill planners redrafted their draft masterplan, trading what had been slated public space on the lake (which we have already in abundance) and claiming/protecting the ore walls and their gardens.
This was ten years ago. The site has only gotten better. It is time to reengage with it, unleash its potential as public parkland and make it a central player in Chicago’s South Side reawakening.
nature is conducting, complete with captured wetlands, cattails, milkweed, coyotes, fowl and a well-developed homegrown ecosystem. I was viscerally and emotionally taken by this. The very definition of “frightening beauty,” or the sublime.
This was in 2014, and I felt that there may be a moment to seize to imagine a different direction than
*Weathering steels are chemically formulated to develop a protective patina layer. When exposed to daily weather, they develop a rustlike in appearance that eliminates the need for paint.
Previous page: Students exploring the ruin, Tom Rossiter. This page: Top; Partial aerial view of Southworks in operation with boat slip, walls holding limestone, ire ore with bridge cranes running on rails above, feeding the blast furnaces. Bottom; The 60’ deep boat slip from north east with cargo ships.
BETWEEN THE LEAVES
Chicago Parks Foundation encourages you to branch out! Steelworkers Park is one of many hidden gems within our park system, full of stunning natural areas, rich history, and opportunity for continued growth. What other unique parks can you discover when you branch out?
Dan Wheeler is a founding principal of Wheeler Kearns Architects, and is a professor of architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to establishing his own practice in 1987, he was an associate and studio head at Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Chicago. He works and practices to educate colleagues, clients, students and himself about the never-ending potential for architecture to elevate every-day experience.
Clockwise; Former US Steel employees on left joining students in touring the site.; Following the site recon, Dan Wheeler introducing students to smoked fish at Calumet Fisheries, a frequent stop for US Steel Workers at 95th Street.; North slip today; Students and former employees exploring the ruin.; Lake Michigan.
Photo Credits: Tom Rossiter.
PARK PROFESSIONALS
Sabrina Steward
A lifelong love of the Chicago parks.
WRITTEN BY Susy Schultz
If you ask Sabrina Steward, she will tell you it’s really rather simple. She lost her heart to the Chicago parks when she was a little girl.
“When you work for the Chicago Park District, you are not only an employee; you’re a sister, a brother, a counselor, and a mentor — you wear many hats. It goes beyond just programming,” said Steward.
The Park District was literally Steward’s birthright.
“I followed in my mother’s footsteps,” she said, explaining that her mother, Clara Portis, also started teaching and then left to work for the Park District.
“I would tag along with her, and then when I got old enough, I worked there, too.”
This April, Steward stepped down as area manager in charge of over 14 parks and all the teen programming on the South Side.
Officially, she retired after 30 years. But when you add up all the time she has been playing in the parks, taking classes herself, putting her own son in programs, planning curricula, cheering, jumping Double Dutch, and supervising staff, it comes out to almost all 54 of the years she’s been alive.
During a wide-ranging phone interview, Steward talked about the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Parks Foundation, as well as her other passions: her family, cheerleading, Double Dutch jumping, and the teen programming she set up across the South Side.
The Foundation’s work was “heaven-sent,” Steward said. “The
[Chicago] Parks Foundation is phenomenal. They have made a difference in the quality of our parks and our lives.”
Whether it was the donations, the connections, or the various resources, Steward praised the Foundation. “There were tennis courts that were resurfaced, pickleball courts, multipurpose courts, outdoor spaces refurbished, and trips and opportunities for the park participants. It has been really important in our success.”
Steward inherited a number of programs that really did not have a lot of people in them. So, she did whatever she could to gin up participation — from pizzas to flyers to knocking on doors. She created the Teen Leadership Connection for her area parks and the South Region parks. “It started with 96 participants, and by the time I left, it was close to 400 in all the area parks.”
You could say she rose through the ranks, but she really seemed to blossom as she took on more challenges. “I got promoted quickly because my work did not go unnoticed,” she said. “But it took a lot of patience — being aware of your audience. Every park I have worked at was unique and different. So, I had to really be in tune with the needs of the people…”
It’s not surprising as Steward started as a Park District consumer, taking swimming, dancing, gymnastics, cheering, and a variety of other programs. She also went to day camp every summer.
When she turned 16, she became a seasonal worker. “Every summer, when school was out, I would come back to the Park District,” she said. “I was a day camp
recreation leader and later a day camp director.” Then, she worked in a special mayoral program: “I would travel throughout the city and teach cheerleading and Double Dutch.”
She was (and still is) a Double Dutch talent and jumped professionally, appearing in a commercial for the Coca-Cola Company, being part of a McDonald’s touring group, and even appearing on Bozo Circus, a very popular children’s show which aired on WGN-TV.
She graduated from LaSalle University with a physical education degree and took a job with the Chicago Archdiocese at St. Felicitas Elementary School. But even then, she returned to the parks every summer.
After two years, her husband, Jesse Steward — also her high school sweetheart — told her that perhaps schools were not her destiny. “My husband said, ‘Your heart is in the Park District work. You love it,’” she said. So, she took a job at Trumbull Park as an hourly physical instructor.
“I felt like I had more to give to these communities and to the children.” And at her retirement party at Brainerd Park this year, she saw the results. “I had so many people come up to me and say, ‘I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.’ Some of them are even Park District supervisors now.”
Steward felt it was time to pass the torch and she wanted to spend more time with her parents, her husband, her son, and her grandchildren. But there is one thing she knows for sure: She’ll go back to the parks. “I plan to come back and indulge in the services from the perspective of a patron. I would love that.”
Susy Schultz is a freelance editor and writer who also chairs the Investigative Project on Race and Equity advisory council, a new nonprofit journalism and training outlet.
PARK PROFESSIONALS
Sarah White
Creating a sense of place.
WRITTEN BY Susy Schultz
Since Sarah White was a child, she has been sensitive to a place’s spirit. But it was not until she went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison that she learned it was more than a feeling. It was genius loci.
“It means the feeling a place has, and that’s influenced by the built environment, the natural environment and kind of everything around it,” said White in a recent phone interview.
It is a perfect trait for a landscape architect and urban planner who has helped create interesting outdoor spaces in the suburbs and the city.
White, who is currently the Campus Planner at Northwestern University, spent six years with the Chicago Park District as the Lakefront Planning Coordinator, where she worked on a multiplicity of projects, including the Chicago shoreline, the Obama Presidential Center, the Clarendon Community Center field house and AIDS Garden Chicago.
The AIDS Garden, a 2.5-acre garden along Lake Michigan in Lincoln Park that opened in 2021, is just one of the projects White worked on with the Chicago Parks Foundation.
“The Foundation was critical in creating those connections for us,” White said. “They were with us every step of the way. They made sure we got the right people to the table.”
For many years, White thought she would be building interior structures, not organizing outdoor spaces.
“I always kind of thought I would be an architect, so that was on my radar since I was a little kid,” she said. But there wasn’t an architecture degree program when she went to Madison. “I thought, how about a French major? But my mom said, ‘Why don’t you think about landscape architecture?’ I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
White took the History of Landscape Architecture survey course.
“I had a great teacher, Arnold Alanen,” White said. “He talked about the sense of place, or genius loci, which resonated with me.”
You could call it her seventh sense. “Moving through spaces, I can tell how places are different and when places have been thoughtfully arranged or thoughtfully designed,” White said.
“I just thought it was so cool to be able to reinvent these spaces as public recreation assets that people could use and that could become, again, really valuable to the community, just in a different way.”
When she left school, she got a job at the Lakota Group in Chicago and moved to the Lincoln Square neighborhood. (She still lives there with her husband, Wesley White, and their 6-year-old son, Benjamin.)
After a few years, she attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for her master’s degree in urban planning. While there, she worked on some projects for Hitchcock Design Group.
“I enjoyed that,” White said. “It helped me see how special these little park public spaces can be to different communities, just everywhere, and what an important role they play. That was my first introduction to park district work.”
Since then, White has worked on the lakefront master plan for the Winnetka Park District, the lakefront planning for Highland Park, Evanston and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT).
“I think I’ve been so lucky to work on some of these cool public projects, and at the same time, through good luck, I was able to work on a lot of Lake Michigan lakefront plans in the suburbs and the city,” she said.
She was at CDOT briefly when the position of Lakefront Planning Coordinator opened up at the Chi-
cago Park District. “I was there for about six years,” White said. “And I absolutely loved the work. I was a design project manager. I would help select an architect or landscape architect, set up the scope and program, and work with the design team to create a preliminary set of construction documents to hand over to the construction team.”
White loves being involved with the community, getting their input and helping build something that will change lives. “The best thing is when you start, maybe everybody’s not on board,” White said. “But you get a project to a point where people are genuinely happy with the direction, and you all know something special happened.”
BETWEEN THE LEAVES
We’re honored to know both of these fantastic women who exemplify that working with the parks is not just a job but a career. We worked with Sabrina to support the Teen Leadership Connection program, and with Sarah to bring AIDS Garden Chicago to life. They both radiate positive, productive park energy!
Photo: White with Michael Dimitroff and Willa Lang at the AIDS Garden Chicago Ribbon Cutting, 2022
PARK PEOPLE:
Disc Golfers are Giving Jackson Park the Butterflies
From recreation to restoration and natural rejuvenation, how disc golf is improving city parks.
WRITTEN BY Peter Matuszak
Butterflies are an indicator species - when populations are healthy, so are the ecosystems that support them. To the delight of Tommy Inglis, a founding member of Hyde Park Disc Golf, monarchs can now be seen sharing the airspace with throwing discs at the city’s first and only 18-hole disc golf course.
“We are seeing so many of them now,” said Inglis. “This is how we know what we are doing really does have an impact – if you are helping them you are helping everything else.”
A personal transformation for Inglis came in connection with the restoration of abandoned park land once marred by urban decay. A former tech worker now turned naturalist, the last four years began with disc golf but uncovered his own passion for local biodiversity and the restoration of indigenous plant life.
Disc golf came into Inglis’ life as a simple hobby to work within the rules for Covid-19 social distancing but still find camaraderie and fresh air in the open spaces of Nichols Park near his Hyde Park home. While Inglis originally hails from Nevada, his wife, Eileen, is a long time resident, and their son, Thaddeus, is now a fourth generation Hyde Parker.
Once Inglis and a few other neighborhood fathers acquired a disc golf basket in 2020 and placed it in Nichols Park, a new community coalesced around the sport. This was the founding of Hyde Park Disc Golf. Four years later, they have built a complete disc golf course along the edge of Jackson Park’s “stick and ball” golf course. The nonprofit group also has developed youth programs and placed practice baskets at eight other locations in the city to draw more participants.
Game play mirrors traditional golf but with throwing discs for projectiles and chained baskets as holes. Unlike golf though, a round at Jackson Park Disc Golf is free, equipment is inexpensive and the skills needed to enjoy the game are relatively basic.
In 2020, Louise McCurry, the former president of the Jackson Park Advisory Council, was already at work on the area that now hosts the disc golf course. She connected the disc golfers with the plot of land and applauded the rare environmental sensitivity Inglis exhibited in the face of a tremendous mess.
“That space was a block from the Fieldhouse and in very bad shape,” McCurry said. “It has been a complete land, space, and purpose reinvention.” No longer languishing in the shadows, park goers are returning to an enormous swath of underused and formerly blighted green space.
According to Inglis the disc golf organization and its volunteers removed 80 bags of
garbage on their first day alone, and since then removed a total of 256 bags of garbage from Jackson Park, often partnering with Chicago Parks Foundation’s Pitch In for the Parks clean-up program. They have logged 1538 volunteer hours to restore the tranquil walking path and install the challenging but approachable golf course. From the beginning, Inglis insisted that environmental restoration be a priority in the process of building the course. His dedication to this pledge has led him to become an Openlands Tree Keeper and pursue certification through Cook County as a Master Naturalist.
Walking the course with Inglis, his love of the simple game is evident but his excitement peaks as he catches glimpses of winning the battle against invasive species. By removing a number of damaging species like buckthorn, wild columbine and other indigenous plants are returning to the area, which he says are great for attracting honey bees, bumble bees and even hummingbirds – new residents he hopes will soon join the butterflies as permanent inhabitants along the course.
For more information about disc golf in Jackson Park go to hydeparkdiscgolf.com
Peter Matuszak is a freelance writer and researcher focused on public interest and business writing. He previously worked as an investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune and a senior analyst at the Civic Federation. He is a long-time Chicago resident where he lives with his wife Lindsey and daughter Clarke.
Photo Left page: The first course from 2021 “Harborside” with Jackson Park outer harbor in the background (Inglis)
Photos clockwise: Adding fallen branches to the portal between holes 9 and 10, 2024 (Patrick Rampson).; Players at the Washington Park Pop Up Tournament, May 2024 (Inglis).; Founder Chad Guyton with his son Gabe teaching disc golf at the Jackson Park Field House Summer Program, our first youth clinic in 2021 (Inglis).; Teeing off on Hole 18 after installing the tee and history signs (Patrick Rampson)
BETWEEN THE LEAVES We like to say it’s the people who make the parks. Chicago is full of “Park People” who are doing important work to advance park programming, inclusivity, and community connection. We are fortunate to get to work with people like Tommy, who is one of CPF’s most dedicated volunteers and supporters!
Meet Me in the Park: Palmisano Park, 2700 S Halsted Street
MUSEUMS IN THE PARKS:
Griffin Museum of Science and Industry
Dr. Chevy Humphrey makes no small plans
WRITTEN BY Susy Schultz
In 1999, Dr. Chevy Humphrey first visited the Museum of Science and Industry while working at the Arizona Science Center.
To her surprise, when she stood in the Chicago institution: “I fell in love. I walked into the rotunda, and everything was just magical about the space. I told my then-CEO, ‘I’m going to work here one day.’ And she looked at me and said, ‘Well, you need to get your job done in Arizona first!’ And we laughed.”
BETWEEN THE LEAVES
Did you know?
Eleven of Chicago’s most prominent museums are sited on park property. These museums exhibit to millions of visitors every year, bringing world-class education and culture to our city. In this new section, we’ll introduce you to the Museums in the Parks and the people like Dr. Humphrey who are leading the way.
While Humphrey is still laughing because she has a delightful and uplifting spirit that matches her playful sense of humor, her wish to come to Chicago was no joke. Humphrey seems to embody the essence of what Chicagoan Daniel Burnham meant when he said: “Make no little plans.”
The museum, recently renamed the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in honor of a large donation, is one of “the largest science museums in the world, home to more than 400,000 square feet of hands-on exhibits,” according to its website. It is one of 11 museums sitting on Chicago Park District property.
In early 2021, Humphrey returned to the rotunda as the museum’s president and chief executive officer. But this was only after she had finished climbing the ladder at the Phoenix Science Museum, where she had served as its president and CEO for almost 15 years.
Humphrey’s new job was historical. She was the first African American woman to lead the science museum in a field not often known for elevating diversity. She also replaced a Chicago icon — David Mosena, who had led the museum for 23 years.
“David came from a city government position. He was masterful at building a strong connection and
relationship with government,” Humphrey said. “So, I see that as a stepping stone to now take the work to an even deeper level.”
She said she did not waste a minute — even if it meant working around the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit only months after she took the job.
Sitting outside her office on a conference room couch, she said: “Most people go on listening tours, but I went on a hearing tour. I feel very, very committed and intentional when I have conversations with people. I want to listen to hear. That hearing tour was about how we best serve our community because they are why we exist.”
The museum before 1991 was free. “We saw over 3.5 million people a year prior to 1991,” Humphrey explained. “After we started charging, we’ve averaged 1.2 to 1.5 million visitors a year. So what does that tell you? If I do my math correctly, 2 million people will lose access to this institution that belongs to the neighborhood on the South Side. Right? That says a lot. So that’s a huge challenge.”
But Humphrey said it’s a challenge she knows she must win.
“Being on park district land means we belong to the communities and its people,” Humphrey said. “We’re interwoven [into Chicago], and people take that very seriously.
“I believe that you have to meet people where they are, but you have to ask them what they need. And that is one of the shifts we’ve made here at the museum. We co-partner with communities by asking what your need is and how we can fill it.”
“Part of our strategy is building free spaces where people can come in and convene and feel that this is their space until we can raise enough money to be free again,” Humphrey said. “Because my big hairy audacious goal is to be free again. I don’t know when, but I’m in for the long run. And that is meaningful to a community.”
Dr. Humphrey in her office with three signs that inspire her.
BENCH STORIES:
Martin the Escaper
WRITTEN BY Egle Atencio
There is no bigger loss than the loss of a child, and there is no better place to commemorate them than our beautiful parks of Chicago. There are so many of them that your head might start spinning!
With the guidance of the Chicago Parks Foundation, I was able to choose the perfect spot for the perfect boy at the remote site near the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary at Montrose Harbor. The location is enchanted by the gorgeous views of Lake Michigan and Chicago skylights, glimmering in the distance. The black bench, decorated with an inscribed bronze plaque, is simply beautiful and is dedicated to my beloved son, Martin Simutis, who I tragically and unexpectedly lost in December of 2022. He was just 31.
Martin, my bright, smart and compassionate firstborn, as a child and later a grownup young man, loved nature and fishing above all else. He tremendously enjoyed his time spent outdoors with his fishing poles, patiently waiting, sometimes for hours, for a fish to take the bait, just so he could let it go back into the water seconds later!
When I sit on my dearly missed boy’s bench, placed directly in front of the cheerful Montrose Harbor Lighthouse, I observe fishermen quietly fishing off the shore, I watch cute little boats going in and out of the harbor, I listen to the music of the songbirds singing nearby, accompanied by the sound of crashing lake waves. And, all of a sudden, I feel my son Martin, sitting in spirit right next to me, silently watching and enjoying the same view as I do. I feel like we are both at peace in that moment.
“Sometimes you have to fall before you fly” is inscribed into Martin’s memorial bronze plaque not only to honor him, but to also send a direct message of encouragement and hope to all those young people who might be struggling alone in the darkness. They might one day walk by and decide to take a rest on this beautiful bench in one of the most beautiful parks in our city of Chicago where, coincidentally (or not!), the annual Chicagoland Walk for Suicide Prevention takes place each year in September.
Please stay. The world is a much better place with
you in it.
If you or someone you know is suffering, please reach out to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: Dial 988 on any phone to receive help 24/7.
BETWEEN THE LEAVES It means so much to the Chicago Parks Foundation that we are entrusted with sharing special memories in our parks through our dedicated bench program. Each bench, like this one, has a unique story. Learn more about the program at chicagoparksfoundation.org/benches.
Clockwise: Martin’s Bench at Montrose Harbor.; Always in our hearts.; Martin enjoying the Chicago Air and Water Show, 2022.; Martin’s family and friends at the Chicagoland Walk for Suicide Prevention, 2023.
PARK PARTNER:
A Legacy of Conservation
Chicago Parks Foundation helps shine a light on The Wetlands Initiative’s efforts to restore habitats
WRITTEN BY Matthew Roling
When driving from Chicago into Northwest Indiana on I-94 or I-90, it can be easy to focus on the heavy industry and highways that pockmark the Midwest. Our industrial legacy can make it hard to imagine a vibrant ecological future for these communities. And yet, nestled between these two thoroughfares are glimmers of hope. Paul Botts, Executive Director of the Wetlands Initiative (TWI), and his team have been hard at work with the Chicago Park District to re-
store Indian Ridge Marsh and other parts of Chicago’s Southeast Side; local agencies in the Little Calumet River floodplain corridor (in Northwest Indiana); and more, across the bi-state Calumet region.
“The conventional wisdom is that once an area is ruined, it’s ruined forever – which is fundamentally untrue.”
Paul is no stranger to parks or environmental optimism – it runs in his blood. His Hyde Park childhood included lots of time
in Chicago’s Jackson Park and its beloved Wooded Island, as well as family trips to the Michigan and Indiana dunes. Perhaps even more formative, Paul’s mother, Lee Botts, was a pioneering environmentalist in her own right – co-founding multiple conservation non-profits, working for the Carter Administration in the Department of the Interior, and getting started on all that by helping defend Jackson Park from a highway expansion.
In college, Paul planned on becoming a reporter and did wind up working at a daily newspaper, which he found was not his calling. Later, while working at the Nature Conservancy, he began to discover Chicago’s legacy of conservation innovation. “A great deal of the science of ecological and prairie restoration was invented in the 1970s and 1980s by various people in and around Chicago.” Paul was fascinated by this work, which eventually led to him leading TWI.
Since 2015, TWI has partnered with the Chicago Park District to bring chunks of the Lake Calumet area back to life. The Calumet region as a whole was once one of the largest and most biologically diverse wetland areas in North America, which is why Paul’s team imagined it as a place for the work that the organization was founded to do. His team has worked closely with the Park District, Audubon Great Lakes, and other partners to do the heavy lifting of clearing junk, removing invasive species, and bringing in ecological and environmental engineering experts to design and implement restoration plans. Where was once pollution and blight, there is now life and thriving biodiversity.
sees a future where CPF and TWI continue to collaborate and grow the partnership. “We have a small team that is focused on technical and environmental challenges, it really helps us to work with storytellers and conveners to amplify our message.”
“The inherent richness of biodiversity in a wetland grabs people and holds them.” The areas now attract birders, families, and others seeking to engage with wildlife. Birders in particular benefit from TWI’s work to restore and create wetlands, which was highlighted in Bob Dolgan’s independent film Fluddles. (For the uninitiated a “fluddle” is an incidental, large, temporary wetland.) Bob’s movie centered on TWI’s work with farmers and other partners to help locate, design, and build fluddles to support better drainage and pollution control for Illinois farmers, as well as offering a quick drink for migratory birds. In May of this year, the Chicago Parks Foundation (CPF) collaborated with Bob and TWI for a special screening of Fluddles at the Music Box Theatre. Paul
Although Paul’s team seems to have patented the process of healing industrially degraded sites and restoring habitats, our wetlands face new threats. A recent Supreme Court ruling drastically cut back the federal Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction over wetlands, leaving a large swath of wetland protection to the states. “We have not historically been an advocacy organization, but we are now part of a coalition that is working closely with the Illinois legislature to try and pass a state level wetlands protection law.”
Paul’s work, firmly rooted in optimism, and seeing life and hope where others may see the absence of it may be a reminder that today’s challenges facing wetlands may seem large, but are also hopefully incidental, and temporary.
BETWEEN THE LEAVES CPF was thrilled to partner with TWI earlier this year to present a screening of “Fluddles” by local filmmaker Bob Dolgan. For us, it is important to educate our community about the prevalence of natural areas within our city parks system, and to branch out into topics that connect to our larger biodiversity and ecological health.
left: Indian Ridge Marsh, a remnant wetland parcel on Chicago’s Southeast Side, is one of TWI’s restoration projects in the bi-state Calumet region. (Vera Leopold / TWI)
Photos this page clockwise: Between 2017 and 2021, TWI’s on-the-ground habitat restoration and shoreline modification work transformed Indian Ridge Marsh. (TWI / Audubon Great Lakes).; TWI engages the communities surrounding its restoration sites through stewardship planting workdays (TWI)
Photo
Matthew Roling is a sustainability consultant who also serves on the Chicago Parks Foundation Board of Directors.
There are more than thirty parks named after women in Chicago, and the personal stories of their namesakes are just as compelling as the parks themselves which live on today. Here are just four notable women of the parks - Illinois’ first female judge, the first African American to have a play produced on Broadway, a brilliant jazz musician, and a trailblazing Chicago Cubs executive.
Hear Connie share more on the Chicago History Podcast with Tommy Henry at chicagohistorypod.com. Scan below.
PARK HISTORY:
Notable Women in the Parks
WRITTEN BY Connie Fairbanks
Lillian Armstrong, 1898-1971
LILLIAN HARDIN ARMSTRONG PARK | 4433 S St. Lawrence Avenue
Lillian Hardin Armstrong was a visionary, the first lady of jazz and the second wife of Louie Armstrong.
Lillian, known later as “Hot Miss Lil”, was born in Memphis in 1898. Living close to the Beale Street entertainment area, Lillian became obsessed with the musical sounds. Young Lillian began organ lessons at age 6, learned how to read notes and play “by ear”. Lillian’s mother wanted her to have a better life than her family had growing up with slavery. So in 1917, Lillian’s mother and nineteen-year-old Lillian moved to the South Side of Chicago.
Lillian met her musical soulmate and husband, Louis Armstrong, trumpeter, while playing piano in the Creole Jazz Band. Lillian and Louis married in 1924 and purchased a home together at 421 E. 44th Street. The dynamic duo played their brand of jazz in some of the top clubs of Chicago. Together, they recorded some of the first jazz albums in the US.
Lillian had a huge influence on Louie Armstrong. She was his manager and taught him how to read music. In late 1925, Lillian helped write a billboard in Chicago that said, “Louis Armstrong - The World’s Greatest Trumpet Player.” Lillian finished two advanced musical degrees, learned French, taught school, opened a soul food restaurant, staged a fashion show in NYC during WWII, and designed much of Louie Armstrong’s wardrobe.
Although Lillian and Louie divorced in 1938, she was able to keep Armstrong’s beloved trumpet after his death in 1971.
In 2004, Chicago paid tribute to Ms. Lillian Hardin Armstrong by naming a park for her in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
Mary Bartelme, 1866-1954
MARY BARTELME PARK | 115 S Sangamon Street
Mary Bartelme was born in 1866 and lived at Halsted and Fulton, near the park bearing her name today. Ms. Bartelme taught in Chicago public schools and was the first female judge from 1913-1923. Bartelme strived to make lives better in Chicago by advocating for full citizenship rights for women. She earned the nickname of “Suitcase Mary” because she led fundraising drives to buy suitcases and fill them with clothes for poverty-stricken girls. In the book Chicago Portraits by June Skinner Sawyers, Bartelme said, “There are no bad children. There are confused, neglected children, lovestarved and resentful children, and what they need most I try to give them - understanding and a fresh start in the right direction.”
One of Bartelme’s greatest legacies is Mary Bartelme Park, with skyline views and its iconic modern stainless steel gates anchoring the space. The park has transformed the neighborhood into a place where people want to live, work, and play. Bartelme’s name was given to the park in 2010. Armando Chacon, longtime local resident and former Mary Bartelme Park Advisory Council President, calls the park, “the Piazza of the West Loop”!
Margaret Donahue, 1892-1978
MARGARET DONAHUE PARK | 1230 W School Street
After one year of high school and stenographer school, Margaret Donahue placed an advertisement in the “Situations Wanted” column in the newspaper. Bill Veeck, Sr. Chicago Cubs President in 1919, noticed Margaret’s ad and called her while she was at church. Her father answered the phone and told Mr. Veeck that his daughter would be at the interview. Donahue initially turned down the job because she wanted to work in The Loop. But Veeck was persistent and convinced Margaret to work for The Cubs.
After just seven years, Mr. Veeck promoted Donahue to Corporate Secretary. Donahue’s colleagues said she had an impressive business mind, but also a human touch. Donahue worked seven days a week and never took a vacation. She even traveled with the Cubs team to away games. She was known as Aunt Midge by her family and her Cubs fans.
Margaret Donahue made many contributions to the Cubs organization and to major league baseball. In 1929 she established season tickets, devised the popular Ladies Day, and was known as a national authority on baseball rules. Her motto was “Make Sure Cubs Fans Leave The Ballpark Happy!”
After 39 years with her beloved Cubs, Margaret Donahue retired and moved back home to Huntley, Illinois. In 2014, a playlot near Wrigley Field at 1230 W. School Street was named in her honor by formal request of the park advisory council. The Chicago Cubs were involved in the design and construction of Margaret Donahue Park, and it features a special themed look. The park also includes a colorful mosaic mural by noted Chicago artist David Cisco.
BETWEEN THE LEAVES
Chicago is home to over 600 parks, and each has a unique story. We hope our “Park History” section inspires you to consider the background of your local park. Who is its namesake? When was it built? The four parks featured here are just a few glimpses at the rich park history throughout our city.
Connie Fairbanks has lived in the West Loop for more than 25 years. To document the rich history of The West Loop, she wrote Chicago’s West Loop, Then and Now (people, businesses, buildings).
For more information, please visit coninefairbanks.com
Lorraine Hansberry, 1930-1965
LORRAINE HANSBERRY PARK | 5635 S Indiana Avenue
In 1937, while trying to buy a home in a white neighborhood, the Hansberry family was threatened by a white mob. A brick crashed through their home, narrowly missing Lorraine. The incident highlighted discriminatory real estate covenants. Due to the courageous efforts of the Hansberry family and others, 30 blocks of the South Side of Chicago were opened to African Americans. It was the beginning of the end for restrictive covenants.
The tragic memories of the Hansberry family trying to buy a home in a white area remained with young Lorraine. In 1956, Hansberry wrote A Raisin in The Sun, a semi-autobiographical play of her family’s ordeal. By 1959, A Raisin in The Sun was the first Broadway play to be written by a black woman and was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play.
Ms. Hansberry was deeply committed to social justice throughout her short life. As quoted in The Legacy Project Chicago, “Hansberry linked the struggle for gay rights, rights for people of color, and rights for women.” Never one to shy away from challenges, she spoke with President Kennedy in 1964 and pleaded with him to take bolder steps for Civil Rights.
In 2004, Lorraine Hansberry Park was named in her honor and remains a wonderful neighborhood park just west of Washington Park.
Hansberry’s legacy will live on at Court Theatre in Hyde Park. A Raisin in the Sun will be produced for the first time on the South Side of Chicago next year.
Where In The Parks Are We ?
A) Washington Park
B) Eckhart Park
C) Columbus Park
D) Calumet Park
Visit chicagoparksfoundation.org/betweentheleaves to:
• Share your feedback on this edition.
• Send in your favorite park photo memory.
• Learn “Where In The Parks Are We” from this issue.
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Recent CPF Member Events have included: (clockwise) Art Walk, Lakefront; Haunted History Tour, Lincoln Park.
“All As One” Mural, Ping Tom Memorial Park