WELCOME
Welcome to the Jackson Park Advisory Council website. The Jackson Park Advisory Council, and its other Friends of the Parks affiliated councils throughout the city, are the citizens’ advocates for our parks. Our mission, in a nutshell, is to ensure a well maintained, ecologically healthy and state of the art park, with a large variety of high quality athletic, educational and leisure opportunities. We achieve these goals, in part, by providing advice to and oversight of the Chicago Park District with respect to its operations which affect Jackson Park and, in part, by engaging hundreds of our volunteers in the day to day, hands-on stewardship of the park, as well as, providing funds for Jackson Park programs, equipment and other amenities, which the Chicago Park District cannot afford to provide.
The Jackson Park Advisory Council is an independent, not-for-profit organization which is staffed entirely by volunteers from your community. Our budget depends upon donations from civic minded individuals, businesses, foundations and a variety of other entities. Please support this organization’s vital efforts by becoming a member, making a donation and/ or volunteering your time and talents to help achieve these goals.
JPAC SURVEY - The Jackson Park Advisory Council is committed to ensuring that Jackson Park has the best park services, amenities and features. Please help us in this effort by filling out our survey. The responses we receive will help JPAC and the Chicago Park District to better understand park users needs, concerns and desires for the park. Thank you for your assistance.
You are invited to join JPAC. Meetings are the second Monday of each month at Jackson Park Fieldhouse - 6401 S. Stony Island, at 7pm.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT US
If you are an individual or business that would like to make a donation to the JPAC General Fund, to one of our targeted fundraising campaigns or of an in-kind product or service, Please contact our President or Treasurer for more information on how to do so. Thank you.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES - Schools, service organizations and businesses, if you would like to volunteer your group to assist JPAC in any of its many in-park stewardship activities, please contact our President for more information.
JPAC OFFICERS
MEMBERSHIP/ DONATIONS
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT OFFICIALS / LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
LINKS
Visit our facebook page.
The Jackson Park Advisory Council is an independent, not-for-profit organization which is staffed entirely by volunteers from your community. Our budget depends upon donations from civic minded individuals, businesses, foundations and a variety of other entities. Please support this organization’s vital efforts by becoming a member, making a donation and/ or volunteering your time and talents to help achieve these goals.
JPAC SURVEY - The Jackson Park Advisory Council is committed to ensuring that Jackson Park has the best park services, amenities and features. Please help us in this effort by filling out our survey. The responses we receive will help JPAC and the Chicago Park District to better understand park users needs, concerns and desires for the park. Thank you for your assistance.
You are invited to join JPAC. Meetings are the second Monday of each month at Jackson Park Fieldhouse - 6401 S. Stony Island, at 7pm.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT US
If you are an individual or business that would like to make a donation to the JPAC General Fund, to one of our targeted fundraising campaigns or of an in-kind product or service, Please contact our President or Treasurer for more information on how to do so. Thank you.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES - Schools, service organizations and businesses, if you would like to volunteer your group to assist JPAC in any of its many in-park stewardship activities, please contact our President for more information.
JPAC OFFICERS
MEMBERSHIP/ DONATIONS
CHICAGO PARK DISTRICT OFFICIALS / LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
LINKS
Visit our facebook page.
A Brief History of Jackson Park
Jackson Park has a long and distinguished history among the many famous parks of the world. The park began as an inspiration of Paul Cornell, a member of the Cornell Family of Cornell University fame, a lawyer, a developer and, most importantly, the founder of the Village of Hyde Park, Illinois. The Village of Hyde Park was an affluent lakefront suburb which included what is, since its annexation in 1889, the present day affluent Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago, among many other world class institutions and individuals.
Paul Cornell had a vision, which he presented to city officials, of an enormous park system on what was, at the time, the southern edge of the City of Chicago. Soon thereafter, the Illinois legislature established the South Parks Commission, of which Cornell was a member, to oversee planning and construction of the new parks. To execute its vision, the South Parks Commission hired Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of New York’s Central Park.
Though the essential contours of the parks (Jackson Park, Midway Plaissance Park and Washington Park) that Olmsted and Vaux designed are much as you see them today, the design plan was never fully implemented. This was due in part to the decision, a short time later, to construct the World’s Columbian Exposition on the site and, in part, as a result of a fire which destroyed the South Park Commission offices in 1871, and with them, most of the planning documents.
In 1893, Jackson Park hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, a grand scale neoclassical fantasy, come to life. Chicago's, and the nation's, most spectacular World's Fair, it was organized to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in "the new world." It was designed by architect Daniel Burnham, who envisioned a melding of ancient Greek and Roman architectural styles on Lake Michigan. It came to be known as “The White City” because of the enormous scale of it white faux-marble, wood and plaster, neoclassical style architecture and the wide scope of its geography. The effect was further enhanced by a finishing technique which gave the appearance and feel of real stone.
Nothing of the scope and grandeur of the World’s Columbian Exposition has been repeated since and only a few vestiges of the hundreds of buildings and other structures remain in the park today. After the Exposition, Olmsted’s son, John, was commissioned to redesign the park in a style more in keeping with the naturalistic vision of his father. The park retains much of its naturalistic character today; however, it has been adapted to the needs of the citizens of the City of Chicago, as necessary.
Features of Jackson Park today include: The Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street Beach, 63rd Street Beach, 59th Street Harbor, Jackson Park Inner Harbor, Jackson Park Outer Harbor, Jackson Park Golf Course, Jackson Park Golf Driving Range, La Rabida Children’s’ Hospital, Jackson Park Fieldhouse, The Wooded Island, The Paul Douglas Nature Sanctuary, The Osaka Japanese Garden, the golden stature of the Republic, The Bobolink Meadow, Jackson Park Yacht Club, Museum Shores Yacht Club, The Lawn Bowling Green /Club House, soccer fields, football fields, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, basketball courts, a running track and much more. Come out and visit this great Chicago park.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
Paul Cornell had a vision, which he presented to city officials, of an enormous park system on what was, at the time, the southern edge of the City of Chicago. Soon thereafter, the Illinois legislature established the South Parks Commission, of which Cornell was a member, to oversee planning and construction of the new parks. To execute its vision, the South Parks Commission hired Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the designers of New York’s Central Park.
Though the essential contours of the parks (Jackson Park, Midway Plaissance Park and Washington Park) that Olmsted and Vaux designed are much as you see them today, the design plan was never fully implemented. This was due in part to the decision, a short time later, to construct the World’s Columbian Exposition on the site and, in part, as a result of a fire which destroyed the South Park Commission offices in 1871, and with them, most of the planning documents.
In 1893, Jackson Park hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, a grand scale neoclassical fantasy, come to life. Chicago's, and the nation's, most spectacular World's Fair, it was organized to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in "the new world." It was designed by architect Daniel Burnham, who envisioned a melding of ancient Greek and Roman architectural styles on Lake Michigan. It came to be known as “The White City” because of the enormous scale of it white faux-marble, wood and plaster, neoclassical style architecture and the wide scope of its geography. The effect was further enhanced by a finishing technique which gave the appearance and feel of real stone.
Nothing of the scope and grandeur of the World’s Columbian Exposition has been repeated since and only a few vestiges of the hundreds of buildings and other structures remain in the park today. After the Exposition, Olmsted’s son, John, was commissioned to redesign the park in a style more in keeping with the naturalistic vision of his father. The park retains much of its naturalistic character today; however, it has been adapted to the needs of the citizens of the City of Chicago, as necessary.
Features of Jackson Park today include: The Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street Beach, 63rd Street Beach, 59th Street Harbor, Jackson Park Inner Harbor, Jackson Park Outer Harbor, Jackson Park Golf Course, Jackson Park Golf Driving Range, La Rabida Children’s’ Hospital, Jackson Park Fieldhouse, The Wooded Island, The Paul Douglas Nature Sanctuary, The Osaka Japanese Garden, the golden stature of the Republic, The Bobolink Meadow, Jackson Park Yacht Club, Museum Shores Yacht Club, The Lawn Bowling Green /Club House, soccer fields, football fields, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, basketball courts, a running track and much more. Come out and visit this great Chicago park.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE
