Lincoln Park - History

History

In 1860, Lake Park (also called Cemetery Park), the precursor of today's park, was established by the city on the lands just to the north of the city's burial ground. Five years later, on June 12, 1865, the park was renamed to honor the recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, part of the oldest section of today's Lincoln Park near North Avenue began its existence as the City Cemetery in 1843. part of the oldest section of today's Lincoln Park near North Avenue began its existence as the City Cemetery in 1843.http://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/home.html This was subdivided into a Potter's Field, Catholic cemetery, Jewish cemetery, and the general City Cemetery. These cemeteries were the only cemeteries in the Chicago area until 1859. In 1852, David Kennison, who is said to have been born in 1736, died and was buried in City Cemetery. Another notable burial in the cemetery was Chicago Mayor James Curtiss, whose body was lost when the cemetery was added to the park.

Throughout the late 1850s, there was discussion of closing the cemetery or abandoning it because of health concerns. In the fall of 1858, Dr. John H. Rauch MD suggested that the burial grounds were a health risk, which "might serve extremely well for plantations of grove and forest trees" that would be "useful and ornamental to the city." The idea was dropped during the Civil War, but revived by Dr. Rauch after the war ended. By 1864, the city council had decided to add all the 120-acre (0.49 km2) cemetery lands north of North Avenue to the park by relocating the graves. The cemetery sections south of North Avenue were also relocated but this land was left for residential development. To this day, the Couch mausoleum can still be seen as the most visible reminder of the history as a cemetery, standing amidst trees, behind the Chicago History Museum. Ira Couch, who is interred in the tomb, was one of Chicago's earliest innkeepers, opening the Tremont House in 1835. Couch is believed to not be the only person interred in the old burial ground in Lincoln Park. A plaque placed nearby states that "the remains of six Couch family members and one family friend are in the tomb." Partially due to the destruction of the Chicago Fire on tombstones, it was difficult to remove many of the remains. As recently as 1998, construction in the park has revealed more bodies left over from the nineteenth century.

Another large and notable group of graves relocated from the site of today's Lincoln Park were those of approximately 4,000 Confederate prisoners of war who died at Camp Douglas. Many prisoners perished between 1862 and 1865 as a result of the poor condition they were in when taken on the battlefield, or of disease and privation existing at the Federal prison. Although the camp was located south of downtown Chicago, near the stockyards, the remains were originally interred at the site of today's Lincoln Park. Today, their gravesites may be found at Oak Woods Cemetery in the southern part of Chicago. A one acre (4,000 m²) mass grave and a monument erected by Southerners and Chicago friends in 1895 memorializes these Southerners whose earthly remnants remain in the North. Author George Levy believes that remains of many of the confederate prisoners are still to be found beneath what are currently baseball fields, the former site of the potter's field.

From the 1860s through the 1950s the park expanded South and then North along seven miles (11 km) of Chicago's Lakefront. (See reference notes 1, 2 and 3). The establishment of public parkland along all of Chicago's lakefront was a central tennet of the 1909 Burnham Plan for the development of Chicago.

Another aspect of park history were the Young Lords Lincoln Park neighborhood sit ins and take-overs of institutions under the leadership of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez, protesting the displacement of Latinos by Mayor Richard J. Daley's urban renewal policies. It was also the scene of violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. These events transpired around the convention center, Grant Park, Old Town, and the park adjacent (on Clark Street) called Lincoln Park.