{"nrhp_refnum":"72001565","name":"Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance","other_names":["Site of the World's Columbian Exposition","See Also:Taft Midwa"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Jackson and Washington Parks and Midway Plaisance roadway","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.790598930000044,"lon":-87.58270053499996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1972-12-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture","Art","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national","state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 19th-century public park landscape district in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, made up of Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance, which connects it to Washington Park. Frederick Law Olmsted laid it out in 1871, and it hosted the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.","why_significant":"It preserves the general arrangement of Olmsted's 1871 plan, an early work contemporary with his Riverside and Central Park designs. It was also the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which influenced American architecture. The surviving Fine Arts Building by Charles Atwood is an outstanding example of French Beaux-Arts classicism, and the Midway holds Lorado Taft's Fountain of Time.","narrative":"Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance form a large public landscape in Chicago, joining Jackson Park on the lakefront with Washington Park to the west. Frederick Law Olmsted laid them out in 1871 for the South Park Commission, and they were essentially complete by about 1879. The parks then served as the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, after which Olmsted's firm prepared a 1895 plan to return them to their earlier condition. Surviving features include the Wooded Island and lagoon, yacht basins, a golf course, and the Fine Arts Building, designed by Charles Atwood in French Beaux-Arts style and now the Museum of Science and Industry. A replica of Daniel Chester French's Statue of the Republic stands in the park. The Midway is lined with elms and ends at Lorado Taft's Fountain of Time. The district was listed for its Olmsted design, its Exposition history, and its architecture and sculpture.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape); Charles B. Atwood (Fine Arts Building); Lorado Taft (Fountain of Time)","architectural_style":"French Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Building)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked excellent and altered; publicly owned park, open to the public without restriction.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.810384-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/40/8924/28892440/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/72001565.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001565/9ecc0659ea-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/72001565/9ecc0659ea-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harper_Midway_Chicago.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harper_Midway_Chicago.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892440","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115944692"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/jackson-park-historic-landscape-district-and-midway-plaisance-72001565/"}