The 3.5-acre peninsula on the northern edge of the confluence of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan was christened DuSable Park back in 1987 after the man many see as the city’s founder, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Seventeen years later, the Chicago Park District’s capital plan includes design funds that would be the first step in building DuSable Park.
The site, which now hosts only weeds, would likely hold a statue of du Sable, visible from Lake Shore Drive, and a natural landscape design focused on indigenous plants. An esplanade that would link the park to Pioneer Court, south of the Tribune Tower, also has been proposed.
Du Sable was an African American fur trader from Saint-Domingue (Haiti) who built the first permanent settlement nearby, on the river’s northern edge, just east of what is now the Michigan Avenue Bridge.
The park district’s capital plan is set for a May vote.