On Friday I fired up the YoMobile and went on a drive through South Lawndale and Little Village on Chicago’s Southwest Side. To enter the neighborhood, I started on Roosevelt Road and took Sacramento Avenue through Douglas Park (all located within the North Lawndale community area). Like the great West Side spaces of Humboldt Park and Garfield Park, Douglas Park was designed by urban planner and “father of the skyscraper” William Le Baron Jenney. And like Humboldt and Garfield, it was later improved by the Prairie-style landscaper Jens Jensen.
The setbacks along south Sacramento are so deep because that portion forms part of the Chicago Boulevard system. Officially, that is not Sacremanto at all but Marshall Boulevard. That particular cross-section, with a single roadway in the middle flanked by wide parkways and no outer drives, is limited to Marshall Boulevard and 24th Boulevard. Other boulevard sections, such as Logan Boulevard, take a more traditional approach with a wide central roadway flanked by medians and outer drives. The designs of the various boulevard sections differ because they were built at different times by three independent park districts (prior to the formation of the unified Chicago Park District in 1934), according to a unified plan. There was little consistency between the designs used by the three districts. The idea was that one should be able to travel from the north lakefront, through the west and south side parks, to the south lakefront without leaving a landscaped park corridor. The path follows (beginning at Lincoln Park on the north side) Diversey Blvd to the river, Logan Blvd to Logan Square, Kedzie Blvd to Palmer Square, Humboldt Blvd to Humboldt Park, Sacramento Blvd to Franklin Square, Franklin Blvd to Central Park, Central Park Blvd to Garfield Park, Independence Blvd to Independence Square, Douglas Blvd to Douglas Park, Marshall Blvd to 24th Blvd, 24th Blvd to California Blvd, California Blvd to 31st Blvd, 31st Blvd to Western Blvd, Western Blvd to Gage Park, Garfield Blvd to Washington Park, then the Midway Plaisance to Jackson Park. The system forms a half-circle around Chicago and links all of the major parks, from lakefront to lakefront. With the exception of Diversey Blvd (the Lincoln Park District did not make it a priority and never really for the project going, which leaves Diversey a boulevard in name only), the system was completed.