USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Chicago, the Garden city. Its magnificent parks, boulevards and cemeteries. Together with other descriptive views and sketches > Part 8
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blocks. These are separated from the boulevard proper by plats twelve feet wide, bearing small but splendid trees, from the foliage of which, when they have grown, shade will be cast alike on the equipages that are entitled to roll along the smooth drive and on the humble yellow street-cars, laden with hard- working people, that toil along on either side. There are no angles on Twelfth Street Boulevard. It is laid out with beautiful lines. The eurbs are rounded. At the street intersections the parks between the drive and the traffic roads come to no abrupt angular ends. They terminate in curved inclosures, and this plan constitutes one of the most pleasing features of the boulevard. The sidewalks are wide and the greensward that lines the edge of the pavements of the other city boulevard is also found on Twelfth Street. The sidewalks are also lined with young trees planted regularly, giving four rows of trees that make attractive lines of green from Ashland Boulevard to Oakley Street. Twelfth Street Boulevard is not a residence thoroughfare. Neither is it a bus- iness street. It's a people's road. It is lined with business buildings in the main, but a portion of every building is given up to homes. The buildings, or at least such of them as have been erected since Twelfth Street took on boulevard airs, are modern, substantial, and of unending variety. No busi- ness in particular is in the ascendeney. Everything is, of course, on the re- tail plan. Dry goods stores, groceries, meat markets, beer saloons, undertak- ing establishments, and all other conceivable enterprises flourish side by side. What few structures there are along the line devoted to strictly home pur- poses are of unpretentious mien. Indeed, a good many of them are shabby, but that there is a pride among the residents is demonstrated by the constant swish of the paint brush and the broom. For everything along the boulevard is as scrupulously clean as the little thatched cot of the poem that school chil- dren weep over. There are more children on Twelfth Street Boulevard than on any other in the city, and they enjoy the street. They come from the nar-
row, unimproved, and in many instances miserable streets that intersect the wide-stretching boulevard, which is their park and playground. They drive their goats and dogs hitched to their box-many of them soap-box-carts about, fully as happy and equally as healthy as their neighbors on the more aristocratie streets. The drive makes everybody equal, for its beauties are as free and accessible to the man who is driving along in charge of a sawdust eart or a coal wagon on one of the traffic roads as they are to the person who lolls on luxurious cushions in a carriage on the wide stretch of asphaltum. Twelfth Street Boulevard is the people's highway. It's as big as the people. It is by far the widest road in town, and to the eye it is the most stately, even though it lacks imposing architectural surroundings found on other boule- . vards. And to one who reflects and compares there come wonderful manifes-
tations of the achievements of Chicago's dash and progress. The improve- ment has been of an amazing quality and a lasting quality. And if one sighs for the spice of life, variety, he can get it by looking either way from the boule-
Residence of West Park Commissioner Hermann Weinhardt. near Wicker Park.
vard and see the loveliness and slovenliness with a single glance. From the head of the boulevard which turns into Ogden Boulevard at Oakley Avenue one can look back and through the great expanse of the boulevard into old Twelfth Street-a narrow business and retail street. Looking west the street runs on wide as the boulevard portion of it, seemingly, to the horizon. Rising from it on either side are buildings everywhere-and substantial ones at that. All that part of the street will come in for improvements some day. Where Twelfth Street Boulevard, Ogden Avenue and Oakley Avenue come together there is an excellent view. One can look miles either way on Oakley Avenue, gaze down between the stretch of busy stores on Ogden Avenue that ten years ago was an unpaved road with uneven sidewalks, and see at the same time two boulevards-Ogden Avenue and Twelfth Street.
Ogden Boulevard runs to the southwest from Twelfth Street Boulevard. It is planned on exactly the same lines as the latter, of which it really is a contin- uation. About the first thing to attract on Ogden Avenue Boulevard, outside of its own stateliness and evidences of improvement, is the great viaduct that carries the boulevard over a number of railroads and over scores of puffing locomotives and jingling freight trains that seem to be moving at that point at all hours. The Ogden Avenue viaduct is a great piece of engineering. It is a light and airy structure to the eye, But it is as strong as steel and iron can be wrought together by human skill. At the same time it carries a most pleasing appearance and one of safety and endurance. The asphaltum of the boulevard will be laid in the middle bed of the viaduct, while the traffic roads, street-car tracks, and sidewalks will be carried along just as they are on the level streets, save that there will be winding approaches. The approaches to the viaduct are of easy grade, and when they are completed they will be quite artistic. One taking a drive along the boulevard can stop on the viaduct long enough to see Chicago, or a portion of it. As to its industrial features, it is a busy city, as one can see from the tangle of tracks that mean an exit from the city of only a few of its scores of railway lines. The tracks are skirted as far as we can see by great factories of every character. After crossing the via- duct, the boulevard runs up, broad as ever, to the gates of Douglas Park, filled with flowers, and lakes and shade, and winding drives of length sufficient to keep one here traveling over them for an hour, before leaving the park at its western side, and emerging on Douglas Boulevard, which runs west, to connect with the broad road that stretches away for miles and ends in Garfield Park.
Douglas Boulevard from Douglas Park to Garfield Park is one and one- half miles long. As it stands now, it is a right good gravel road, smooth and straight and capable of drawing better speed out of the family horse than the asphaltum roads. The trees are already planted and grown into splendid pro- portions, a feature that it takes a long time to perfect. There is not much that is novel on either Douglas or Central Park Boulevards. The country is a flat one. But one can see the city crawling up on and filling up the prairie. There are streets platted, and gas lamps, and real estate agents' for-sale signs offering homes.
Crossing West Twelfth Street, one comes upon a lot of red rakish build- ings, whence issue cries of agony. Those buildings constitute the city's dog pound, and the cries are from the victims of the dog catchers' brass loops. It's the place of incarceration and death of the city's vagrant dogs. If one has right good eyes he can look far across the country and see the city's home for its petty criminals, the bridewell. Driving north to where Albany Avenue stretches off southwest, Douglas Boulevard passes between the Garfield Park race track, and the new part of Garfield Park proper, which is now in the hands of the landscape gardeners and their forces. Across to the east is the asphalt ribbon of Jackson Boulevard and its lamps and trees. One leaves the rattle of cable cars, and, swinging around a winding road, jostles over the cable road tracks, and finds himself riding along under the heavy shade of the great trees of pretty Garfield Park. If one is going to give time and attention to all the attractions that park contains, with pretty flower beds, its lake, its conservatory, etc., he had better make up his mind to take a day to the task. To traverse its pretty drives and lakes takes a matter of half an hour, and at
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the end of that time the main gate of the park is reached and before one stretch- ing east is majestic Washington Boulevard, straight as an arrow and ending as it appears in a maze of foliage and church spires. The gates of Garfield Park are attractive and full of welcome. Two roadways lead into it, each diverging from Washington Boulevard and winding their ways around little flower beds.
Two grand residences mark the west end of the boulevard. They are the homes of G. W. Spofford and J. C. Shipley. All the homes on the handsome boulevard are beautiful, but they lose in the features of latter day architecture as you drive eastward toward Union Park. The home of John Eizner, not far from Garfield Park, is one of the latest in design and originality.
Washington Boulevard has cottages too, but they are all in strict accord, in taste if not in dimensions. Everything along the splendid street is built with a view to having its appearance attractive. Even the doctors have taken away the business air of their house fronts, and the face of every building be- tween Union and Garfield Parks tells of home.
Spacious grounds about the residences are not wanting, but the houses are built closer together than on Ashland Boulevard, which it meets at Union Park, one of the smallest, but one of the most attractive breathing spots in the city. The view from the junction of the two beautiful boulevards is grand, with splendid buildings devoted to home, business and religion in sev- eral directions, and with the pretty park, its flowers, and its stone bridge and its stone-walled pool in another direction. The administration buildings of the West Park Board occupy one corner of the little park, while near its cen- ter is reserved a spot where soon artificially wrought bronze will show the gallant Phil Sheridan on his famous ride to . Winchester, twenty miles away," a gift of our enterprising fellow-citizen, Charles T. Yerkes.
But our ride is nearly over. You are back at Halsted Street, busy, noisy Halsted Street, four blocks away from the entrance to Jackson Boulevard, where you started on your summer evening's ride but a short time before. You have travelled something like eight miles over perfect roads, and about half that distance over roads nearly perfect. On every hand you have had cause to enjoy yourself and to be impressed with amazement at the marks of improvement, at the magnificence of the boulevards, at the elegance of Chi- cago homes, of the beauties that are within the city's boundaries, and at the general spirit, enterprise, greatness and grandeur of Chicago, You are re- freshed by your outing, full of new information, and altogether glad that you are in Chicago.
The following tables show the length, width and breadth of the West Side Boulevards.
HUMBOLDT BOULEVARD.
Width, 250 feet, from Western Ave. to Logan Square
4,875 4-10
400
Logan Square ... 669
250
from Logan Square to Palmer Place. 2,264 7-10
400 66 Palmer Place. 1,699
4-10
$ 317
from Palmer Place to North Avenue 3,730 15-100
/ 250
Total distance, lineal feet. 13,238 65-100
Total area, acres. 90
CENTRAL BOULEVARD.
Width, 400 feet, from Augusta Street to Grand Ave ..
890
263
Grand Ave. to Sacramento Square. 2.206
5-10
400
Sacramento Square 400
.€ 250
Sacramento Sq. to Central Park Sq 3,662
6 10
400
Central Park Square. 400
250 Central Park Sq. to Garfield Park 420
LIN. FEET.
Total distance, lineal feet .
7,979 1-10 Total area, acres. 47
LIN. FEET.
-
Residence of George Rahlfs, Ex West Park Commissioner, near Wicker Park, -
....
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DOUGLAS BOULEVARD.
Width, 250 feet from Colorado Ave., to Square south of 12th St. 4,077 .. 400 “ (of square). 400
250 from Square to Douglas Park. 3,790
Total distance, lineal feet. 8,267
Total area, acres.
50
SOUTIIWESTERN BOULEVARD.
LIN. FEET.
Width, 250 lineal feet from Douglas Park to cast turn. 2,950
east turn. . . 870
6 from east turn along California Ave., to
Thirty-first Street. 3,921
Along Thirty-first Street to Western Avenue. 2,267
Western Avenue south to Canal. 740
Total distance, lincal feet. 11,148
Total are , acres ..
75
CITY BOULEVARDS.
Washington, 66 feet wide
1.25 miles.
SO
0.875 . 1. 3.125 miles.
Ashland
100
1.
Twelfthi Street 70
0.89
Ogden Ave.
70
. Jackson
66
2.52 .
73
.0.25
-
0.75
3,50
Total length.
9.995 miles.
MINERAL WELLS.
Each of the three west side parks possesses a most attractive feature in the shape of an artesian well, containing medical properties of a valuable character.
The analysis of the water of these wells, described in a report by chemist J. E. Siebel, is as follows: One wine gallon of water of the Artesian well in Garfield Park contains:
Chloride of Magnesium
8.352 grains.
Chloride of Sodium.
87.491 66
Bromide Magnesium
0.301
Sulphate of Lime.
21.114
Carbonate of Lime.
14.802
Carbonate of Iron
0.712 6%
Sulphate of Soda.
13.645
-
Silicate of Soda.
0,508
6.
Alumina
traces. 66
Organic Substances and Sulphuretted Hydrogen
none.
Total
146.925 grains.
Free Carbonic Acid.
13.44 cubic inches
Temperature at the well.
71.4º Fahrenheit.
66
100
1.48
80
This water not only contains the largest amount of solid substances of any of the mineral waters in this neighborhood, but it also contains them so arranged and in such quantities that it cannot fail to prove of great benefit in a variety of cases. While its principal character is that of a Saline Water, it still contains a sufficient amount of Iron to allow of its being classified as a
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Chalybeate Water in consequence of which its use is indicated in cases in which anæmia is a prominent feature. The saline and calcic properties of the water warrant its use in special cases of indigestion, diseases of the urinary organs, rheumatism, and kindred afflictions. The complex character of the water will be found specially useful in complicated cases, the disposition of which must of course be left to the practicing physician, and in this connec- tion the presence of Bromide of Magnesium will also be considered an im- portant factor. Technically speaking this water is also a Thermal Water, as its temperature is above the mean annual temperature of Chicago, a feature which may also be of some significance at a future day when the subject of public bath houses will receive more attention.
One wine gallon of water of the well in Douglas Park contains: Chloride of Magnesium.
8.236 grains.
Chloride of Sodium.
2.320
Sulphate of Soda.
28.321 grains 6.422 66
Carbonate of Lime
11.149
66
Carbonate of Iron
0.103 66
Silicate of Soda.
0.731
Alumina ..
traces.
Sulphuretted Hydrogen.
faint traces.
Organic Substances
none.
Total
57.282 grains. 10.22 cubic inches.
Free Carbonic Acid.
Temperature at the well 57.1º Fahrenheit.
This water, although in point of general medicinal usefulness it is not equal to that of Garfield Park, will nevertheless be found beneficial in special cases. The calcic character of the water is modified by the predominance of Soda Sulphate, in which this water differs from that of most other Artesian wells. These proportions, together with the small amount of Iron which the water contains, will recommend the same to the attention of thoughtful physicians.
One wine gallon of water of the well in Humboldt Park contains: Chloride of Magnesium
7.702 grains.
Sulphate of Soda. 23.211
Sulphate of Magnesia 4.132
Sulphate of Lime. 10.229 66
Carbonate of Lime
12.131 66
Carbonate of Iron .
0.065
Silicate of Soda.
0.763 66
Alumina ..
traces.
Sulphuretted Hydrogen
faint traces.
Organic Substances
none.
Total 58.233 grains. 11.13 cubic inches.
Free Carbonic Acid.
Temperature at the well 63.5º Fahrenheit.
The composition of the water at this well is similar to that of the Doug- las Park well, but the amount of purgative salts is less, and their action is counteracted by the presence of larger quantities of Sulphate of Lime. It also contains less Iron than Douglas Park water.
Sulphate of Lime
x
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Residence of E. S. Dreyer, near Lincoln Park.
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LIST OF WEST PARK COMMISSIONERS.
The following Commissioners have been appointed by the Governor from the origin of the West Chicago Park Board up to the present time :
NAMES OF COMMISSIONERS.
Date of Commissions.
Terms.
Philetus W. Gates
April 20, 1869
1 year
Henry Greenebaum.
20, 1869
3 years
Charles C. P. Holden.
20, 1869
Clark Lipe *
20, 1869
7
Isaac R. Hitt
20, 1869
6 66
Eben F. Runyan ..
20, 1869
5
George W. Stanford.
20, 1869
4
David Cole *
July
15, 1869
David Cole *
March
1, 1870
7 years
Charles C. P. Holden
February
28, 1871
·7-7
Henry Greenebaum.
March
21, 1872
Emil Dreier
19, 1873 2
George W. Stanford.
19, 1873
7
66
Alden C. Millard.
April
24, 1875
7
66
66
24, 1875
2
66
Clark Lipe*
March
1, 1876
J. F. Adolf Muus
September 30, 1876
Willard Woodard *
October
8, 1877
Peter Schüttler.
"
11, 1877
5 years
Sextus N. Wilcox
66
11, 1877
4
John Brenock
November 24, 1877
March
2, 1878
1 year
S. H. McCrea *
April
24, 1879
7 years
George Rahlfs.
March
1, 1880
7
66
Consider B. Carter
April
19, 1881
7 66
J. Frank Lawrence.
July 8, 1881
2
Harvey L. Thompson.
March
1, 1882
Patrick McGrath.
February 15, 1883
1 month
Patrick McGrath.
May 8, 1883
7 years
David W. Clark
August
15, 1883 3
66
H. S. Burkhardt.
March
7, 18:4
7
66
George Mason.
Willard Woodard *
April
19, 1886
6
Fred. M. Blount.
6
22, 1887
7
Christian C. Kohlsaat.
March
26, 1888 7
Harvey L. Thompson
April
20, 1889
C. K. G. Billings
March
19, 1890
7 years
John Kralovec.
May
10, 1890
5
H. Weinhardt ..
March
18, 1891
7
66
J. L. Fulton ..
May
22, 1891
9 months
J. L. Fulton.
March
24, 1892
1 7 years
66
41/2 7
66
S. H. McCrea *
66
8, 1877
2
66
11, 1877
4 months
Emil Wilken.
11, 1877
6
66
E. E. Wood.
20, 1877
4 months 21/2 years 7 66
John W. Bennett
John Brenock
George Rahlfs
66 6, 1879
Christian C. Kohlsaat.
November 26, 1883
412 7
66
Christoph legtmeyer, Sr. *
12, 1885 6, 1886
20, 1889
10 months
C. K. G. Billings
* Deceased.
66
66
.6
Eben F. Runyan.
5, 1874
Louis Schultz.
66
8 months
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Voices from the Field of the Dead.
'Translated from the German of KARL GEROK, by E. F. L GAUSS.
1. PET. 1. 24.
For all flesh is as grass And all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
As in a dream while lost in meditation
I came upon this garden's desolation ;
Who owns this field, this verdant soil I tread ? -" The dead."
Why tarriest thou, my foot, before this wicket ? Behold the blooming flowers in plat and thicket !
Whence comes this fragrance rising in sweet waves ? -" From graves."
See here, oh mortal, where thy paths are ending, Though snake-like through the world their course they're wending. It rustles at thy feet midst waste and rust :
-" In dust ! "
Where are they all, men's ever changing chances, The fickle fortunes which this earth advances ? These crosses preach the fact to every eye : -" Gone by !"
Where are the hearts which in their days' brief measure So faintly beat in grief, so high in pleasure ?
Which once so ardently by love and hate were swayed ? -" Decayed ! "
Where are the thoughtless who with health were brimming And through this world like butterflies were skimming ? What lies here covered by these mossy stones ? -" But bones !"
Where are the strong ones who through life were scouring, And heavenward their haughty schemes were towerlng ? With croaking voice the ravens cry it flurried : -" They're buried !"
Where are the dear ones whom, when death did sever Love swore their memory should last forever ? The cypress-trees the answer have begotten : -" Forgotten !"
And saw no eye which way all those are thronging ? And spans the grave not the most fervent longing ? The gloomy firs, lo, shake their crowns forever : -" No, never !"
The evening winds in anguish I hear screaming, My spirit lulls in melancholy dreaming, The sky grows dim, its glow sends the last ray : -" Away ! "
Gardens of the Dead.
ALI MARQUIS & COL
Entrance Gate to Graceland.
CHICAGO'S CEMETERIES.
INTRODUCTORY.
From ancient times to the present day the burial places of the dead have received much tender care on the part of the living among all civilized people. The decoration of the graves that contain the bodies of dear relatives or famous persons, speaks of the attachment, love and veneration still felt for those slumbering there and these outward signs of love were, in olden times, especially prominent and characteristic marks of human feelings and indicated the degree of civilization of the various nations and communities. It is a great pleasure, though it be mingled with sadness, to give ourselves up for a short time to quiet reveries at the grave of a dear friend or relative and to bestow upon its mound that loving regard which is prompted by the truest and most unselfish love the human heart is capable of.
Much attention is given in Europe to the tasteful arrangement and adornment of cemeteries, but America has made such rapid and marked progress in this direction within the second half of the present century that at present our own country stands unexcelled in point of beauty of burial places, that surround the various cities of the Union. The art of landscape- gardening has been rapidly advanced by the application and opportunity offered by our great park systems and thereby the cemeteries have chiefly profited. This is especially seen in the improvements going on in the older "cities of the dead," where the clumsy fences and similar unseemly enclosures around single graves or lots are rapidly giving way to the "lawn" or "park system," which gives these places a more cheerful appearance. There are of course people who consider a grave-yard full of gloom produced by deep shades of dense trees and bushes and hedges monotonously inter- sected by long and rigidly straight paths and roads, though it be otherwise entirely void of landscape beauty, the proper place for the burial of the dead. These people are of the opinion that a cemetery ought in all of its appoint- ments and surroundings correspond to the inner sorrow of the mourner and impress him with its gloom never to be forgotten. But, why should this be ? Is it not a beautiful and prominent trait of the human character to comfort fellow-men when sorrows overtake them, and lift them up from the dark earth pointing out to them the bright heavens above ? If that is charity, it is duty. Is it not the duty then of the managements of cemeteries also to do what is in their power, to make the visits of people who mourn the loss of a parent, child or relative to the graves of the latter less sad, to turn the sorrow- ful pilgrimage into a source of comfort? We know-alas, a great many of us from personal experience !- that the grief and sadness filling the hearts of men when their loved ones are taken away from them by grim death, lose a great deal of their bitterness and sting, if at the time when we visit their
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cherished graves, our way takes us through a place with pleasant green lawns, with sweet flowers clustering here and there, where the beautiful sun of the heavens is permitted to spread his golden beams over the graves and their flowers, where the graveyard is not a dark and gloomy and com- fortless spot but a place of consolation and peace.
Flowers and blooming shrubs are nowhere more in place than in ceme- teries and they are much more appropriate than are costly and pompous memorials of cold stone which are much oftener boasting monuments for the living than the dead. It is true that there are some works of art to be found in our cemeteries, tasteful in style and masterly in execution, but by far the greater number of the monuments are simply towering obelisks with or without urns crowning them. Why these obelisks, which are evidently of Egyptian origin, are so popular in this country is difficult to understand; one might get the impression that the obelisk with the urn is the emblem of the American religion.
In olden times, when the Greeks and Romans and some other nations cremated their dead, the urn was in place, but what meaning it may have in our days, when the remains of man are mostly interred, cannot be com- prehended; they certainly do not contain the ashes of deceased persons nor any other relic of them, but are simply blocks of stone in a form that makes them sad reminders of the losses we have sustained. The obelisk itself only impresses by its height and the value of the granite.
Tablets and crosses made of wood are more numerously found within the older cemeteries, especially in many of the "God's Acres" of the Germans. These seem to have been preferred, because the want of space in some burial places makes it necessary to re-sell grave lots after a given number of years. The fact is a sad one that we should not be allowed to remain undisturbed in our last resting place, and some times the inevitable is brought to our notice with painful emphasis. It has only lately transpired, that the son of an old German veteran, who was buried some years ago in a Lutheran cemetery near this city, was looking in vain for his father's grave to erect a monument upon it. At last the management of the cemetery had to admit that it had sold the lot in question to other people.
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