Landscape Information
The West Park System of Chicago was created in 1869. Douglass (formerly Douglas) Park, Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park and their connecting boulevards were laid out by architect William Le Baron Jenney in 1871. At the 206-acre Humboldt Park, construction was slow and only the northeastern section was built according to Jenney’s design. With much of the park unrealized and deteriorating by the early 1900s, landscape architect Jens Jensen had the opportunity to experiment with his evolving Prairie Style. His design included an extension of the existing lagoon, designed and built to emulate a natural “prairie river.” The expanded waterway included rocky brooks that fed into it, overlooks for fishing, pedestrian bridges, and aquatic plants such as arrow root, cattails, and water lilies. Jensen also designed a naturalistic perennial garden and circular rose garden (now the Formal Garden), the latter of which was rehabilitated in 2018 by Hitchcock Design Group and plantsman Piet Oudolf. Additional park structures and furnishings include a boat house (1907) by architects Schmidt, Garden & Martin, a pair of bronze bison sculptures by Edward Kemeys, and Prairie-Style lanterns and urns designed by Jens Jensen.
Humboldt Park is a contributing feature of the Historic Resources of the Chicago Park District listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 and the Chicago Park Boulevard System Historic District listed in 2018. In 1992 it was listed individually.
