Ward (A. Montgomery) Park

Located in the River North neighborhood, A. Montgomery Ward Park sits on a three-acre parcel that stretches along the north branch of the Chicago River.  The Chicago Park District first acquired the southern two-acres in 2000 and then acquired three more parcels to complete the park.  In 2000, the City transferred a small parcel of land to the District for the park.  In 2003, the District acquired another parcel and the developer of new high-rise condominiums, Centrum Properties donated an acre on the north side of the park to satisfy the requirements of Chicago’s Open Space Ordinance.  The Chicago Park District worked with two design firms— Wolff Landscape Architects and Peter Walker and Partners— to develop the unimproved site.

The park’s plan emphasizes the Chicago River as the site’s main asset by incorporating a river walk promenade with benches and shade trees that offers spectacular views of the water and skyline.  The park also has a large playground, adjacent dog-friendly area, and two artworks— a lovely mosaic wall near the river, and a stainless steel sculpture entitled Commemorative Ground Ring near the intersection of W. Erie and N. Kingsbury streets. Sculptor Sheila Klein, first displayed the work in 1989 in a temporary exhibit known as Sculpture Chicago.  Moved to this site in 2005, the sculpture emulates an enormous engagement ring, and incorporates imagery from the city’s architectural legacy.  Elements include a skyscraper, the famous three-part Chicago window, and a form that looks like the famous Getty Tomb by revered architect Louis Sullivan.

In 2010, the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners officially named Park 511 in honor of Aaron Montgomery Ward, Chicago’s famous mail order entrepreneur who became known as the “Watchdog of the Lakefront.”  Its site at 630 N. Kingsbury Street is only a few short blocks away from the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House Building at 600 N. Chicago Avenue.

Born in New Jersey, Aaron Montgomery Ward (1843- 1913) grew up in Niles Michigan where he attended public schools.  As a teenager, he began as a factory worker earning 25 cents a day and then became a day laborer at a brickyard.  He came to Chicago in 1865 and worked for Field, Palmer & Leiter (later Marshall Field & Co.) and then for another Chicago department store known as CW Partridge.  In 1872, A. Montgomery Ward founded the world’s first large mail order house in the world, operating from a loft over a livery stable on Kinzie Street between Rush and State Streets.  He went on to become one of the nation’s most successful businessmen with the catalog house on N. Chicago Avenue and the company’s headquarters located from two buildings on Michigan Avenue at Madison Street.

Ward’s Michigan Avenue office overlooked Lake Park (later renamed Grant Park).  By the 1880s the park had garbage heaps, livery shacks, an unsightly maintenance yard, and the City regularly leased out space there to Barnum and other circuses.  A. Montgomery Ward filed an injunction to prohibit the city from dumping garbage, maintaining sheds and shacks, and holding circuses there.  This proved to be the first in a long series of legal battles Ward waged to preserve the lakefront park.  Daniel H. Burnham developed plans proposing the construction of several buildings in the center of Grant Park including a new Field Museum and Crerar Library.  Aware that early restrictions that deemed the site as a “Public Ground… forever open, clear and free of any buildings or obstructions whatever,” Ward continued his battle to protect the lakefront open space.  Vilified by the media and government officials, public opinion regarding Ward’s efforts was generally negative.  He once said “I have nothing at stake in this fight but the good of the people now for future generations.   Perhaps I may see the public appreciate efforts, but I doubt it.” 

Today, Ward is revered for his commitment to the lakefront and naming Park #511 which is in such close proximity to his Catalog House Building is a fitting tribute to one of the most important figures in Chicago history.  In addition to the request from Friends of the Parks, this naming proposal has support from Alderman Brendan Reilly and Landmarks Illinois.

In 1989, Sheila Klein, a Los Angeles artist who now resides and works in Washington State, produced Commemorative Ground Ring for a temporary exhibit known as Sculpture Chicago.  The artist considers the aluminum sculpture “a tangible symbol of my love for Chicago architecture.”  It emulates an enormous engagement ring, and incorporates imagery from the city’s architectural legacy.  Elements include a skyscraper, the famous three-part Chicago window, and a form that looks like the famous Getty Tomb by revered architect Louis Sullivan.

After being displayed at Riverfront Plaza during the sculpture exhibition, the artwork was purchased for placement in Lincoln Park by the Miro Fund for the Chicago Historical Society—now the Chicago History Museum— and moved to the corner of W. North Avenue and N. Clark Street in 1990.  After several years, the Chicago Park District moved the artwork to a small North Side park.  When that site went under renovation, the Commemorative Ground Ring was placed in storage.  Finally, in 2005, the Park District installed the artwork in Park 511, a newly developed 3-acre open space with a playground, dog-friendly area, and mosaic wall and walkway leading down to the Chicago River.