“Jackson Park was born over the furious objections of Chicagoans,” writes Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg [Full story: https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2026/06/12/obama-presidential-center-jackson-park-history-worlds-columbian-exposition-frederick-law-omsted]

Prompted by the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, Steinberg reviews some of the controversies in the long history of Jackson Park, from its 1869 founding to its 1881 renaming to its 1890 selection as the fairgrounds for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Several private organizations have moved onto parkland since then, with the newest bring a fresh round of opposition and excitement.

Changes to Frederick Law Olmsted’s South Side gem have always been accompanied by “much controversy and fanfare.”

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A construction photo of Jackson Park on March 25, 1891, shows the building of an underground conduit for the electricity infrastructure and the wood framing of the Electricity Building in the background. The photo above shows the same scene during the Exposition. [Image from Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World’s Columbian Exposition Held in Chicago in 1893, Volume 1: Narrative. D. Appleton and Co., 1897.]