This cornerspot did just what we hoped it would: spur a collective nostalgia trip. The Olson Rug Factory designed the Waterfall Park as a tie-in to its showroom, but commercially-driven or not, the mystical site became a major attraction for Chicagoans with kids. The Native American visual narration built into the zigzagging stone paths was made a permanent part of the experience because the park opened in 1935, on the 100th anniversary of the expulsion of tribes from Illinois (a copycat move a few years after the more southerly trail of tears). According to Forgotten Chicago, the falls replicated "a waterfall on the Ontonagon River in Michigan's Upper Peninsula." The neighboring Olson mill was sold to Marshall Field's in 1965 and the park was dismantled in 1978 to free up more parking. And, as you see from the present day image above, parking is a hard thing to uproot.
·Hint: A Bucolic Fantasy Land in a Dense Industrial Quarter [Curbed Chicago]
·Olson Waterfall [Forgotten Chicago]
Filed under: