By Patrick F. Cannon

The other day, a friend mentioned visiting Jackson Park’s Wooded Island. Just south of  the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, the island was conceived by park designer Frederick Law Olmstead as an oasis of tranquility in the midst of  the bustling 1893 Columbian Exposition. In  the event, it became home for the Japanese government exhibit, including the famous Ho-o-den temple complex.

            It and the Griffin Museum building were among the few structures to survive the fair. Over the years, the Ho-o-den deteriorated but was restored in the 1930s with Depression-era public works funds. During World War II it was destroyed in a fire that may have been caused by anti-Japanese feeling caused by Pearl Harbor and other events.

            After my family moved to Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood in late 1945, Wooded Island became part of our (my brother and neighborhood kids) Jackson Park playground. We lived across from the park’s golf course. A short walk through the trees were the 7^th hole fairway and the short par 3 8^th hole, whose tee shot was over a stream. We got a set of basic golf clubs the next Christmas, and I’ve been a duffer ever since.

            Also nearby was the Jackson Park Yacht Harbor, home of the Jackson Park Yacht Club on one side and the Coast Guard station on the other. This and the adjacent inner harbor were part of Olmstead’s original park design. For us, in addition to the neat boats moored there, there was the hulk of a replica Santa Maria, sailed from Spain with the Nina and Pinta as part of Spain’s exhibit at the 1893 fair. It sat near the club, and we managed to get aboard once, only to be chased off by a club employee! The club is still there, but the hulk is gone.

            Near the club house was and is the La Rabida Children’s Hospital. Although much expanded now, it was once housed in a replica of Spain’s La Rabida Convent, also built for the fair. We used to bring our used comic and other books there as donations. Although most of the patients were being treated for rheumatic fever, they also had polio patients. Some were in iron lungs. When I hear anti-vaxxers rail against vaccines, I wonder if they’ve ever seen pictures of a kid in one of them?

            Another favorite playground was the (now) Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. In those days, entry was free! Well, almost free – you did have to pay 10 cents to go down to the coal mine! It’s still there. And I think you did have to pay 5 cents to see a silent comedy in the Nickelodeon. I also remember a giant heart you could walk through; planes hanging from the ceiling; a huge model train layout (there’s a newer one now); and a Bell Telephone exhibit where you could see yourself on TV! Oh, and a lower level with wonderful ship models.

            Wooded Island is in the lagoon just south of the museum. As I recall, there were still some leftover ruins from  the fire; otherwise, the island was unkempt and unloved. Of course, we thought it was great. You could pretend you were in Sherwood Forest, a jungle, or the wild west. Kids made up their own games in those innocent days. In the winter, we prayed for snow! There were forts to be built and snowball battles to be fought!

            Now, thank goodness, the island has been transformed as a nature preserve, with native plants, flowers, and a Japanese garden. It’s a birder’s paradise, with approximately 250 species having been identified, both permanent residents and migraters in Spring and Fall. Paved paths circle the island, with other paths providing access to the interior. Unfortunately, the view from the island to the West has been marred by the construction of  the Obama Presidential Center, built in park land and whose tower I hereby christen “The Sore Thumb.”

            It’s an interesting comment on Chicago that former President Obama got his center on actual park land, and the Bears will likely not get their new stadium on what is now a parking lot. Go figure.

Copyright 2024, Patrick F. Cannon