Going Green

The Board of South Park Commissioners convenes in its rooms on LaSalle Street.  On the agenda are the expansion and improvement of the land for what would become Washington and Jackson parks.  Chief Engineer George W. White advises cutting a drainage ditch into the future Washington Park that will connect with ditches in the town of Hyde Park that run into the Calumet River and Lake Michigan.  At their meeting the previous Thursday the West Park Commissioners adopt a resolution creating a committee of three to confer with the South Park Commissioners on where to locate the boulevard that will link their two systems.  The West Park Commissioners also learn that in the previous month over $5,000 apiece was spent to develop Humboldt, Central (now Garfield), and Douglas parks, and that substantial contracts are out for additional trees and shrubbery.  The board empowers its president to issue certificates of indebtedness to property owners who have spent their own money  to landscape boulevards near their homes.