Northerly Island - History

History

The idea for Northerly Island began with Daniel Burnham’s “Plan of Chicago” which called for the creation of Northerly Island as a lakefront park at the northern end of a five-island chain between Jackson Park and 12th Street, the only lakefront structure to be built based on Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. In the image to the upper right, Northerly Island forms the southern border of Chicago Harbor (now Monroe Harbor). As indicated by the color green on the original plan, the island was to be populated by trees and grass for the public enjoyment. Work on the island began in 1920 when Chicago voters approved a $20 million bond issue to create Northerly Island, with construction completed by 1925.

A short time later in 1930 Adler Planetarium was built, and in 1933-34 the island was at the center of festivities at the “Century of Progress” World’s Fair. Local publishing mogul Merrill C. Meigs first recommended converting Northerly Island into an airport in 1935, but construction did not begin until after Chicago lost a bid to site the United Nations Headquarters on the island in 1946. The Works Progress Administration connected the island to the mainland via a causeway at 12th Street in 1938. During this period Northerly Island was full of paths and walkways as well as a beach at 12th Street.

Although Mayor Richard J. Daley unofficially proposed converting Meigs Field into a lakefront park, the airport's lease was not set to expire until 1996. His son, Mayor Richard M. Daley, who had pledged to keep the airport open until 2006, reneged and controversially tore up the runways at Meigs Field in the middle of the night, in 2003, purportedly in the name of Homeland security. Plans followed to convert the area into green space and expand upon the neighboring Museum Campus.