History
Washington Park was platted in 1831 and created by the Illinois-Michigan Canal Commission when the "states addition" of Ottawa was laid out. This was part of the original plat for the city. The park is probably most famous as the site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate in 1858, but has served other civic functions through the years. In 1973 the park and surrounding area was designated a historic district by the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and several of the properties have local landmark designations as well. In 2002 a project to install Lincoln-Douglas debate statues was undertaken and completed.
Read more about this topic: Washington Park Historic District (Ottawa, Illinois)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.
In Beverly Hills ... they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows.
Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)
“It is my conviction that women are the natural orators of the race.”
—Eliza Archard Connor, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 9, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)