Lincoln Park Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Lincoln Park began as a small public cemetery on the north side of Chicago. Victims of cholera and small pox were buried in shallow lakeside graveson the land which now represents this zoo. Citizens began demanding that the cemetery be converted to parkland in the mid 1850’s. In compliance, the city reserved a 60-acre section of the cemetery as Lake Park.
After Abraham Lincoln death, the park was renamed in his honor. The city allocated $10,000 for improvements to help implemented the park’s first plan. A donation of swans from New York’s Central Park marked the beginnings of the Lincoln Park Zoo. Sone after, Chicago citizens argued for the removal of the remaining burial ground. This contributed to a larger parks movement, and in 1869, the state legislature created three park districts: the South, West, and Lincoln Park Commissions, each responsible for the parks and boulevards in its region.
Under the direction of the Lincoln Park Commission, bodies were exhumed and relocated to other cemeteries, and the park was expanded south to North Avenue and north to Diversey Parkway. Severe winter storms in 1885 resulted in the construction of a breakwater system which included the first of many landfill projects extending Lincoln Park’s boundaries.
