Chicago’s lakefront is lined with thousands of stone carvings, created by mostly anonymous makers over the course of the 20th century. One of its most carving-rich areas is also its most endangered.
Hundreds, probably thousands, of carvings have been lost over the last 20 years as the city, in cooperation with the Army Corps of Engineers, has reconstructed its shoreline to prevent erosion and flooding. This has meant removal of limestone blocks once used to armor the shore — and thus also the carvings made on many of those same blocks.
Now the city is moving ahead with plans to rebuild additional sections of the Hyde Park lakefront.
Unless the Hyde Park carvings gain a much higher profile, they are likely to disappear just like the others. These carvings represent a significant and irreplaceable cultural resource and ought to be treated as such. That means identifying them in the planning process and taking steps to preserve and, if necessary, relocate them in the reconstruction.
Read my comments for the Army Corps of Engineers Chicago Coastal Storm Risk Management study.
Click the images below to the see the carvings and read more about the situations at Morgan Shoal (left) and Promontory Point (right). In addition to these two sites, there is an aggregation of important carvings behind La Rabida Children’s Hospital that is also at risk since current plans call for major improvements to the lakefront at that location as well.
There is much more information about the carvings, and more than 200 images, in my book Lakefront Anonymous: Chicago’s Unknown Art Gallery. Click to order a copy.
When were the carvings made? Here are two galleries of Hyde Park rock carvings that include dates.
For more information on the situation at Promontory Point, please visit the Promontory Point Conservancy.
You also can read these recent pieces from the Chicago Sun-Times, Block Club Chicago and the Hyde Park Herald.