Chicago’s lakefront is lined with thousands of vernacular stone carvings, created by mostly anonymous makers over the course of the 20th century. This gallery of contemporary rock art is unique in the world but also endangered, including some of its most carving-rich areas.
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 protect against erosion and flooding. This has meant removal of the 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 top of mind for preservation.
That means identifying them in lakefront planning processes and taking steps to protect and, if necessary, relocate them in any reconstruction. It also should include steps to protect them from the lake’s pounding as part of routine maintenance, major projects aside.
Click below to the see the carvings and read more about the situations at Morgan Shoal (left) and Promontory Point (center). In addition to these two sites, there is an aggregation of important carvings behind La Rabida Children’s Hospital (right) that under the lake’s onslaught has dramatically deteriorated just in the last three years, with some carvings already lost. This site is at further risk since current plans call for major improvements to the lakefront here once the Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point work is complete.
There is much more information about the carvings, and more than 200 images, in my book Lakefront Anonymous: Chicago’s Unknown Art Gallery. Click here to order a copy. You can also read and see more online here.
For more information on the situation at Promontory Point, please visit the Promontory Point Conservancy.
You also can read these articles from Block Club Chicago and the Hyde Park Herald or enjoy this interview with me and Channel 32 Chicago’s Sylvia Perez.