One hundred years after Aaron Montgomery Ward won a 20-year court battle to keep Grant Park and our lakefront  “forever open, clear and free” of buildings, Friends of the Parks and the Park District had a park named in his honor.

On October 18^th, Friends of the Parks, Alderman Brendan Reilly, the Chicago Park District, North River Residents Association and Fulton River Neighbors celebrated the naming of Park 511, 630 N. Kingsburg, the A. Montgomery Ward Park.

A. Montgomery Ward singlehandedly fought to keep Grant Park and our lakefront “forever open, free and clear” for the people of Chicago.  From 1890 to 1911 Ward filed four separate lawsuits against the City of Chicago to prevent the construction of municipal structures; a city hall, a post office, a police station, a power house and stables for Streets and Sanitation all proposed by the city for Grant Park.  City politicians at the time saw Grant Park as “free land” for municipal buildings.

But Ward was aware of an 1836 map on which the Illinois Canal Commissioners had labeled the area east of Michigan Avenue and south of Randolph Street “Public Ground-Forever Open, Clear and Free of any Buildings, or Other Obstruction Whatever”.   Telling his attorney, “This is a damned shame!  Go and do something about it”, Ward began a 20-year battle against the city to end the disgusting conditions of Chicago’s nascent lakefront park.

In his lifetime Ward was labeled an intractable obstructionist by the politicians and by the media.  But he continued the fight using his private fortune to pay the legal fees all the way through the appeals process to the Illinois Supreme Court.  The Illinois Supreme Court ruled in Ward’s favor in 1911.  The Supreme Court rulings, known as the Ward Court Decisions, have served to protect Grant Park and the lakefront for future generations.  Ward died two years after the landmark court rulings vilified by city leaders and his corporate colleagues.  After his death, his memory was silenced and no park was honored with his name.

In 2010, FOTP petitioned the Chicago Park District to name a new park, Park 511, in his memory.  The park is located in the shadow of Montgomery Ward’s catalogue corporate warehouse south of Chicago Avenue on the east shore of the Chicago River.

The naming commemoration was a long time coming.  The community, Friends of the Parks, Alderman Brendan Reilly and the Chicago Park District were pleased to finally celebrate the vision and accomplishment of a great city leader who saved Chicago’s lakefront.