Humboldt Park began life as North Park in the 1860s on Chicago's Northwest Side as a tract of relatively flat land, with little local relief. In the 1870s William Le Baron Jenney crafted a landscape plan, adding several lagoons and formal plazas. Oscar F. Dubuis followed this approach in the 1880s and 1890s. Landscape architect Jens Jensen added a formal rose garden and modified the lagoon in the western part of Humboldt Park to more closely resemble a river running through a tranquil prairie. In 1907 a boat landing and pavilion were added to the park, along with a music court for band concerts in 1913. Humboldt Park was transformed from an undistinguished marshy area into one where nearby residents could find a few minutes of respite amid the drudgery of the industrial metropolis.

Max Grinnell