Wicker Park
Triangular Victorian-era green with a fountain basin that has cycled between lake, lawn, and children's spray pool.
This guide to Wicker Park in Chicago follows the small triangular fountain at its center through more than a century of disagreement over what water should do there, starting with the fenced-off lawn brothers Charles and Joel Wicker gave the city in 1870 to keep grazing cows out. It traces the ornamental lake the city dug and later drained, the gargoyle-faced cast-iron fountain the J. L. Mott Ironworks built in 1895, and the landscape architect Jens Jensen who decided the neighborhood needed splashing children more than Victorian ornament. Listen for the fountain's water as you take in how many different things this one spot has been.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.