The motto of the city is “urbs in horto,” meaning “city in a garden.” What is your philosophy?
Everyone is entitled to a home where the sun, the stars, open fields, giant trees, smiling flowers are free to teach an undisturbed lesson of life. To my notion, there should be a park area within walking distance of every city resident.
What’s your background?
I came to Chicago from Denmark in 1884. I began my career working as a laborer for the West Side Parks Commission and a few years later transplanted plants from the prairie to create my first work, the American Garden in Union Park on the near West Side. I was appointed superintendent of the 200-acre Humboldt Park in 1895. But the commission was entrenched in corruption. I refused to participate in political graft. I am an artist, not a politician. I was ousted in 1900.
What have you been doing since?
I have designed several estates on the North Shore and in Lake Geneva. I have also made many excursions into the countryside, where I studied and photographed natural scenes and flora. As well, I have become involved in several organizations devoted to improving the city and conserving natural areas.
Your work seems greatly influenced by the prairie.
I see the prairie as a great force . . . far deeper, far more powerful than anything I have experienced before in the great outdoors.
What does the future hold for you?
I want to work for the parks again, designing new parks and redesigning older ones, such as Garfield and Columbus parks. I also want to create a forest preserve district, a belt of natural parks and forests ringing the city that would preserve the natural environment. It seems a pity, rather than a stupidity, that sections of this marvelous landscape have not been set aside for future generations to study and to love–a sea of flowers in all colors of the rainbow.
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UPDATES AND DETAILS
The rest of the story
In order to put together this issue of the magazine, certain liberties had to be taken. A few of the photographs, for instance, are not precisely from 1904 but are of that era. The stories have been reconstructed from various sources, including histories, biographies and Tribune files.
Page 8: Jens Jensen returned to the Park District in 1905 and over the next decades was responsible for designing and redesigning dozens of parks, perhaps most stunningly Columbus Park.
