We have been asked to advise you what space could be made available for the buildings of a World’s Fair in Jackson Park, without interference with the improvements which have already been made therein, for park purposes or loss of opportunity for carrying out of the complete design which has been had in view for the park?

The site of Jackson Park is swampy: the surface of the larger part of it being not materially above the surface of the water in the Lake {at high} stages. Of late years the {lake has been encroaching} upon the land, and the shore having been cut out in places to a depth of 400 feet. A plan for resisting this encroachment has been adopted, of which the essential feature is an embankment the sloping face of which toward the Lake is paved with granite blocks. There are two openings through this embankment through which water is to flow between the Lake and the swamps. To guard against bars forming at the mouths of these passages, in each case a pier is to be built out into the Lake. The embankment is to be made broad enough to carry a wheelway and a walk on its level top which together will be 80 feet wide. The park on the land side of the {embankment} is to be formed by dredging portions of the swamp and using the dredged material for elevating the surface of that portion left undredged. The dredged channels are to be winding, and an effect of intricacy is to {be} produced by numerous bays, points and islands; these to be so planted that the play of light and shadow in, under and between the bodies of foliage aided by reflections, from the water would give the charms of landscape mystery in an unusual degree.

The primary and more costly operations required for carrying out this plan are all in progress; that is to say the embankment, with its paved slope, wheelway and walk is partially constructed; a dredge with scows and a portable railway is at work, and has already opened a channel three quarters of a mile in length, which, however, is as yet without the intended points, bays and islands formed along its shores. But the material thus far obtained by dredging has thus far been used for the {embankment} and not for elevating the undredged ground. If this work were pushed as it might be, the levee with its road and its paved slope toward the Lake, could be made complete before the winter of 1891. During the same period, an interior waterway could be completed two miles and half in length and, on an average, 200 feet broad. This channel would be nearly all within the lines of the ground intended to be excavated for [171]park purposes, it would involve some very slight modifications of the plan but none not perfectly reconcilable with the spirit and motive of the design of the park. To carry out this design it would be only necessary after the close of the Fair to continue the work of dredging along the shores to obtain the desired intricacy of outline.

For convenience of statement we shall, in this report, refer to the embankment on the Lake Shore as the “Levee,” and to the interior water system as the “Bayou,” these {terms} giving a fair idea to those who are familiar with the region about New Orleans, of the essential character of the features in question.

The work thus contemplated having been done according to the plan of the South Park Commission, there would be found at Jackson Park an elevated esplanade nearly a mile and a half in length, along the shore of the Lake, this being the Levee, and nearly parallel with it a Bayou broad enough and deep enough for navigation by small boats entering from the Lake. Between the two waters there would be two bodies of land, divided by the outlet of the Bayou, upon which buildings for the Fair could stand. The distance between the Bayou and the Levee would generally be a little more than a thousand feet, and the entire area available for building sites would be 112 acres.

Referring to the accompanying design a more particular statement can be made as follows:-

On the island west of the building sites thus provided there is a grove of oak trees, most of which it would be desirable to retain. Scattered among them from 20 to 30 small buildings of an average floor space of 60 × 100 could be placed. This would be equivalent to additional building of an area of 30 acres. Thus the total gross area for building would be 142 acres. Taking out required interspaces and decorative margins, it may be assumed that buildings could be placed on Jackson Park with a ground floor space of 122 acres.

Assuming that all the Fair buildings to stand on this ground would be removed at the close of the Fair, the temporary use thus to be made of the Park territory would not interfere {thereafter} with carrying out of the original design of the Park.

It is to be expected that the South Park Commission would pay for the work to be done during the next year in order to accomplish what has been above proposed in the construction of the Embankment and the dredging of the channels. {The cost to that Commission of doing the work is estimated by Mr. Foster, the Engineer of the Commission, as follows:-}

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First Sketch of Design of Jackson Park for World’s Columbian Exposition, with the notation “Olmsted’s Map of Aug 12th 1890”

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The building sites provided for in this scheme would be adapted only for such buildings as would be removed after the Exposition. They would be suitable for halls for machinery, for railroad and electric and mining exhibits and for such objects are included in what is generally called the Main Exhibition building. They would be suitable for an Agricultural Hall, but not, in our opinion for an exhibition of live stock or for exhibitions of agricultural implements in operation or many other matters in the field of Agriculture.

{Respectfully submitted,