Grant Park, Chicago

Grant Park is a public park, 319 acres located in Chicago’s central business district in the Loop Community area.  Grant Park’s most notable features include Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum Campus. Named for United States President and Civil War General, Ulysses S. Grant, Grant Park was developed as one of Chicago's first parks and expanded through land reclamation. The park was the focus of several disputes in the late 1800s and early 1900s over open space use. It is bordered on the north by Randolph Street, on the south by Roosevelt Road, on the west by Michigan Avenue and on the east by Lake Michigan. The park contains performance venues, gardens, art work, sporting, and harbor facilities.
A city centerpiece much like New York’s Central Park, the site of three world-class museums -- the Art Institute, the Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium-- the park includes the museum campus, a 1995 transformation of paved areas into beautiful contiguous greenspace. Grant Park's centerpiece is the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain, built in 1927 to provide a monumental focal point while protecting the park's breathtaking lakefront views. The park also contains baseball diamonds, tennis courts and plays host some the city's largest food and music festivals.