On May 12, 2015, Barack and Michelle Obama announced that Chicago will be the site of the Obama Presidential Library. Anticipating this development, the University of Chicago, as early as January 6, 2015, began to make arrangements to use its adjacent public parkland should Chicago be awarded the commission. The two parks near the University—Jackson Park, located to the east and south of the campus, and Washington Park, on its west border—are no ordinary pieces of greenery. These two parks, which were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, have a significant history and invaluable function in the south side of Chicago. Whether they choose Jackson Park or Washington Park, plans to build the Obama Library on top of these National Register parks would erase significant segments of them. This threat, aided by likely corruption, will deprive Chicago of significant green spaces and rob the public of access to parts of living works of art.

The history of these parks is the history of Chicago itself. In 1853 Paul Cornell, a real estate developer, purchased 300 acres of land with the idea of attracting businessmen and their families to live seven miles south of the growing city of Chicago. Sandy ridges, lagoons, and non-verdant land surrounded the area that defined these southern shores of Lake Michigan. Cornell’s newly developed village of Hyde Park quickly became a thriving suburb. And in 1871, the village formed The South Park Commission and hired Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of parks (including