Chicago Landmarks
 

Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

Lily pool, photo by Nancy Hanks, 2002     Address: At the north end of Lincoln Park Zoo at Fullerton Parkway
Year Built: 1936 - 1938
Architect: Alfred Caldwell
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: November 6, 2002

Pavilion, photo by Nancy Hanks, 2002 Considered one of the most important historic landscapes in Chicago, this "hidden garden" in Lincoln Park was designed by noted landscape architect Alfred Caldwell in the Prairie School style inspired by Jens Jensen and Frank Lloyd Wright. Like its architectural counterpart, the intent of the Prairie School tradition of landscape architecture was to help build an appreciation for the beauty of the natural landscape. Caldwell's design draws from an extensive plant palette native to the Midwest landscape and uses stone outcroppings, a pavilion, waterfall and other features arranged around a lily pool to create a "prairie stream," a body of water meant to replicate a creek running through a Midwestern prairie.