Bowen Park is a recreational area in

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, along

Sheridan Road Sheridan Road is a major north-south street that leads from Diversey Parkway in Chicago, Illinois, north to the Illinois-Wisconsin border and beyond to Racine. Throughout most of its run, it is the easternmost north-south through street, closest ...

. It includes an old-growth forest and a ravine. The park was laid out as a residential property in 1843. It was the home of John Charles Haines, a prominent Illinois politician, from 1857 to 1896. In 1911, the Hull House Association renamed it the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club and began using the property as a summer retreat. The land was purchased by the Waukegan Park District in 1963.

History

In 1843, politician James Montgomery built a house on a lot of land near present-day

, then known as Little Fort. At some point, the property was transferred to William Fay. In 1857, Fay sold the property to John Charles Haines, who used it as a summer residence. A member of the

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City Council, Haines was elected Mayor of Chicago the next year. He served two one-year terms and remained active in Illinois politics for the rest of his life, including a stint in the Illinois Senate. Haines built an addition to the house in the early 1870s. He died there on July 4, 1896. In 1909, the property was purchased by Fred W. Buck, the mayor of Waukegan, who intended to deed it to the city of Waukegan as a park. However, the city rejected the offering because it was too far from downtown.Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
/ref> The property was unused for two years. In 1911,

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860 May 21, 1935) was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, and author. She was an important leader in the history of social work and women's suffrage ...

started to look for a new summer camp for the children of

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of the city, Hull House (named after the original house's first owner Cha ...

, a settlement house in Chicago. Addams had previously rented land in

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, but these campgrounds suffered from bad weather and a lack of maintenance. A realtor provided Addams with a list of three hundred potential camp properties, so she went on a trip with fellow Hull House administrator Louise DeKoven Bowen to visit sixty-seven candidates. Addams and Bowen purchased the land from Buck on December 11 after seeing the site. They renamed the land the Joseph Tilton Bowen Country Club after Bowen's recently deceased husband. When the club opened the next year, Bowen had her personal gardener plan a formal gardens, baseball field, vegetable garden, orchard, tennis courts, playground, and

croquet Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Its international governing body is the W ...

club. During the summer, Hull House children attended for two weeks, typically if they were involved in other Hull House activities. Children were asked to pay a nominal fee to help maintain the property and to give them a sense of responsibility. The

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...

provided free transportation for the children throughout the club's history. Over 40,000 children attended the Bowen Country Club from 1912 to 1963. During the off-season, the club was used for conferences and other private uses. In 1963, the Hull House Association sold the club to the Waukegan Park District for $360,000; the associated had found a new camp in

East Troy, Wisconsin East Troy is a village in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,687 at the 2020 census. The village is located southwest of the Town of East Troy. A small portion extends into the adjacent Town of Troy. Geography Eas ...

. A ground formed from the Waukegan Area Council of Church, Waukegan Area of the Lake County Welfare Council, and some other local churches were granted a license to use the park for $1,200 per year. The council was dissolved four years later and the Waukegan Park District assumed full operation of the property. In 1987, the park district completed the Jack Benny Center for the Arts, for the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra and Concert Chorus and the Bowen Park Theatre and Opera Company.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1843 establishments in Illinois Houses completed in 1843 National Register of Historic Places in Lake County, Illinois Protected areas of Lake County, Illinois Settlement houses in the United States Waukegan, Illinois