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Midway Gardens (opened in 1914, demolished in 1929) was a 360,000 square feet indoor/outdoor entertainment facility in the Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. It was designed by architect
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
, who also collaborated with sculptors Richard Bock and Alfonso Iannelli on the famous "sprite" sculptures decorating the facility. Designed to be a European–style concert garden with space for year-round dining, drinking, and performances, Midway Gardens hosted popular performers and entertainers but struggled financially and the structure was torn down in October 1929.


History

Midway Gardens was opened on the site of the former Sans Souci amusement park on the southwest corner of Cottage Grove Avenue and East 60th Street. Edward C. Waller Jr. commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build the Gardens in 1914 (Waller's father, Edward Waller Sr., had commissioned an apartment building from Wright, the Waller Apartments). Construction was completed very quickly,Cashman, Sean Dennis (1988)
''America in the Age of the Titans: The Progressive Era and World War I''
pp. 367-68. New York University Press.
and the Gardens opened in June, 1914.Sengstock, Charles A. (2004)
''That Toddlin' Town: Chicago's White Dance Bands and Orchestras, 1900-1950''
pp. 56-58. University of Illinois Press.
Although at first business was strong, Waller never had enough funds to back the construction and upkeep of Midway Gardens and declared bankruptcy in March 1916.Sebesta, Judith A. "Spectacular Failure: Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Gardens and Chicago Entertainment." ''Theatre Journal'', Vol. 53, No. 2, May 2001, pp. 304–07. At this point, Midway Gardens was purchased by the Schoenhofen Brewing Company and renamed "Edelweiss Gardens" (after the brewery's main beer brand). Wright, who generally exerted strong creative control over his completed projects, was disgusted by the aesthetic changes the new owner made to the Gardens. He wrote that Edelweiss had added "obnoxious features" and that the whole effect of "the proud Midway Gardens" "was cheapened to suit a hearty bourgeois taste". Edelweiss Gardens continued through the war years (closing briefly in 1918) and stayed open as a dry establishment during
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
. In 1921, the building was sold once more, to the E. C. Dietrich Midway Automobile Tire and Supply Company, and renamed "The Midway Dancing Gardens". Finally, in October 1929, Midway Gardens was closed permanently and demolished. A testament to Wright's design, the building was so solidly constructed that tearing it down sent the wrecking company into bankruptcy.


Features and entertainment

Midway Gardens was an indoor/outdoor entertainment center intended to act as a
beer hall A beer hall or beer palace () refers to a type of establishment that gained significant popularity in the 19th century, particularly across Central Europe. These venues were pivotal to the social and cultural life of cities renowned for their bre ...
and
concert A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...
/
dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...
which featured bands including the Midway Gardens Orchestra. The large area (equivalent to a city block) offered entertainment to a wide variety of people in a German-style meeting place. The Gardens included restaurants, saloons, newspaper and cigar stands, and arcades. When Prohibition was passed, the Gardens lost part of their entertainment value. When it opened, Midway Gardens was an upscale entertainment venue that was also affordable to the common person. Max Bendix and the National Symphony Orchestra frequented the concert section because they were the "house band". The ballet dancer
Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...
performed numerous times as well. Frank Lloyd Wright brought in popular acts to sing, dance, and play music, which created a bourgeois environment. After it became Edelweiss Gardens, however, the high class atmosphere switched to one of vaudeville, ragtime, and cabaret. In the early 1920s, a young clarinetist
Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...
played in the house band.


Design

The
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
architecture of the Gardens was based on strict geometrical forms. A large, open–air central area, filled with tables and chairs, was ringed by a series of three–story buildings with indoor spaces for dancing and other activities, as well as
cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...
ed balconies with overhanging roofs. There were terraced gardens, pools, and a music pavilion and stage. The building itself was made of yellow brick and patterned concrete block. It featured highly intricate ornament and many geometric sculptures, which Frank Lloyd Wright named "sprites" and were co-designed with Alfonso Ianelli. Some of these sculptures escaped demolition and can be found elsewhere. In keeping with Wright's style, the building also featured rows of art glass and hidden entries. The interior was likewise intricately ornamented and filled with Wright-designed furniture and accoutrements, right down to the napkin rings.


See also

* List of Frank Lloyd Wright works


References

* (S.180)


External links


Archival Photographs of Midway gardens from the University of Chicago
{{Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings and structures demolished in 1929 Frank Lloyd Wright buildings Buildings and structures in Chicago Demolished buildings and structures in Chicago