“Promontory Point, a 40-acre bulb poking eastward into Lake Michigan at 55th Street, is a deliberately picturesque piece of the south lakefront. A peninsula where no cars can go, it feels like a self-contained sanctuary. There’s the red-roofed tower of the stone fieldhouse, the many mature green trees that encircle a big meadow and the stairstep stone revetments that wrap the outer edge of the peninsula.
“It’s easy to see why this beautiful spot has been the scene of many weddings, including one in 2013 where the Hollywood genius behind ‘Star Wars,’ George Lucas, married Chicago financial executive Mellody Hobson. Why in the early 1970s bongo-playing crowds of as many as 600 people would gather here. And why in the early years of the Chicago Marathon this was the halfway point, where runners turned around and headed back north.
“It’s also, at the moment, the most threatened of the south lakefront landmarks WBEZ’s ‘In the Loop’ has toured this summer. A meeting scheduled for July 27 will be the latest front in a battle over the future of the revetments that has been going on for a quarter of a century.
“On one side stand the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Chicago Park District and other government bodies that want to replace the stair-stepping stone revetments that date to the 1930s origin of Promontory Point with concrete, like what is now on most of Chicago’s shoreline. On the other are neighborhood residents and preservationists who say those stones are an integral part of the character and history of this artificial peninsula.
“Progress went in fits and starts over the next two decades, but between 1932 and 1938, the federal Works Progress Administration allocated at least three-quarters of a million dollars — about $18 million in 2026 dollars — for development of what was then called the 55th Street Promontory.
“The fieldhouse, a stone fantasy with a little Juliet balcony over carved wood doors and a sailing ship weathervane flying above the conical tower, is the work of Emanuel Buchsbaum. A park district employee for decades, Buchsbaum was a shape-shifter. He designed this French-inspired fieldhouse, one at North Avenue that looks like a steamship, a classical revival design for Foster Park in Auburn-Gresham and a flat-roofed modernist one in Horner Park in Irving Park.
“Complementing the building is the landscape, a Prairie Style naturalistic layout designed in the 1930s by Alfred Caldwell and revitalized half a century later with help from the very same man.
“Surrounding these elements is the limestone riprap that breaks the waves and provides places for people to sit or launch out into the water for a swim. That’s the part of Promontory Point that has been embattled for most of the present century.
“Even Barack Obama has been involved in this fight. In 2005, when the future president was a U.S. senator living nearby, he sent an aide to a meeting about the project to say ‘historic preservation should be the underlying principle’ of any revetment work there.
“The group Spicer and his wife, Debra Hammond, are part of has held firm, with ample community support, that the limestone is a fundamental piece of the Promontory Point aesthetic. They’ve commissioned studies that show keeping and repairing the limestone can be done for less money and more quickly than building a concrete rim around the peninsula.
“The latest plan by the US Army Corps of Engineers is to close Promontory Point for three to five years beginning in 2027 and replace the limestone with concrete.
“The Promontory Point Conservancy shared with WBEZ results of a poll that shows more than 95% of the 700 people surveyed at the point ‘reported that they would face hardship if [the point] were to be closed for three to five years.’
“Hard as it is to imagine being without this verdant place for so long, it’s even harder to fathom returning to find the whole thing rimmed with concrete instead of the stones that have been there for nine decades.” (Rodkin, Simons, Greaves and Schwabe, WBEZ, 7/27/26)
“‘It’s a Chicago treasure,’ says Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, who grew up wading in the lake, jumping on the limestone, and lounging in the sun with his dog. ‘It’s one of the last vestiges of stonework and easy access into the water. I think it’s kind of legendary.’” (Lane, Chicago Reader, 3/20/24)
Preservation Chicago applauds the Promontory Point Conservancy for their dedicated advocacy effort to “Save the Point.” Preservation Chicago worked closely with the Promontory Point Conservancy to designated Promontory Point as a Chicago Landmark. We remain strongly engaged to ensure a good outcome.
- What’s That Building? Promontory Point; This 40-acre, car-free peninsula feels like a self-contained sanctuary on the South Side, Dennis Rodkin, Sasha-Ann Simons, Cianna Greaves and Ethan Schwabe, WBEZ, 7/27/26
- Promontory Point’s limestone revetments, Lane, Chicago Reader, 3/20/24
- Promontory Point Landmark Recommendation Report; Commission on Chicago Landmarks, City of Chicago
- Promontory Point Conservancy