Paul Cornell (Chicago)
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This article is about the lawyer and real estate speculator Paul Cornell see Paul Cornell for the British writer,.
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Paul Cornell (1822-1904) was a New York Lawyer and visionary Chicago real estate speculator who is the founder of Hyde Park on the south side of Chicago.
[edit] Hyde Park
He was from a very distinguished New England family. He moved to Chicago in 1847. In 1853, on the advice of Senator Stephen Douglas he bought 300 acres of Hyde Park property between 51st Street and 55th Street as a speculative investment. The Hyde Park community was 7 miles south of the mouth of the Chicago River and 6 miles south of downtown Chicago. In the 1850s Chicago was still a walkable urban area well contained within a 2 mile radius of the center. In 1856 Paul Cornell essentially invented the Chicago railroad suburb. In an effort to improve his land value, he deeded 60 acres to the Illinois Central Railroad in exchange for a train station and a commitment of 12 daily trips to Chicago’s Central Depot. He then marketed the neighborhood to wealthy Chicagoans as a resort area.
At about the same time he built the Hyde Park House a 4 story hotel at 53rd Street and Lake Michigan.[2] The hotel became the focal point of the community and drew affluent guests with leisure time and discretionary income. This site is now occupied by the Hampton House
Paul Cornell specifically forbade heavy industry development in Hyde Park. This philosophy later became a part of the Burnham Plan. He maintained the character of Hyde Park, which was intended to be an elite suburb bordering Chicago, by selling only large lots that the affluent could afford. The neighborhood flourished for the next two generations.
In 1889, the entire Hyde Park township (the area south of 39th Street, north of 138th Street, and east of State Street)[1], which had quintupled in population from a 1880 population of 15,716 to a 1889 population of 85,000[3], voted for annexation to the City of Chicago.
He planned and advocated a town with a lakefront park, a Plaisance, an adjoining park and boulevards shaped the town. His plan for a cornerstone institution to rival Evanston's Northwestern University was at first thwarted by the decision to establish a theological seminary on the North Side. However, his vision for a cornerstone institution to complete the implementation of his plan arrived with the University of Chicago that resulted from the philanthropy of John D. Rockefeller and Marshall Field in 1890.
Hyde Park maintained it social status as a community by enforcing racially restricted covenants to the exclusion of African-American residents. This guideline remained in force for nearly 100 hundred years until struck down by the United States Supreme Court.
[edit] Grand Crossing
Paul Cornell also purchased the swampland and prarie 8 miles South of the Loop at the intersection of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad and the Illinois Central Railroad at a location that now is 75th Street and South Chicago Avenue in 1855. He subdivided parcels for sale through the 1870s. The area, which was first named Cornell, became Grand Crossing.
[edit] Chatham
Paul Cornell established the Cornell Watch Factory at 76th and the Illinois Central tracks in 1876 in the Chatham Community.
[edit] Oak Woods Cemetary
He served as secrtary for a group of Chicagoans who purchased 167 acres in 1853 to create Oak Woods Cemetery.
[edit] Civic Leadership
Cornell is considered the "father of the South Parks System" for his efforts after the Civil War to create a parks system south of Chicago. Repeated attempts eventually got a plan through the Illinois General Assembly.[4] Today, Jackson Park, Washington Park and Harold Washington Park stand as a testement to his efforts. Cornell served on the South Parks Commission, which regulated parks South of the City. As a civic leader he along with his peer William Le Baron Jenney, the West Parks commissioner, commissioned urban landscape designers such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Calver Vaux, Ossian Simonds, H. W. S. Cleveland, and Jens Jensen to create landscaped cemeteries, to implement a coordinated parks and boulevard system and to design the railroad-served suburbs to complement urban civilization.
[edit] Family
He was a cousin to Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. He was married to the sister-in-law of John Evans. Evanston, IL was named after him. He had many strong local connections being related to founders of Northwestern University (Evans and Orrington Lunt) and to George Kimbark of Riverside Improvement Company fame.[5] His brother-in-law Kimbark, purchased the area between 51st and 55th and Dorchester and Woodlawn to the west of Cornell's purchase. Cornell later purchased this as well as other land's purchased by his Uncle, Hassan A. Hopkins, to add to Hyde Park.
[edit] Trivia
- Harold Washington Park was at one time referred to as Cornell Park.
- Cornell Drive was presumably named after him.
[edit] Sources
- Eds. Grossman, James R., Keating, Ann Durkin, and Reiff, Janice L., 2004 The Encyclopedia of Chicago, The University of Chicago Press
- Grinnell, Max, Images of America: Hyde Park, Illinois, 2001 Arcadia Publishing
- Keeting, Ann Durkin, Chicagoland, 2005 University of Chicago Press
- Block, Jean R. Hyde Park Houses, 1978 University of Chicago Press
- Pacyga, Dominic A. and Ellen Skerrett, Chicago: City of Neighborhoods, 1986 Loyola University Press
