63rd Street Bathing Pavilion
- Architect
- South Park Commission Architects
- Year
- 1919
- City
- Chicago, IL
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Built in 1919 by the South Park Commission's in-house architects, the 63rd Street Bathing Pavilion at Jackson Park's 63rd Street Beach is Chicago's oldest beach house. The long, low structure was raised to give lakefront swimmers a proper bathhouse, and its Classical design echoes the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on December 8, 2004.
the building
Scale on the sand. The pavilion stretches 460 feet long and 145 feet wide, with its four corners rising into square towers. The roofs are covered in green tiles that replicate the building's original roofing material.
Borrowed from the White City. The Classical design draws on the 'White City' buildings Daniel H. Burnham planned for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Long horizontal proportions, square towers, and wide, projecting eaves also hint at the emerging Prairie style.
the style
Largely Classical in design, the pavilion takes its cues from the White City buildings Daniel H. Burnham planned for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. But it isn't purely revivalist — the long horizontal proportions, square corner towers, and wide, overhanging eaves are the Prairie style creeping into a beach house.
the architect
The building carries no individual architect's name. It was designed in-house by staff architects at Chicago's South Park Commission, the body established in 1869 to lay out and oversee the boulevards and parks of the city's South Side, including Jackson Park itself.
significance
It is Chicago's oldest surviving beach house and was designated a Chicago Landmark on December 8, 2004.
nearby
- Shoreline Apartments
- Woman's Building
- Kenna Apartments
- Museum of Science and Industry
- Stony Island Trust and Savings Bank Building
- Promontory Apartments