The Illinois Association of Park Districts at 75 years young: celebrating three-quarters of a century of citizen advocacy

Parks & Recreation, April, 2003 by Ted Flickinger, Ann Londrigan

It's so very American, our system of local government for parks and recreation. It's democratic and political; idealistic, yet held to task by hundreds of laws and policies; and driven by men and women who want to make things better for future generations.

Citizen advocates for parks, open space and recreation are central to the history of Illinois park districts and forest preserves. In Chicago in the 1850s, groups of residents campaigned for park development and against a growing lakeside cemetery to create Lake Park (now called Lincoln Park). These citizen groups started what has become one of the nation's best city wide public park systems. Downstate in Urbana, the initial drive to preserve green space was led by a man who purchased 39 acres of forestland to save the trees from a lumber mill. He opened the area for steamboat rides and picnicking. Renamed Crystal Lake Park, this became one of the first parcels of land donated to the Urbana Park District when it was established in 1902.

So it's no surprise that today's elected officials from park districts and forest preserves reflect the same spirit of grassroots activism regarding state and national issues. In fact, park officials from Cook County and other counties in the state discovered each other in the halls of the State Capitol in 1927, seeking legislation for their various and similar interests. There the idea to form a statewide organization started, but nothing formal was done until A.D. McLarty, secretary of the Illinois Municipal League, used a letter-writing campaign a year later to rally the cause for creating a statewide association for park officials.

The Illinois Association of Park Districts marks its 75th year in 2003, celebrating the power of citizen advocacy. Here's a look back at some of the milestones of the association and the efforts of its early leaders. Reading this retrospective, you'll discover, as we did, that some things never change. History does indeed repeats itself, and IAPD's core mission remains unchanged over time. We can be thankful for the tremendous work of the early leaders as we celebrate the power of citizen advocacy today.

1928

According to the 1929 president's address of Fred J. Bohn, IAPD's second president and a park official from Chicago's River Park District, the "progressive founders" of the Illinois Association of Park Districts met in the halls of the State Capitol in Springfield as early as 1927. Representatives from the Small Parks Association of Cook County, established in 1922, and park officials from other counties of the state were there seeking legislation to change several laws that affect park districts. (The law enabling creation of special districts called park districts became effective June 1, 1893.)

Bohn says that nothing formal was done, however, until the services of A.D. McLarty, secretary of the Illinois Municipal League, were secured to organize the association in 1928. The historian for the Illinois Municipal League paints the picture of McLarty as entrepreneurial in his interest to start a separate association for park districts. It was difficult to do business at the State Capitol, meeting with a legislator one day wearing a hat for city municipalities and the next wearing one for park district issues.

Regardless of motive, McLarty's efforts to create a statewide organization of park district officials met with great enthusiasm from leaders of Illinois park districts. McLarty sent a questionnaire to park district officials on March 9, 1928. A summary of results from these communications was published, and sent to park officials on March 30 of that year with an invitation to attend an organizational meeting May 17 and 18 in the Rose Room of the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. (The state's James R. Thompson Center now stands on the site of the Sherman Hotel, which was demolished in 1980.)

The resolution approved at this meeting called for formal creation of a "Parks Organization Section" of the Illinois Municipal League, with separate officers and committees. The association operated in this way for the first two years of its existence.

McLarty became the association's first secretary, and he served continuously in this capacity until July 1, 1943, when he resigned to enter the U.S. Navy during World War II. The association's first president, Dr. Joseph Cullen Blair, was head of the University of Illinois Department of Horticulture and president of the Urbana Park District. Blair also served as IAPD's treasurer from 1931 to 1955, and maintained a "fatherly interest" in the association throughout his lifetime.

The first annual conference of the newly organized statewide organization was held in Joliet and attended by 38 representatives from 16 park districts. According to a published report from the event, there was "open discussion on problems of park districts, which brought some interesting facts," plus "valuable time for park district officials to become better acquainted and address legislation." These components--education, networking, discussions among board members and legislative updates--remain mainstays of IAPD's annual conference.