Part 501: Thomas G. Moses and the Ravinia Park Theatre, 1905
In 1905, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Ravinia Park Theatre was done in February.” He was referring a new amusement park near Chicago, accessed by the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railroad. The park included a theater, pavilion, baseball diamond, electric fountain and casino building, complete with dining rooms and a dance floor. During the winter months, the baseball field was flooded and successfully transformed into an ice-skating rink, hosting many hockey games. Advertisements promised that the park was “equipped with every facility for attracting people of taste and fashion.” Other ads described Ravinia Park as “A place of entertainment for people of culture and refinement.”
In 1904, the A.C. Frost Company created Ravinia as a forty-acre amusement park located south of Highland Park. It was Partially created with the intent to lure riders to the fledgling Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railroad. The park opened during August 1904, but the theater that Moses provided scenery for was not completed until 1905; February 1905, as Moses indicates in his memoirs.
The Ravinia Theatre was built in the prairie-style. It is now the only building on the grounds that dates back to that original park. Later renamed the Martin Theatre, the venue is an 850-seat indoor hall originally planned for vaudeville, opera, and chamber music. 1905 Newspapers advertised that Ravinia Park Theater featured, “refined and high-class vaudeville,” every day except Sunday.
Unfortunately in 1907, the park was forced into receivership and changed hands. At the time, a group of Chicago and North Shore residents organized to raise the $15,000 needed to save it, fearing that it would be purchased by a cheap amusement company. However, in 1911, the park once again faced financial difficulty. This time residents were led by Frank R. McMullin of Highland Park, Illinois, to raise $75,000 for the purchase of the park. By June 21, 1911, the Ravinia Company was incorporated, with the park re-opening once again
Historic images of Ravinia Park were recently posted along with an article by Neil Gale, PhD, at the Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal blog: https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2018/08/ravinia-amusement-park-highland-park-illinois-1904-1910.html Gale’s article with images appeared on August 9, 2018.
Today, the Ravinia Park is the home for the Ravinia Music Festival, offering over 100 concerts each summer from jazz to classical to rock to kids concerts. The Ravinia Theater, now Martin Theater, is still in use.
To be continued…
