Lowell Park (Dixon, Illinois)
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Lowell Park | |
 Main entrance stone pillars at Lowell Park | |
   | |
| Location | 2114 Lowell Park Rd., Dixon, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 41°53′23″N 89°29′43″W / 41.88972°N 89.49528°W |
| Area | 200 acres (81 ha) |
| Built | 1907 |
| Architect | Ossian Cole Simonds |
| MPS | Dixon Parks MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 06000680[1] |
| Added to NRHP | August 8, 2006 |
Lowell Park is a 200-acre municipal park located along the Rock River in northern Dixon, Illinois. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) for its significance in American landscape design, specifically as an exemplar of the Prairie Style park movement.
The park's NRHP listing is attributed to Criterion C (Design/Construction) as the work of a master landscape architect, Ossian Cole Simonds.[2] Simonds' design emphasized the park's natural scenery by utilizing native plantings and respecting the existing hydrology and topography, establishing it as a "crown jewel" of the Dixon park system.[3]
The park land was originally acquired in 1906 when Carlotta Lowell donated the property to the City of Dixon to commemorate the lives of her parents, Charles Russell Lowell and Josephine Shaw Lowell. The donation stipulated the land be maintained as a naturalistic park for public use.[3] Although the land was given in 1906, the Dixon Park District itself was not officially established until 1934, following a public vote, at which point the city transferred control of the parks to the new district.
Initial planning for the site included consultation with some of the most prominent landscape designers of the time, including Arthur Coleman Comey and the Olmsted Brothers (the firm founded by the sons of Frederick Law Olmsted). However, the final, nationally significant design that guided the park's development through the mid-20th century was crafted by Ossian Cole Simonds, a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a major figure in the Prairie School movement.[2] Simonds' comprehensive plan for the park opened to the public in 1907, though the full extent of the design's vision, including shelters and roads, was not fully completed until 1942.[2] The park's purpose as a large-scale natural preserve served as a forerunner to the Illinois State Park system.
