Sunday, January 26, 2025 @2:00pm–3:30pm
by Julia Bachrach, Landscape Historian and Author
at Wilmette Historical Museum (609 Ridge Road)
— Admission is free
You are invited to hear Julia Bachrach’s oral history of Gillson Park and our very own Wilmette Harbor.
Learn about how Gillson Park is actually a byproduct of the North Shore Sanitation Canal — a major engineering project undertaken to improve the safety and water quality of Chicagoan’s drinking water. You will hear how Gillson Park and Wilmette Harbor were transformed from mounds of hard clay into our beautifully landscaped lakefront and an ideal mooring location for boaters and sailors. As you may know Julia was instrumental in helping Wilmette Harbor being included in the National Registry of Historic Places this past summer.
Please note the lecture is at the Wilmette Historical Museum rather than the harbor clubhouse. We hope you can join Julia and fellow harbor members for this extremely interesting presentation.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Julia Bachrach, landscape historian and author of The City in a Garden: A History of Chicago’s Parks, successfully nominated Gillson Park and Wilmette Harbor to the National Register of Historic Places. A consulting architectural and landscape historian, she works on preservation projects throughout the Midwest is also a part-time instructor at the University of Chicago.