page_title: Northerly Island
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Northerly Island / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The&#160;Santa Maria&#160;over Lake Michigan in the summer of 1921
context_page_description: Northerly Island is a 91-acre man-made peninsula along Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive. This street is dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Tadeusz Kościuszko, Karel Havlíček Borovský and Copernicus. With the demolition of Meigs Field Airport, Northerly Island is now a part of the Museum Campus and has been converted into parkland. A semi-temporary concert venue, the Huntington Bank Pavilion, occupies part of the site of the former airport.
context_section_description: The idea for Northerly Island began with Daniel Burnham's "Plan of Chicago" which called for the creation of Northerly Island as a lakefront park at the northern end of a five-island chain between Jackson Park and 12th Street. It was the only lakefront structure to be built based on Burnham's 1909 Plan. Northerly Island forms the southern end of Chicago Harbor (now Monroe Harbor), and the eastern boundary of Burnham Harbor. As indicated by the color green on the original plan, the island was to be populated by trees and grass for the public enjoyment. Daniel Burnham died in 1912. By 1916, Edward H. Bennett, co-author of the Plan of Chicago, wrote that a lakefront location would be most suitable for an airport serving the central business district.  By 1922, Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson recommended locating the downtown airport at Northerly Island.
  Work on the island began in 1920 when Chicago voters approved a $20 million bond issue to create Northerly Island, with construction completed by 1925. Due to the Great Depression and WW II, the proposed airport, later named Meigs Field, did not open until 1946.
  A short time later in 1930 Adler Planetarium was built, and in 1933–34 the island was at the center of festivities at the "Century of Progress" World's Fair.  Taking part in the Century of Progress Exposition, 24 Italian Savoia-Marchetti S55X flying boats, under the command of General Italo Balbo, make the first transatlantic formation flight between Italy and Chicago.  Only flying boats could be used because Chicago did not yet have a suitable nearby airport, except for Grant Park, which was occasionally used as a landing strip.  Local publishing mogul Merrill C. Meigs supported earlier recommendations for converting Northerly Island into an airport, but construction did not begin for numerous reasons, such as lack of funds during the Great Depression and WW II.  Construction did not begin until after a competing proposal to host the United Nations Headquarters on the island was lost in 1946. The Works Progress Administration connected the island to the mainland via a causeway at 12th Street in 1938. During this period Northerly Island was full of paths and walkways as well as a beach at 12th Street.
caption: Construction in 1921
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