Midway Plaisance

The Midway Plaisance, also known locally as the Midway, is a park on the South Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one mile long by 220 yards wide and extends along 59th and 60th streets, joining Washington Park at its west end and Jackson Park at its east end. It divides the Hyde Park community area to the north from the Woodlawn community area to the south. It is located approximately 6 miles (10 km) south of the downtown "Loop" area, near Lake Michigan. It served as a center of amusements during the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, lending the name "Midway" to areas at county and state fairs where sideshows are located. The Midway is located within the southern portion of the University of Chicago campus, with university and related buildings fronting it on both sides. Laid out with long vistas and avenues of trees at the start of the 20th century, the Midway in part followed the vision of Frederick Law Olmsted, one of the creators of New York City's famous Central Park, but without his impracticable dream of creating a Venetian canal linking the lagoon systems of Jackson and Washington parks. Instead, the Midway is landscaped with a fosse or dry ditch where the canal would have been.