■ Post-convention reflections by Mitts, Ford PAGE 7
FREE Vol. 38 No. 36
September 4, 2024 ■ Also serving Garfield Park ■ austinweeklynews.com
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Columbus Park brings prairie to the cityscape
Austin Coming Together INSIDE
Music group, Rocket & Gizzae, perform for the crowd and passing attendees at the Galewoodstock Music Festival on Aug. 24.
The park was desigend by famed landscape architect Jens Jensen By JESSICA MORDACQ Staff Reporter
Columbus Park has long been a staple in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, hosting everything from golfing and fishing to family and neighborhood gatherings. At a recent virtual event put on by the Chicago Architecture Center, Tom Drebenstedt, a docent at the center for over 35 years, shared some of the history behind the over 140 acres of Columbus Park, 500 S. Central Ave. Jens Jensen was the Danish-American architect behind Columbus Park. He was also West Park Commission General Superintendent and Chief Landscape Architect and had a hand in redesigning Humboldt Park, Garfield Park and Douglass Park, according to Drebenstedt. But Columbus Park was a new project with a clean slate. West Park commissioners bought the land for Columbus Park in 1912 from the Catholic Church, Drebenstedt said. In designing the park, Jensen was largely inspired by the prairie. See COLUMBUS PARK on page 8
Galewood streets come alive with music and more
‘Street-fest’ event filled the Austin community with people-to-people interactions By SAM TUCKER Contributing Reporter
SAM TUCKER
On Saturday, Aug. 24, the Galewoodstock music festival filled a portion of North Newland Avenue in Galewood with music, food, vendors, games and of course people. This was the fourth annual Galewoodstock, a free community-oriented music festival in Galewood, a neighborhood of about 10,000 people in the Austin community on the far-west side of Chicago. See GALEWOODSTOCK on page 10
SEPTEMBER 13-14, 2024