Celebrating Community Resiliency: An Equitable Garden Transformation

The Winthrop Family Historical Garden is a reimagined community space celebrating the rich heritage, resiliency, and legacy of Black families who helped found the Uptown’s cultural diversity despite racial segregation. The garden honors this powerful legacy of unity in the face of adversity while bringing together, educating, and empowering the community today. Through an expedited engagement, design, funding and construction process, the renovation and transformation of the garden was realized over just five months. Since opening, this community-centered public space and ‘heart’ of the community has provided positive activation through neighborhood-based programming, events, local food production, learning, and gathering.

Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood is known for its rich, dynamic history and its mingling of cultures and customs. However, pre-World War II land covenants and legal segregation listed the 4600 block of North Winthrop Avenue as Uptown’s only block where Black families could live. Partly as a result of this racism and outright segregation, the families who lived on Winthrop Avenue developed a tight-knit bond. They referred to each other as the “Winthrop Avenue Family,” and grew up surrounded by love and care of the members of their family on “the Avenue.” Oral history narratives with contemporary members of the family, reveal only the fondest memories of life on the block, their home. Although only one resident from those decades remain, the result was a large extended family that still gathers and refers to themselves as the Winthrop Avenue Family.

The prevailing stories of community establishment, growth, resilience, and fortitude inspired the original creation and dedication of the Winthrop Family Historical Garden. In the mid-2000s, through community engagement efforts, the idea of transforming several vacant parcels of land into a community greenspace on the narrow 4600 block took shape. The Winthrop Family Historical Garden was dedicated in the Fall of 2009 thanks to the leadership of Uptown United, along with several local leaders and volunteers. Yet 20 years after its initial dedication, the garden had become overgrown, no longer serving the community as originally intended. Furthermore, while the garden bore the Winthrop Family name, it did little to share the story and meaning behind that name.

Neighborhood desires for local food production and communal space following the pandemic in 2022 prompted the need to reinvest in this once beloved space. The development of a new design for the renovated garden held fresh opportunities to share the untold story of the Winthrop families while visually representing the community through the design; as individual threads, woven together, forming a rich tapestry rooted in the neighborhood through its past heritage and rich cultural diversity. Vibrant colors and patterns on the site are inspired by the featured facade mural by local artist, Mauricio Ramirez entitled, "Uptown in Bloom". Community garden plots shape the space and provide opportunities for local food cultivation in addition to featuring a central gathering space for community programming and activities.

The garden re-dedication in 2022 brought members of the original Winthrop family together to celebrate and reminisce about their childhoods growing up on The Avenue. They shared impactful stories from their lives and the rich purpose they had living together as a community within the Uptown neighborhood. Today, Uptown United serves as a key supporting organization, programming regular community events in the garden and managing the plots and regular upkeep. Whether visiting the garden for a community workshop, planting a new crop of summer vegetables or enjoying local music and food, Uptown residents can learn more about the Winthrop community legacy while carving out the true power of community in their own lives.

• Brett Weidl, ASLA - Landscape Architect, MKSK
• NeighborSpace - Project Owner
• Uptown United - Project Operator
• Chicago Department of Planning and Development - Project Operator
• Human Scale - Community Engagement, General Contractor
• ACGi - Electrical Engineer
• Dis-placements - Storytelling Assistance
• Maz Maiz Native Land Project - Landscape Contractor
• Mauricio Ramirez - Artist & Muralist
• Isabella Scott - Artist & Muralist
• Paint the City - Artist & Muralist

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