Click on the photograph to enlarge it and for additional commentary]

The 3-acre Washington Square Park sits just south of the Newberry Library.  The American Land Development Company donated the land to the City of Chicago in 1842 for a public park.  It hoped to make the area more attractive for high-end residential development.  While its intentions were good, the Company probably never envisioned that the park would be a center for boisterous vocal debate, attracting what today might be described as left-wingers and Occupy Wall Street types.  The resulting racket probably was not the first preference of local residents.