All tagged Washington Square Park
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It is probably no longer politically correct to refer to an institution for people with mental health issues as a bughouse, but the "Bughouse Square" nickname for Washington Square Park was an attempt to capture some of the craziness that came with the eccentrics and expressive orators who took park in debates and other public forums the park during the early decades of the last century. Bughouse was then the slang for what would later generations would refer to as the looney bin or Cuckoo's Nest.
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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.
