Morgan Shoal
Above: aerial view of Morgan Shoal from the 2015 Morgan Shoal Framework Plan
Morgan Shoal stands upon the Chicago lakefront from 45th Street to 51st Street, covering about 4,460 linear feet of shoreline. At Morgan Shoal, the bedrock, found 90 feet below downtown Chicago, protrudes to the surface and is exposed. In July 1914, the Silver Spray passenger ship hit the Shoal and sank. The remains of the wreck can be seen from shore. Many South Siders have fond memories of Pebble Beach at Morgan Shoal. In 2014-2015, members of the community and the Chicago Park District held four meetings and developed together the Morgan Shoal Framework Plan.
Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point are the only sections of the 1993 Chicago Shoreline Protection Plan not completed. Both Morgan Shoal and the Point are endangered as the City (CDOT), Chicago Park District and Chicago Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are now funded for design and construction. Both Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point ought to be preserved under the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement, and not demolished and replaced with concrete and/or rubble-stone as planned.
Advocates for Morgan Shoal are organizing to stop the paving of Pebble beach. You may reach them here, on FB at MorganShoalRocks or Instagram @MorganShoalRocks . The Advocates website may be found here. Take a survey about your priorities for the Morgan Shoal Project and what you want to see for the redesign and construction.
Promontory Point Conservancy calls for preservation, repair and rehabilitation of the limestone revetment at Morgan Shoal per the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement and the Secretary of the Interior standards for preservation. The Conservancy supports the 2015 Morgan Shoal Framework Plan because it strives to preserve the historic limestone revetment and the community that recreates there, and it resulted from good community process. We are disturbed to learn that the Chicago Park District, CDOT and Chicago US Army Corps of Engineers are not moving ahead constructing this award-winning design, dismiss it as "aspirational" only, and have hired SmithGroup for another design. The Framework Plan is an excellent, award-winning, community-based design process -- although the Chicago Park District might have reached out more extensively into Bronzeville and to the South West Side LatinX (along the E 55th Street corridor) communities, both users of the Shoal's waterfront access, to deepen and enrich community engagement about the Morgan Shoal's Framework Plan.
Now it appears that the Framework Plan, whatever the breadth of its outreach, is irrelevant. What the community will get for this $194m, 5-year construction project is not something it wants. Most of the stretch along Morgan Shoal will be rubble-stone making it impossible to get to the water. A concrete revetment will be constructed at 51st Street Morgan Point to connect to the concrete revetment built in 2002. This would make it very easy to wrap continuous concrete from 51st Street, around Promontory Point, to 57th St beach.
Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point are the only sections of the 1993 Chicago Shoreline Protection Plan not completed. Both Morgan Shoal and the Point are endangered as the City (CDOT), Chicago Park District and Chicago Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are now funded for design and construction. Both Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point ought to be preserved under the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement, and not demolished and replaced with concrete and/or rubble-stone as planned.
Advocates for Morgan Shoal are organizing to stop the paving of Pebble beach. You may reach them here, on FB at MorganShoalRocks or Instagram @MorganShoalRocks . The Advocates website may be found here. Take a survey about your priorities for the Morgan Shoal Project and what you want to see for the redesign and construction.
Promontory Point Conservancy calls for preservation, repair and rehabilitation of the limestone revetment at Morgan Shoal per the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement and the Secretary of the Interior standards for preservation. The Conservancy supports the 2015 Morgan Shoal Framework Plan because it strives to preserve the historic limestone revetment and the community that recreates there, and it resulted from good community process. We are disturbed to learn that the Chicago Park District, CDOT and Chicago US Army Corps of Engineers are not moving ahead constructing this award-winning design, dismiss it as "aspirational" only, and have hired SmithGroup for another design. The Framework Plan is an excellent, award-winning, community-based design process -- although the Chicago Park District might have reached out more extensively into Bronzeville and to the South West Side LatinX (along the E 55th Street corridor) communities, both users of the Shoal's waterfront access, to deepen and enrich community engagement about the Morgan Shoal's Framework Plan.
Now it appears that the Framework Plan, whatever the breadth of its outreach, is irrelevant. What the community will get for this $194m, 5-year construction project is not something it wants. Most of the stretch along Morgan Shoal will be rubble-stone making it impossible to get to the water. A concrete revetment will be constructed at 51st Street Morgan Point to connect to the concrete revetment built in 2002. This would make it very easy to wrap continuous concrete from 51st Street, around Promontory Point, to 57th St beach.
- The 2024 project design description from the Public Building Commission, CDOT, CPD and Chicago Corps. The February-April 2024 community meetings' presentations with design drawings may be viewed at the very bottom of the page. Here are the posters: 20240222_193303.jpg, 20240222_193034.jpg, 20240222_192947.jpg, Copy of Coastal Protection PXL_20240222_233621090.MP.jpg, 20240222_193643.jpg, 20240222_193448.jpg
- The Shoal and the Shipwreck: Stories from Pebble Beach on Chicago's South Lakefront, a Netsch Lecture presented by Friends of the Parks with distinquished panelists talking about the compelling geology and social history of Morgan Shoal, November 13, 2023
- "Hyde Park Stories: Morgan Shoal" by Patricia L. Morse, Hyde Park Herald, December 28, 2023
- Chicago Park District capital projects (Scroll down and select Morgan Shoal Revetment Construction)
- Morgan Shoal Framework Plan, March 2015
- CDOT BRIC Pre-Application and Exhibits for Morgan Shoal Project, September 30, 2020. This document and especially its exhibits spell out design plans for Morgan Shoal and Promontory Point. (Obtained by FOIA)
- 2014 Illinois Shoreline Erosion Study issued by the Chicago Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers includes the City and Chicago Park District's plans for Morgan Shoal. This 2014 plan matches very closely the 2024 plan above rolled out by SmithGroup and the PBC with two modifications: 1. the groin arms for the beach are modified so as not to disturb the Shoal and the six endangered species there; and, 2. the 51st Morgan Point will be paved with concrete to connect to the adjacent stepped concrete revetment instead of ruble-mound. Morgan Shoal reach is cited on pages 15, 18, 28, 30, 36, 105, 106, 306, 324-325, 336, 340, 367-392 (plan), 446-451 (drawings), 474, 478, 493.
- Information session for Morgan Shoal Project, for potential bidders for the construction project, given by the Chicago Public Building Commission, the Chicago Park District and the City (CDOT), recording, May 18, 2021.
- CDOT and Chicago Park District slideshow to Public Building Commision presentation above regarding construction at Morgan Shoal, May 18, 2021
- Building commission picks architect and engineer for Morgan Shoal redesign. Evening Digest. Hyde Park Herald. October 7, 2021.
- Building Commission initiates major Morgan Shoal reconstruction project. Marc Monaghan. Evening Digest. Hyde Park Herald. June 4, 2021
- Chicago Park District's 2018 South Lakefront Framework Plan.
- City of Chicago’s 2021 Five Year Capital Plan: General Obligation Bond Booklet, showing capital funds raised for Morgan Shoal Project including Promontory Point on pp. 2-3 and p. 24.
- An endangered piece of history beneath Lake Michigan's surface: the shipwreak of the Silver Spray has rested a stone's throw from the Hyde Park shoreline for nearly 100 years. Julia Thiel. Reader. February 23, 2013.
- 1999 Burnham Park Framework Plan, Chicago Park District. Morgan Shoal is in the southern part of Burnham Park
