Garfield Park Conservatory

Jens Jensen, who designed the Conservatory in 1906, wanted to give visitors a glimpse of what Illinois might have looked like millions of years ago. Lush ferns, rocky outcroppings and an indoor lagoon evoke the swampy landscape of prehistoric Chicago. The Fern Room is home to the cycads: ancient cone-bearing plants.

The Fern Room will be closed starting February 3, 2014 and the renovation is expected to be completed in the fall of 2014. These renovations are following the June 30, 2011 hailstorm that caused unprecedented damage to the Conservatory. Learn more about the Conservatory restoration project on our Back to Glass page.

The Fern Room is Closed for Repairs.

Described as a restoration of prehistoric Illinois, the Fern Room (originally called the Aquatic Room) was designed by Jens ]ensen to give visitors a glimpse of the types of plants growing in Illinois during a much earlier and much warmer geologic time. The natural landscaping of this room is the original work of Jensen. He did such a complete job of creating a lush "outdoor space” indoors that the first visitors marveled at how a conservatory could be built around pre-existing streams, lagoons, and limestone ledges.

A Hidden Melody: Prairie Waterfall

If you wander the stepping stone path at the far end of the Fern Room (or peer to the back of the room from the Palm House), you will spot Jens Jensen's famous prairie waterfall. It is said that during the original construction of this feature, the renowned landscape architect was upset by his mason’s first attempt at building it. Jensen thought it sounded like ”an abrupt mountain cascade.” After dismantling and rebuilding the waterfall several times, the workman became frustrated. Jensen suggested that, for an understanding of what this waterfall should sound like, he'd go home and have his wife play Mendelssohn’s ‘Spring Song” on the piano. The next day, the mason came back to work and constructed the waterfall perfectly, so that the water tinkled gently from ledge to ledge, as it should in a prairie country.

A Pair of Bicentennial Cycads

The Fern Room showcases many rare plants with prehistoric pasts. A pair of large cycads, for example, stands watch on either side of the sunken Fern Room stairs, guarding both a recent and primordial past. At about 250 years old, these particular cycads are assumed to be the oldest individual plants in the Conservatory. They were alive not only during the lives of Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King, but also George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This botanical twosome (a male and a female) was purchased from a New Jersey plantsman at a discount after he displayed them at Chicago’s annual flower show in 1908. Even at 250 years old, they are relatively young compared to the millions of years that have passed since their ancestors grew alongside the dinosaurs. (The male plant is located on the north side of the Fern Room stairs; the female is on the south side of the stairs.)