Garfield Park Conservatory

Designed as an idealized tropical landscape, it's where graceful palms, interspersed with a variety of other tropicals, soar up to a vaulted ceiling. This room features a massive Scheelea Palm which is probably the largest of its kind in any conservatory in the country. In 2003 the Palm House underwent a restoration of its structure and plant collection.

The Palm House is open during Conservatory Hours 9 am – 5 pm daily; Wednesdays till 8 pm.

Designed by Jens Jensen and first built in 1907 with glass panels, the Palm House was rebuilt in 1958 with fiberglass replacements. In 2003, the room was renovated once again, but this time, with glass to more closely resemble Jensen’s original design.

If you stand in the front entryway of the Palm House and peer up at the inside of the glass ceiling, you should be able to see that the house is shaped, not like a typical A-frame structure, but like a dome. Jens Jensen wanted to pay respect to the Midwestern location of his new conservatory by designing the Palm House ceiling to resemble a giant haystack. The haystack shape is especially noticeable from the outside, so as you approach the building or as you are leaving, be sure to take a look at this unique structure.

In 1926, botanists from the Field Museum of Natural History gave Garfield Park Conservatory a gift that kept on giving: the seed that grew our Scheelea Palm. Scientists acquired the seed on an expedition to Brazil, brought it back to Chicago and it has been growing here ever since. The Scheelea Palm now has the distinct honor of being the largest (but not the tallest) plant in our collection. This type of cultural exchange is a powerful example of the connections shared between Chicago’s historic institutions over the years.

Double Coconut Palm

We are proud to announce the birth of our new Double Coconut Palm! A new seed was received from the Seychelles Islands in August 2012 and was planted in the Palm House. It has now sprouted and is growing rapidly. This new sprout replaces our original Double Coconut Palm (Lodoicea maldivica), which sadly died in 2011 after being the star attraction in the Palm House for 45 years. Stop by to see our new addition growing strong! Learn More ‣

Idyl and Pastoral

The marble statues titled Idyl and Pastoral that flank the Fern Room stairs in the Palm House were sculpted by world-renowned sculptor Lorado Taft in 1913. These permanent marble statues were installed at the Garfield Park Conservatory in 1914 to replace the temporary versions installed when the Conservatory first opened in 1908. Taft explained that the sculptures depict “care-free maidens and faun-like youths of some remote period as they might idle and play in the forests of Arcadia.”