Cantigny Park

Cantigny is a 500-acre park located 30 miles west of Chicago in Wheaton, Illinois. It is open to the public and is the former estate of Joseph Medill and his grandson Colonel Robert R. McCormick, publishers of the Chicago Tribune. Large formal and informal gardens, two museums, a 27-hole golf course, a picnic grove, a playground, hiking pathways, restaurants, and a gift store are among the attractions at Cantigny. Joseph Medill built a 35-room home on the farm in 1896–1897, which was designed by Charles Allerton Coolidge. The Robert R. McCormick Museum, a historic home museum available to the public for tours, now occupies the mansion. The area’s largest collection of tanks and artillery pieces, known as “Tank Park,” is on exhibit outside the museum. Tanks and armored vehicles from the First World War to the present day are included in the collection. It is permissible for visitors to get in the cars. Authors, scholars, instructors, and students can use the McCormick Research Center at the museum. More than 10,000 publications on military history, including secondary publications on various battles, campaigns, and conflicts, are housed at the Center’s archives. The First Division’s bound war records from World War I, as well as the 1st Infantry Division’s World War II battle records on microfilm, are among the key works. The Reading Room of the Center is open to the public. Cantigny Park is a public park that draws over 350,000 visitors each year. Inside the Visitor Center, visitors can view a brief welcome film about the park’s history and current features. The Cantigny Shop, Bertie’s coffee shop, and Le Jardin, a sit-down restaurant offering lunch, are all located within the Visitor Center. In 2014, the Chicago-based Robert R. McCormick Foundation and KemperSports (Northbrook, Ill.) celebrated the 25th anniversary of Cantigny Golf Club. Cantigny was rated the “Best New Public Course in America” by Golf Digest when it first debuted in 1989. The 2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, four Illinois State Amateur Championships (the most recent in 2014), and the Chicago Open were all held at Cantigny in 2013 and 2014.