Laserfiche WebLink
18 <br />The Cabin’s Place in Leeper Park (cont’d) <br />Kessler was a leading landscape architect during the City Beautiful movement, generally <br />defined as being sparked by the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The <br />movement holds a philosophy of an orderly “Garden City” linked by paths and water features, <br />featuring neoclassical and Beaux-Arts architecture. The National Mall in Washington, D.C. is <br />a well-known example of this aesthetic. What is notably not present on the Kessler plan is the <br />Pierre Navarre Cabin, which would have been located in the park for several years at the time <br />of his design. A rustic pioneer cabin would have no place in the neoclassical formal lines of a <br />City Beautiful park, and it seems clear that Kessler was not considering it for and did not wish <br />it to be in his plan. <br />Other examples of George Kessler’s designs include <br />the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (top left), <br />for which he was the master designer. One of his <br />most celebrated works, this would have been what <br />he was best known for at the time the City of South <br />Bend engaged his services. Other examples are the <br />elaborate gardens and pagoda of Siloam Gardens in <br />Excelsior Springs, Missouri, dated 1915 (top right); <br />and Gage Park in Topeka, Kansas, ca. 1900 (right).