The calendar has turned over to August and with the new month: the Ravinia Festival summer concert season is officially at its halfway point; parents start the back-to-school shopping frenzy; children scramble to finish their summer reading books; and Major League Baseball teams start their fight to make it to October.  As the Cubs and Sox make their final push for the playoffs, I can't but help to be reminded of Ravinia Festival's early history and its very own friendly confines.

In the early days of Ravinia in 1904, when it was created as an amusement park by the A.C. Frost Company to lure riders on the Chicago & Milwaukee Electric Railroad, the park boasted an electric fountain, a refectory or casino building with dining rooms and a dance floor, Ravinia Theatre (which still exists today as the Martin Theatre) and a baseball diamond.  The baseball diamond (pictured below) played host to local baseball teams.

If you have your own piece of Ravinia Festival history or memorabilia, please share it with us at backstage@ravinia.org.

Matthew Dolkart
Development Writer