What Gillson Park Turns Into Once the Parking Passes Come Off

"Gillson Park and Wilmette Harbor Historic District has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior, 2024."

That is the full text of a bronze plaque set in stone at the south end of Gillson Park. The Wilmette Park District finished installing it on July 10, 2026, in the middle of beach season, when hardly anyone walking past was there to read about history. The Park District called the plaque the last step of a designation that took years. The 73-page nomination was written by Julia Bachrach and Malcolm Cairns and sponsored by Landmark Illinois in 2022. The Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council recommended it in October 2023, and the listing came through in May 2024.

The National Park Service didn't list the swimming beach. It listed the park's design. The Park District's announcement quotes the federal designation, which calls Gillson an "important work" of design that adds "significance to the history of community planning and development in Wilmette." From Memorial Day to Labor Day, that design sits underneath lifeguard stands, pass-checked parking lots and towels. October is when most of that clears away. On October 16, 2026, the parking-pass requirement at the Gillson Beach lot ends, and the park the plaque describes is easier to see.

A Park Built From a Canal Project

Most of Gillson is made land. The National Register nomination describes the district as 59.2 acres of lakefront green space, "largely comprised of 'made land' along the Lake Michigan shoreline." The project that started it was the North Shore Channel, a drainage canal the Sanitary District of Chicago dug between 1907 and 1911 to improve the flow and water quality of the North Branch of the Chicago River. The Sanitary District is now the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

The nomination says the channel project also produced the Sheridan Road Bridge and Pumping Station and Wilmette Harbor. It also prompted community leaders to form the Wilmette Park District in 1908. The Wilmette Harbor Club has a historical photo of the harbor under construction, captioned 1908. After the Sanitary District built breakwaters and revetments, it dumped dredged material from the channel into the lake. That fill created 22 acres of new ground, graded to meet the old bluff line just south of Washington Avenue. That is why the park rises gently from the water on the east toward Michigan Avenue on the west. The slope follows where the original shoreline used to be.

The first plan for the new ground came around 1915 from Benjamin E. Gage, whom the nomination describes as a talented local designer and nurseryman. His plan included a curving circuit drive, which was built soon after, and the entry drives from Washington Avenue and from Sheridan Road at Michigan Avenue. If you drive the loop to the beach lot, you are still following his route.

The 1936 Plan Under the Summer Crowds

The park reached its current size in the late 1930s, during a project to dredge and enlarge Wilmette Harbor. Material from the harbor went into the park. So did clay dug up for the Winnetka Grade Separation project, which pushed the park's edges north and east. Some of the ground under Gillson's northern lawns came from a public works project in the next village north.

The federal Works Progress Administration paid for that expansion. Charles Dudley Wagstaff and Robert E. Everly drew a comprehensive plan for it in 1936. The nomination describes their approach as naturalistic or Prairie style: lawns edged by irregular groupings of plants, many of them native to the Midwest, plus stonework that includes full and partial council rings. The plan also set an outdoor amphitheater into what was left of the old lake bluff. That amphitheater was later named the Wallace Bowl.

In summer, these features read as background. In late fall, with the lawns empty and the plantings thinning, they become the main event. The nomination counts nineteen contributing resources in the district. These are the ones you can find on an ordinary walk:

• The council rings and other historic stonework, part of the Wagstaff and Everly plan
• The Wallace Bowl, set into the remaining bluff
• The circuit drive, laid out from Gage's plan around 1915
• The Coast Guard Station, one of two historic buildings in the district
• The Sheridan Shore Yacht Club building, the other historic building, beside the harbor
• The Sheridan Road Bridge and Pumping Station, where the North Shore Channel meets the lake
• The picnic shelter, also counted as a contributing structure

The yacht club building is easy to confuse with Lakeview Center, so the history is worth knowing. The Record North Shore reports that the harbor's Colonial Revival clubhouse was built in 1937 to a design by Walter T. Stockton. It now houses the Wilmette Harbor Club, the Sheridan Shore Yacht Club and a sailing school. Lakeview Center is newer. The nomination dates it to the 1980s and says it stands on a site the 1936 plan had set aside for a fieldhouse.

The name changed too. Until 1955 this was Washington Park. That year it was renamed for Louis K. Gillson, the first president of the Park Board.

October Hands the Park Back

The beach season officially ended September 7. The rest of the summer operation winds down over the next few weeks of October. Here is what is left on the 2026 calendar:

Wicked Wilmette uses the park's paths for "Spooky Stations" with giveaways and treats. It also has a hayride, inflatables, a pumpkin patch with a decorating station, and a costume contest in four age groups from 1-2 through 8-12. The event is recommended for ages 12 and under. Registration is $27 for residents and $34 for nonresidents, and only children need to register. An adult has to stay with each child the whole time. On-site registration is in the lower level of Lakeview Center.

Nine days later, the Wilmette Harbor Club closes the harbor. The club is asking boat owners to book lift-out appointments with Hyde, Katie or Jeri at 847-251-4234. Once the boats come out, you get an unobstructed view of the harbor basin that the 1930s project enlarged.

Practical Notes for the Off-Season

Hours and swimming. Gillson Park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Vehicle gates close at 9 p.m., and swimming is prohibited after Labor Day. For the rest of the year, the lakefront is for walking and looking.

Parking. The pass change on October 16 applies only to the beach lot. The Park District says parking on Overlook Drive still requires a Village or lakefront sticker year-round, while Upper Drive parking is open. The Evanston North Shore Bird Club also points out that street parking on Michigan Avenue is free.

The dog beach. The Dog Beach keeps the same 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. hours. Off-leash use requires a permit, and dogs must stay leashed while crossing the park. The 2026 resident permit is $52, plus $11 for each additional dog. There are no day passes, and permits run from January 15 through January 14 of the following year. A 2026 permit bought now is good into mid-January.

Restrooms. The beach restrooms and park portables are seasonal. The indoor restrooms at Lakeview Center are open year-round on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Birding. The Evanston North Shore Bird Club lists Gillson as a birding spot in every season. Songbirds come through during migration, ducks and geese gather in the harbor and along the shore, and you can watch waterfowl offshore from the point where the shoreline juts out. The park is listed on eBird as hotspot L152641, where you can check recent sightings before heading over.

Finding the plaque. The bronze National Register plaque is set in stone at the south end of the park. From there, the Sheridan Road Bridge and Pumping Station, the harbor and the 1937 clubhouse are all close by, so it makes a natural starting point for a loop north along the circuit drive toward the Wallace Bowl and the council rings.

Gillson is one of the places that shows how much of a North Shore village's character goes back to plans drawn generations ago. If you'd like to talk about the history behind your own home or street, or what it means for its future, Mary Grant is happy to meet over coffee in Winnetka or for a walk along the lake. Schedule a private consultation whenever it suits you.