Bowen Country Club

Joseph T. Bowen Country Club
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	1917 N. Sheridan Rd., Waukegan, Illinois
Area	60.1 acres (24.3 ha)
Built	1843 (1843)
NRHP reference #	78003400
Added to NRHP	November 30, 1978

Bowen Park is a recreational area in Waukegan, Illinois, United States along Sheridan Road. It includes an old-growth forest and a ravine. The 60.07-acre (24.31 ha) park was laid out as a residential property in 1843. It was the home of John Charles Haines, a prominent Illinois politician, from 1857 to 1896. In 1911, the Hull House Association renamed it the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club and began using the property as a summer retreat. The land was purchased by the Waukegan Park District in 1963.

In 1843, politician James Montgomery built a house on a 72 acres (29 ha) lot of land near present day Waukegan, Illinois, then known as Little Fort. At some point, the property was transferred to William Fay. In 1857, Fay sold the property to John Charles Haines, who used it as a summer residence. A member of the Chicago City Council, Haines would be elected Mayor of Chicago the next year. He served two one-year terms and remained active in Illinois politics for the rest of his life, including a stint in the Illinois Senate. Haines built an addition to the house in the early 1870s. He died there on July 4, 1896. In 1909, the property was purchased by Fred W. Buck, the mayor of Waukegan, who intended to deed it to the city of Waukegan as a park. However, the city rejected the offering because it was too far from downtown.

The property was unused for two years. In 1911, Jane Addams started to look for a new summer camp for the children of Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago. Addams had previously rented land in Wisconsin and Michigan, but these campgrounds suffered from bad weather and a lack of maintenance. A realtor provided Addams with a list of three hundred potential camp properties, so she went on a trip with fellow Hull House administrator Louise DeKoven Bowen to visit sixty-seven candidates. Addams and Bowen purchased the land from Buck on December 11 after seeing the site. They renamed the land the Joseph Tilton Bowen Country Club after Bowen's recently-deceased husband.