Grant Park has been protected since 1836 by "forever open, clear and free" legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings.

Paul Cornell, a lawyer and real estate developer, donated and built East End Park between 51st and 53rd Streets in 1856.

In the years following his donation, expansions were built at the northeast corner of the future Jackson Park, located at the south end of Burnham.

The most notable expansions included a seawall and granite paved strolling beach, constructed from 1884 to 1888, and a building used as the Iowa Pavilion during the Columbian Exposition.

[9] The first bond vote was rejected in 1867, as just a method to provide remote driving grounds for rich citizens and to lure people to move away for the benefit of real estate speculators and developers.

Ruling out residential expansion, Burnham developed plans for green areas, harbors and lagoons, water scenery, a canal to downtown, and a scenic drive.

From 1907 until 1920, legal battles to acquire parkland continued despite the 1907 Legislature passing a bill with language favoring railroads until courts rejected the legislation.

[9] The South Park Commission received rights to the future site of the Field Museum in exchange for 160 acres (65 ha) transferred to the Illinois Central Railroad.

In February 1920, voters approved a $20 million bond issue as part of the Burnham Plan initiative for new lands to complete Grant Park, so as to create the South Shore Development.

Designed by architects Holabird & Roche and named Soldier Field for the veterans of World War I, cost overruns required another bond issue in 1926.

Burnham Park was chosen for the site of the Century of Progress world's fair and a yacht basin was built south of 51st Street.

In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Park District used funds from the federal Works Progress Administration to complete landfill operations and install landscaping at Promontory Point by designer Alfred Caldwell, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The state passed a bill creating the Metropolitan Fair and Exposition Authority and allowed construction of Meigs Field, after Northerly Island lost out as the site for the United Nations.

[11] In 1948, Burnham Park hosted the Chicago Railroad Fair,[11] proving the location's viability for conventions, which eventually led to the construction of the first McCormick Place in 1960.

[11] One highlight of the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair was popular Italian aviator and prominent fascist Italo Balbo, leading 24 flying boats in landing on Lake Michigan after a transatlantic flight from Rome.

As a return gift, Benito Mussolini sent an ancient 2nd-century Roman column, which was erected in front of the Italian pavilion during the Century of Progress Exposition.

Burnham Park's 598 acres (242 ha) still contain Soldier Field and Chicago's premier convention center, McCormick Place-on-the-Lake, which hosts more than four million people per year.

[15] When U.S. President Barack Obama returned to visit his Chicago home in the Kenwood community area, he was transported by helicopter to a lawn landing in Burnham Park.

[23] The project, which as of 2009 was still continuing, is a joint commission of the Park District, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the City of Chicago Department of Environment.