[3] Lincoln Park Conservatory is a Victorian Era glass house, built in late nineteenth century.

The most famous are the Bates fountains, the Schiller monument, along with Sir George Solti's bust, which was relocated to Grant Park in 2006.

Though the peak viewing time is between July and August, the display lasts till mid-October.

[4] Conservatories were originally benevolent establishments attached to hospitals or other charitable or religious institutions.

In the early nineteenth century, the development of iron and glass building technology led to the constructions of conservatories in major cities in the United States as well as other countries in the world.

With a growing concern about the ill effect of industrialization, interest in collecting and classifying plant life became very popular.

The city leaders decided to build a new and more substantial conservatory to replace a small greenhouse built in the 1870s.

Due to the fascination of horticulture among the city dwellers, Lincoln Park's small greenhouse was no longer sufficient for all the plants.

[7] Silsbee gave the conservatory an exotic form by creating a series of trusses in the shape of ogee arches.

The conservatory consists of a vestibule, four display halls and fifteen propagating and growing houses.

Twelve beds of colorful summer annuals and tropical plants surround Storks at Play, also known as the Eli Bates Fountain, by sculptors Augustus St. Gaudens and Frederick MacMonnies.

It was cast in Stuttgart, Germany, and erected in 1886 by a group known as Chicago Citizens of German Descent.

[12] Installed in 1894, it was purchased through a bequest from Samuel Johnston, a Chicago real estate and railway tycoon.

The front of the conservatory was altered and expanded again in 1954 to provide public washrooms and create a solid entryway vestibule.