Location: Near South Side / The Loop lakefront
Established: Gradually from 1835 onward, officially designated as Lake Park, renamed Grant Park in 1901
Access: Public
Connected Factions: City Hall (ceremonial), The Mother’s Circle (ritual use), CPD (patrol presence), Veil-aware wanderers  

Description - Exterior

Manicured walkways, fountains, and marble monuments stretch along the lakefront, framed by wide lawns and hedgerows too tidy to trust. The Buckingham Fountain pulses like a beating heart in the center. Beneath the clean lines and floral beds lie veins of something older than the city—stitched over but never sealed.  

Description - Interior

The deeper corners—past the bandshell, under overgrown paths near the railroad tracks—feel wrong at night. Benches creak when no one’s near. Sculptures cast shadows they shouldn’t. And in certain weather, a mist rises from the lake and moves inland, slow and hungry.  

Public Face

A jewel of the city—music festivals, art shows, proud statuary, and patriotic pageants. Families picnic, couples stroll, tourists gawk. It’s the smiling mask Chicago wears for itself.  

What's Really Going On

Grant Park is built on centuries of burial and ritual. Native burial grounds, early settler graves, even the ashes of union dead and plague victims lie beneath its walkways. The Veil is thin here, especially near the museum campus and beneath the Petrillo Music Shell. Old spirits—some human, some not—wake on certain nights. Offerings have been left, symbols etched into tree bark, and occasionally, sacrifices made.  

Notables

The Mother – Occasionally appears in the Garden of the Phoenix, silent and watching
Detective Carmike – Keeps getting called out to deal with “naked screamers” and “shadow fights” in the south lawn
Rashad the Trumpetman – Plays in the park some nights; says the music keeps the worst of them sleeping
Father Mallory – Comes to pray in the Rose Garden—never brings holy water, always salt
 

Rumors & Hooks:

• If you walk the eastern perimeter path counterclockwise at sunrise, the last person in line may vanish. Locals call it the “Fifth Walker.”
• There's a tunnel sealed beneath the Music Shell—rumored to be a ritual chamber from the 1893 World's Fair.
• The Buckingham Fountain sometimes runs red after storms. The city says it's rust. The locals know better.
• People swear the lions outside the Art Institute blink when no one’s looking. Some say they move at night.
• A stone at the southern edge hums when touched after midnight. No one’s dug beneath it. Yet.
• A city worker repairing lights vanished for 43 minutes. When he returned, he didn’t speak for a week.
• The Mother’s Circle uses the gardens at equinox. They're not alone when they do.
• Something’s started feeding near the Field Museum. And it’s leaving bones.
• A jazz singer vanished during a photoshoot in the park last fall. Her last note is still echoing if you stand just right.