Charles M Dexter

Charles M. Dexter retired to Riverside in 1890. He had been a student of many subjects, earned a medical degree but never practiced as a doctor, and served as a Union soldier in the Civil War where he earned the rank of Captain.
Dexter’s true vocation, however, was the development and founding of Fairmount Park. Dexter convinced the city to underwrite the cost of trees and eventually park development, on a piece of land adjacent to a city-owned quarry. Probably at Dexter’s urging, S. C. Evans gave land and the water right to Spring Brook, making the development of Lake Evans possible. The park was designed by famed landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted. Dexter’s contribution was recognized in the naming of the park road that circles the lake.