2. History of Uptown
• Founded just before 20th century (1900)
• Got its name from Loren Miller who operated his
Uptown Store in 1905.
• All northbound trains from downtown ended in Uptown
so it became known as an entertainment destination
• Experienced a housing boom in 1920’s which led to
construction of large entertainment venues. Many of
them still exist today.
• 1950’s- middle class left for suburbs and hotels now
served to house immigrants from the South
3. History of Uptown
• 1950-1960’s- developed nickname of Hillbilly
Heaven
• Late 1960’s- large urban renewal projects such as
the Harry S. Truman College
• Eliminated a lot of low-cost housing and low-income
Southern white residents dispersed
• Waves of Asian, Hispanic and African American
migrants moved into the neighborhood
4. Facts
• Area: 2.333 square miles
• Population: 45, 956
• Average Household income: $83,395
• Average rent: $717
• Average age: 38
• 50% of people never been married
• Ethnicity: 51% White, 20% Black, 14% Hispanic, 11%
Asian, 3% other
6. Uptown Theatre
• The Uptown Theatre opened its doors August 18,
1925, billed as "An Acre of Seats in a Magic City.“ It
also is known as the Balaban and Katz Uptown
Theatre, is a massive, ornate movie palace in the
Uptown. It the last of the "big three" movie palaces
built by the Balaban & Katz theatre chain run by A. J.
Balaban, his brother Barney Balaban and their partner
Sam Katz.
• The largest in Chicago, it boasts 4,381 seats and its
interior volume is said to be larger than any other
movie palace in the United States.
9. Green Mill Cocktail Lounge
• The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge (or Green Mill Jazz
Club) is an entertainment venue. It is known for its jazz
and poetry performances, along with its connections to
Chicago mob history.
• Originally named Pop Morse's Roadhouse, the
business opened in 1907. It was renamed Green Mill
Gardens a few years later, a nod to the famous Moulin
Rouge ("Red Mill") of Paris. In its early years, it was a
popular hangout for movie actors from nearby Essanay
Studios. The namesake gardens were removed in the
1920s during the construction of the Uptown Theatre
on the same block.
12. Graceland Cemetery
• Established in 1860, Graceland Cemetery is a large
Victorian era cemetery located in the north side
community area of Uptown.
• The cemetery is typical of those that reflect Queen
Victoria's reconception of the early 19th century
"graveyard". Instead of poorly maintained headstones,
and bodies buried on top of each other, on an
ungenerous parcel of land; the cemetery became a
pastoral landscaped park dotted with memorial
markers, with room left over for picnics, a common
usage of cemeteries. The landscape architecture for
Graceland was designed by Ossian Cole Simonds
