This document provides resources for researching Chicago neighborhoods, including online maps, newspapers, and historical sources. It then discusses several specific Chicago neighborhoods - how they got their names, the immigrant groups that settled there, and key events that shaped their histories. Pilsen was named after a Czech city and settled by Czech immigrants in the late 1800s. Little Village was originally a Polish and Czech area but is now known as the "Mexico of the Midwest" after Mexican immigrants arrived. Bronzeville was the name given to the growing African American community on the South Side in the 1930s. Back of the Yards referred to the industrial area near the Union Stock Yards.

1. CHM Members Open House: Chicago Neighborhoods Research
Research resources:
ProQuest newspapers through DePaul, especially Chicago Tribune, Chicago Defender
Encyclopedia of Chicago http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/
https://blockclubchicago.org/ (for current information about communities)
https://explore.chicagocollections.org/neighborhoods/ (map by neighborhoods)
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dgs/supp_info/citywide_maps.html
(map by community area; the city decides community area boundaries while neighborhoods are
developed in all kinds of ways)
Andrea
2) Is East Lake Shore considered to be one of Chicago's neighborhoods? It was a planned development,
but Lake Point Tower was not part of that development, nor was Navy Pier, but is all of that considered a
neighborhood?
East Lake Shore is not a neighborhood, but it is part of the Streeterville neighborhood (turns into Gold
Coast if you go up more north?)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/blair-kamin/ct-ae-lake-point-tower-anniversary-0923-story.html
“Lake Point Tower is the only major private structure on the east side of Lake Shore Drive and likely to
remain that way for the foreseeable future, given the city's rare occasions of building large structures on
the east side of Lake Shore Drive.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20070607151622/http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/E/EastLSDDistrict.html
“East Lake Shore Drive District is a historic district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago,
Illinois. It includes eight buildings.”
“Municipal Pier (renamed in 1927 to honor navy veterans of World War I) represented a compromise
between the hopes of Daniel Burnham in his Plan of Chicago for two recreational piers and the city's
desire for a modern harbor facility.”
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/191.html
“The visionary Plan of Chicago (1909) creates pictures of a City Beautiful, calls upon civic character to
realize the goal, and characterizes Chicagoans as a people who can and will act in the best public interest
to realize the vision. Such a combination of idealism and imagination distinguishes this work of Daniel
Hudson Burnham and Edward H. Bennett, and the civic-minded citizens of the Commercial Club of
Chicago and the former Merchants Club who commissioned the work.”
“The plan consisted of a system of parks and broad avenues that transcended the street grid in a pattern
reminiscent of the French Baroque tradition favored for nineteenth-century Paris. The physical integration
of systems of transportation and systems of recreation was the organizing principle for the buildings,
streets, and parks. In the following decades, as a result of a flexible and well-publicized planning process,
the Plan of Chicago inspired the creation of a permanent greenbelt around the metropolitan area, the
development of the lakefront parks with cultural enhancements such as the Field Museum of Natural
History, and the establishment of new transportation elements, from road to river to rail.”

2. “As a collaborative product, the work is unusually seamless. Nevertheless, it is clear that Edward Bennett,
trained in the symmetrical sequential planning of space at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts,
brought to the work formal training in large-scale design. He directed the planning and the preparation of
the drawings. Daniel Burnham, self-taught and public-spirited, brought his experience and salesmanship
from previous planning projects to the analysis and problem-solving aspects, both functional and popular.
The Plan of Chicago represented a synthesis of lessons learned from the careers of both men, who
together or individually developed plans for World's Columbian Exposition and projects in Cleveland, the
District of Columbia, San Francisco, and Manila.”
“The Plan of Chicago's magnificent illustrations, maps, and plans created an enduring image.
Generation's of schoolchildren throughout the city studied the plan in a manual prepared in 1911 by
Walter D. Moody. Although planning in ensuing decades moved away from the design principles of the
Plan of Chicago, the plan itself and its authors remain a familiar presence in Chicago urban thinking.”
Andrea
6) Where do the Chicago neighborhoods get their names? (I know this is a big question, but maybe pick
1-3 interesting stories and generalize the rest) How about Pilsen, Little Village, Bronzeville, Back of the
Yards? (or others as we discussed Andrea)
https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/5/30/18643264/chicago-neighborhood-name-history-lincoln-park-logan-
square
Pilsen
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2477.html
“Pilsen is a neighborhood made up of the residential sections of the Lower West Side community area of
Chicago. In the late 19th century Pilsen was inhabited by Czech immigrants who named the district after
Pilsen, the fourth largest city in Czechia.”
“The Czechs had replaced the Germans, who had settled there first with the Irish in the mid-19th century.
Although there was an increasing Mexican American presence in the late 1950s, it was not until 1962-63
when there was a great spurt in the numbers of Mexican Americans in Pilsen due to the destruction of the
neighborhood west of Halsted between Roosevelt and Taylor Streets to create room for the construction of
the University of Illinois at Chicago.“
“Although this area was predominantly Italian American, it was also an important entry point for Mexican
immigrants for several decades. Latinos became the majority in 1970 when they surpassed the Slavic
population. The neighborhood continued to serve as a port of entry for immigrants, both legal and illegal,
mostly of Mexican descent. Many elderly central Europeans, some even without English language
fluency, still reside in Pilsen. Pilsen's Mexican population is increasingly dwarfed by what has become the
largest Mexican neighborhood in Chicago, Little Village.”
“Pilsen became a National Historic Register District on February 1, 2006.”
https://interactive.wttw.com/my-neighborhood/pilsen/history
https://americanhistory.si.edu/many-voices-exhibition/creating-community-chicago-and-los-angeles-1900
%E2%80%931965/chicago/pilsen

3. https://www.wbez.org/stories/swept-from-their-homes-chicagos-latinos-built-new-community/331fcc5d-b
e0b-4b20-be9f-245a562a9310
“Today, Pilsen is known for its Mexican heritage, but the Lower West Side neighborhood was originally a
Czech community. After the Chicago Fire of 1871, the Czech community that had been living in Lincoln
Park (and, later, the short-lived Praha neighborhood on the Near South Side) moved southwest, into
Chicago’s lumber district, and settled Pilsen. Before they got there, it was home to “ships, sailors, and
hotels of, shall we say, poor reputation,” Pacyga says. The Czechs transformed Pilsen, bringing their own
fraternal societies, newspapers, and churches.”
“According to Pacyga, the name Pilsen first showed up in that area in 1881 with the arrival of the Pilsen
Inn, a tavern that was once located at the corner of Fisk and McMullen streets—now Carpenter and 19th
Place. “The tavern was named after the town of Pilsen in Bohemia, and the neighborhood borrowed its
name from the inn,” explains the historian.”
Little Village
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2462.html
“Known by its residents as the “Mexico of the Midwest,” Little Village, officially a part of the South
Lawndale Community Area, has over the past 35 years joined Pilsen as a point of entry for Latino
immigrants to Chicago. A gateway on 26th Street proclaims “Bienvenidos a Little Village.”
Neighborhood organizations like the United Neighborhood Organization have sought to curb gang
violence and foster a sense of community solidarity. Little Village hosts the largest annual Latino parade
in Chicago, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators each September.”
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-by-l/neighborhoods/little-village
https://www.wbez.org/stories/south-lawndale-aka-little-village/08cd0f0a-248a-464d-84ec-75995bc6bec4
https://www.enlacechicago.org/littlevillagehistory
“The area was originally settled by Eastern European and Czech and Bohemian immigrants in the late
19th century, after the Great Chicago Fire sent the population of Chicago rippling out from the city's
center to the outlying countryside. Jobs created by industrial development in the early 20th century also
attracted residents to the area. Little Village saw a marked increase in Polish immigrants in the mid-20th
century.”
“Mexican and Chicano residents were pushed into the area by the mid-1960s due to segregationist
policies in the city of Chicago. As African American residents were pushed into East Garfield Park and
North Lawndale communities, this "forced Chicanos/Mexicanos south into Little Village" and the
neighboring community of Pilsen.”
“As Eastern European residents spread west from Pilsen, a shopping district known as “Czech California”
emerged around 26th Street in the South Lawndale area. But when the Czech residents started leaving for
the suburbs, and Hispanic and African-American populations started moving in, local merchants decided
to rebrand the area “Little Village” in an effort to keep white residents living (and shopping) in the area.”

4. ““The idea here was for the name to evoke a little European village,” said Pacyga. The scheme didn’t
quite pan out, and the white residents left for the western suburbs anyway.”
“The area’s Latino population, however, reinvigorated the district with shops and businesses of their own.
Proudly known as the “Mexican Magnificent Mile,” the thriving corridor generates the second-highest
revenue of any shopping district in the city. In 1991, a terra-cotta archway reading “Bienvenidos a Little
Village” was installed above 26th Street.”
Bronzeville
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/171.html
“After the Civil War, African Americans left the South in droves to find industrial jobs in Chicago. Many
of them settled on the city’s Near South Side. Originally, the city’s white population called the area “the
Black Belt” (along with other racist names). In 1930, an editor for the Chicago Bee newspaper named
James Gentry proposed rechristening the area as Bronzeville, arguing that the tone of its residents’ skin
more closely resembled bronze than black. The Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper with
a far-reaching circulation, embraced and popularized the term. The name reclaimed the neighborhood for
the black folks living there, said Pacyga, and made it more attractive to entrepreneurs and merchants.”
“In 1920 the African American population in Chicago was 109,894. Republican -oriented Negro leaders
like Alderman Oscar DePriest and Bishop Archibald Carey were referred to as “Race Men” because they
were blasting the downtown establishment on behalf of African Americans seeking a piece of the
sunshine pie.”
“The dominions that DePriest and Carey presided over were the Second and Third Wards on the South
Side, which were alternately referred to as the “Black Belt” or “Black Ghetto” and occasionally “Darkie
Town.” Geographically, the Second and Third Wards were bounded by 22nd Street on the north and 51st
Street on the south and Cottage Grove on the east and the Rock Island Railroad on the west. Many
citizens of color resented having their neighborhoods referred to as the “Black Belt” or “Black Ghetto” by
the major media.”
“James J. Gentry, a theater editor for Anthony Overton, the cosmetic king and publisher of the Chicago
Bee, suggested that they use his coined word Bronzeville to identify the community, since it more
accurately described the skin tone of most of its inhabitants. Overton supported the idea and in 1930 his
newspaper sponsored an unsuccessful Mayor of Bronzeville contest.”
“In 1932 Gentry left the Chicago Bee and carried his Mayor of Bronzeville idea to Chicago Defender
publisher Robert S. Abbott. Abbott jumped at Gentry's idea. Charles Browning, the Chicago Defender's
promotional genius, developed the Mayor of Bronzeville contest into the newspaper's second most
profitable promotion. The Bud Billiken Club and Parade were and still are the Chicago Defender's most
successful promotions.”
“The mayoral contest attracted many of the high-profile business and professional leaders in Bronzeville.
Thomas A. Dorsey, a mentor of Mahalia Jackson, was a candidate for the Mayor of Bronzeville, and Cora
Carroll, a businesswoman, was the Mayor of Bronzeville in the 1960s.”
https://interactive.wttw.com/dusable-to-obama/bronzeville
https://www.iit.edu/community-affairs/about/history-bronzeville

5. https://americanhistory.si.edu/many-voices-exhibition/creating-community-chicago-and-los-angeles-1900
%E2%80%931965/chicago/bronzeville
“In the early 20th century, Bronzeville was known as the "Black Metropolis", one of the nation's most
significant concentrations of African-American businesses.”
“Between 1910 and 1920, during an early peak of the "Great Migration", the population of the area
increased dramatically when thousands of black Americans escaped the oppression of the South and
migrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs.”
Back of the Yards
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/99.html
“An ornate limestone gate on Exchange Avenue stands as the only significant surviving relic of the
475-acre Union Stock Yard, the meatpacking district that opened in 1865 and made the city the “hog
butcher for the world.” The stockyards closed in 1971, but the area immediately to the west is still known
as Back of the Yards.”
“Early on, Back of the Yards wasn’t part of Chicago; it belonged to the independent Lake Township,
founded in 1850. The area’s population exploded after the Civil War, as workers and their families settled
west of the newly opened livestock complex.”
“Chicago annexed Lake Township in 1889, and the area officially became known as New City. The more
casual term “Back of the Yards” didn’t catch on until 1939, more than a decade after the stockyards hit
their peak.”
https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-by-l/neighborhoods/back-of-the-yards
“New City is one of Chicago's 77 official community areas, located on the southwest side of the city in
the South Side district. It contains the neighborhoods of Canaryville and Back of the Yards.”
“Back of the Yards is an industrial and residential neighborhood so named because it was near the former
Union Stock Yards, which employed thousands of European immigrants in the early 20th century. The
area was formerly part of the town of Lake until it was annexed by Chicago in 1889. In the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, the area was occupied largely by Eastern European immigrants and their
descendants, who were predominantly ethnic Bohemian, Moravian, and Slovak. Some time after the
1970s, when the stockyard operations closed and the number of nearby jobs decreased, many people left
to move to newer housing and work in the suburbs. The population of the neighborhood gradually
reflected a new wave of settlement, predominantly Mexican-American.”