| 1837 |
Eastern
portion of Near West Side is in city boundaries when Chicago
is incorporated. |
| 1846 |
St.
Patrick's Church founded at Adams and DesPlaines by Irish immigrants.
|
| 1848 |
Bulls
Head Stockyards opens on Ashland Avenue.
|
| 1856 |
Charles
J. Hull, an Anglo-Saxon real estate developer, builds a country
home for his family at Polk and Halsted
|
| l857 |
Father Arnold J. Damen, a Jesuit priest, establishes Holy Family
parish at Roosevelt and May to serve the expanding Irish population.
|
| 1863 |
St. Wenceslaus, Chicago's first Bohemian Church, is built at
DeKoven and DesPlaines.
|
| 1871 |
Great Chicago Fire begins in the Patrick O'Leary barn at 137
DeKoven Street.
|
| 1870s
|
Horse
drawn streetcar begins on Madison Street linking loop to the
west side of city.
|
| 1880s |
Italians in great numbers begin to occupy area east of Halsted
Street.
|
| 1886 |
German workers protesting in favor of the eight hour day clash
with police in the Haymarket Incident.
|
| 1889 |
Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr open their social settlement,
Hull-House, in Charles Hull's old mansion at Polk and Halsted
Street.
|
| 1890s |
Jewish immigrants from Russia, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and
other Eastern European countries settle in great numbers in
the Maxwell Street area south of Hull-House.
|
| 1895 |
Hull-House residents publish Hull-House Maps and Papers:
A Presentation of Nationalities and Wages in a Congested District
of Chicago.
|
| 1899
|
Holy
Guardian Angel, the neighborhood's first Italian church is established.
|
| 1900 |
Greek immigrants begin settling in great numbers in the area
just north of Hull-House.
|
| 1903
|
The
Chicago Hebrew Institute is established in Maxwell Street area
to serve expanding Jewish population.
|
| 1908 |
Hull-House has grown to a thirteen-building complex and offers
a vast array of programs and activities to neighborhood residents.
|
| 1910 |
Great Clothing Workers Strike involves neighborhood people from
many ethnic groups as well as Hull-House residents.
|
| 1924 |
United States immigrant quota system restricts flow of southern
and eastern Europeans to the neighborhood. Mexicans and African
Americans begin to settle in neighborhood in significant numbers.
|
| 1927 |
St.
Francis of Assisi Church on Roosevelt Road is designated a Spanish-speaking
parish and soon becomes the spiritual home for Mexicans in Chicago.
|
| 1937 |
Jane
Addams' Homes, a pioneer Chicago public housing project, is
completed near Taylor and Racine providing safe, clean housing
for neighborhood residents.
|
| 1943 |
Robert
Brooks Homes at l4th and Loomis are built in a largely African
American section of the neighborhood.
|
| 1940s |
Significant
numbers of African Americans migrating from the south during
and after World War II settle in the neighborhood.
|
| 1955 |
Grace
Abbott Homes, seven high-rise public housing buildings (named
after former Hull-House resident) open just south of Roosevelt
Road.
|
| 1950s |
Three
major expressways, the Congress (Eisenhower), the Kennedy, and
the Dan Ryan are built to converge in the neighborhood.
|
| 1950s |
The
city's Near West Side Urban Renewal program clears 37 acres
of land in the neighborhood to make way for construction of
new single family homes while the western section of the area
is designated to be saved and rehabilitated.
|
| 1961 |
Mayor
Daley designates the neighborhood as the site for a new University
of Illinois urban campus.
|
| 1961-3 |
Neighborhood
residents protest Daley's decision to build the University in
the neighborhood.
|
| 1963-5 |
First
phase of University campus is completed and opens to students.
|
| 1967 |
Jane
Addams' Hull-House Museum, consisting of two original buildings,
is opened.
|
| 1970s |
Residential
area in western part of the neighborhood is renovated and upgraded
according to original plan.
|
| 1982 |
UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) is formed by consolidation
of east side University campus with Medical Campus on west side.
|
| 1985 |
Presidential
Towers, four high-rise buildings containing more than 2,300
upscale rental apartments and shops, is opened at Madison and
Clinton.
|
| 1980s |
A
significant amount of other new residential construction is
completed in the neighborhood as the area continues to undergo
gentrification.
|
|
To
learn more about Jane Addams and Hull-House:
Biography of Jane
Addams
Chronology of Jane Addam's Life
Suggestions
for additional reading:
Works by Jane
Addams
Works about Jane Addams
Works about Jane Addams For Young
Readers
Works about Hull-House
Works about the Women of Hull-House
Pictured above: The Gonnella Bakery
Wagons on Sangamon Street, ca. 1900. University of Illinois
at Chicago, The University Library, Special Collections, Italian
American Collection, IAC neg. 237.1
|
Near
West Side Chronology