Chicago Tribune, March 17, 1870
Tax Judgements.
Paving Griswold street, from Jackson to Van Buren street.
Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1870
South Division Name Changes.
The Committee on Streets and Alleys, South Division, reported ordinances changing the names of Griswold street to Pacific avenue, and Wells street to Fifth avenue. Laid over.
Griswold Street (“Biler Avenue”)
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1869
Chicago Evening Mail, October 25, 1870
Wells and Griswold Streets vs. Fifth and Pacific Avenues.
Ald. Calkins moved to reconsider the vote changing Wells street to Fifth avenue and Griswold to Pacific avenue.
Ald. Comiskey objected.
So did Ald. Hahn.
Ald. Holden liked the name Wells street. It was an old land mark.
So did Ald. Cox. A change of name would not change its morals.
Ald. Dixon thought a rose by any other name might smell sweeter.
The motion to reconsider was lost by, ayes 8; noes 18. So Wells street is Fifth avenue, and Griswold street is Pacific avenue.
The world breathes freer.
Chicago Evening Mail, March 14, 1871
Sedgwick street has the avenoodle fever and wants to be called “Sedgwick avenue” Since Archer road, Griswold street, Wells street and other thoroughfares celebrated for the aristocracy and virtue of their inhabitant have adopted the word “avenue” the word “street” has began to assume dignity and if the snobbish habit of discarding it continues the people on the respectable highways will begin to petition that they may again dwell upon a street “Avenue” is a good word if it is not abused.
Chicago Tribune, August 24, 1875
BILER STREET SURPRISED.
About Fifty Disreputable Men and Women Arrested—The Scene at the Armory Last Night.
Of course it must have been by order of Marshal Dunlap that Sergt. O’Connor’s entire platoon of police, from the Armory, sallied out at 10 o’clock last night an pulled. the Pacific avenue. or Biler street, en masse; for no other among the higher officers of the police has been guilty of such an act. The street referred to is inhabited by the very lowest of the offscourings of prostitution.—women
Who Have Lost All Shame and the last spark of decency,—the very scum of the degraded class to which they belong. They were cleverly surprised by the police, under O’Connor’s management, and forty-eight prisoners taken, including a few men and the keepers of ail the houses of ill-fame extending along Pacific avenue, from Harrison to Polk street, and embracing Nos. 110 to 156, inclusive.
The women were unceremoniously taken from their vile abodes, and amidst mingled oaths and the loudest and lowest imprecations and expressions, the howling mob was marched to the station close by, and ranged about the station-keeper’s desk. On finding that they were to be locked up and not so delicately dealt with as on former occasions, they set up a racket like that of pandemonium and
Acted Like So Many She-Devils.
They called the officers all the vilest names they could think of, and such as they only can think of sad cursed and raved like mad women. A few wore drank, and behaved in a worse manner, if possible, than the sober ones. Amid the confusion Officer Hayes succeeded in booking them, and they gave all sorts of euphonious and, fictitious names. They were locked up, and subsequently a number of them were bailed out and returned to their deserted dens. The balance kept up their howlings in the cells, sang ribald songs, quarreled with each other, and
Performed Like Demons
generally. A few showed evidences of former beauty, which had faded away and was covered with a coat of cosmetics; some very young scarcely more than 16 or 17 and others were abandoned and cruel wretches of the vilest description.
A gang of pimps who escaped the raid assembled near the station in a vain endeavor to assist their supporters. but were promptly dispersed and threatened with summary arrest if they showed themselves again.
The entire party will be brought before the Police Justice this morning, but it is not likely that anything more than a fine will be imposed on each of them. They will pay and return to their resorts. Therefore Marshal Dunlap’s well-meaning endeavor will go for naught, unless they are pulled almost nightly, and until the city is rid of their presence.
Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1879
A BIG RAID.
The Notorious Biler Avenue Becomes So Independent Under the Present Administration that the Police Have to “Pull” the Entire street.
The Democratic atmosphere couldn’t be expected to take effect simply around Clark and Madison streets and Fourth avenue. Seeing how their high-toned brethren and sisters were disporting themselves under the- protecting wing of the Eagle bird, the denizens of the – notorious Biler avenue “let loose the dogs” of war, so to speak, broke their chains, as it were, and positively refused, under any circumstances, to consider themselves bound to obey the mandates of the police. When some house became outrageously noisy and an officer was sent to warn the inmates to be decent, he was met with. “Oh, we don’t care for you now Carter Harrison’s Mayor: you go on, or we’ll get your star taken off.” Things came to such a pass that Captain Simon O’Donnell determined to stand it no longer, and yesterday Officer Duffy swore out warrants for the keeper of every house, and every inmate thereof, on “Biler,” from Harrison street to Polk. At 10 o’clock last night the street was environed. There was a squad at each end, and a long line of clubs and stars surmounting the ash-heaps. oyster-cans, and pile of dilapidated crockery in the rear alley, and a couple or so of urbane officers at each front door. From the queen, Ruby Bell, down to the veriest old hag of 50 odd, dressed in a cotton gown, with somebody else’s hair banged over her fore-head, and her wrinkled skin, face, and arms powdered with flour, not one escaped, and in thirty minutes forty-three forsaken, forlorn, debased creatures, old and young, black and white, were registered at the Armory.
Then the special bailer, who had scented the battle from afar, came around and gleaned many a 5 note for releasing the poor wretches from a night in the cells. The collection will grace Justice Summerfield’s docket to-day.
Captain O’Donnell states he would like it understood there was no malice, nothing of persecution in the pull, but that it was simply done in the interest of order and decency.
Chicago Tribune, October 8, 1879
LOCAL NEWS.
“Biler” avenue is about to wind up its notorious career. And, for the information of those who do not know, it may be stated that “Biler” avenue is that portion of Pacific avenue south of Harrison street. The west side of the street is formed by the great freight-depot, and the east side is lined with dens of the lowest class of prostitutes. Why the name “Biler ” was applied to it, no one exactly knows, and probably no one cares. For stabbing affrays, and all similar broils, for billingsgate, for robberies of Grangers, and in fact for all sorts of wickedness. “Biler” avenue never had an equal. Thus Clark street again bids fair to become as disreputable as it and Wells street were in ante-fire times. Already it is lined with dens of the vilest of the vile, and within a few more days its condition will be simply fearful, unless something is done to prevent hariotry and concert saloons from gaining any farther hold upon it. An exodus from Pacific, the notorious “Biler,” avenue, has been commenced. A Jewish congregation owning a Synagog in the middle of the block between Harrison and Polk streets have determined to rid the street of the baneful presence of the lewd women who infest it, and have begun prosecutions against the owners of the bagnios. Four real-estate owners were summoned as owners of houses of ill-repute, and State warrants were sworn out for the others. Officer Samonski was given these latter to serve last night, but the proprietresses of the bagnios had got wind of it, and could not be found. Several have already moved to Clark street, and the rookeries which they inhabited are now abandonel. The Jewish people are in earnest, and soon “Biler” avenue will be no more.
“Biler” Avenue”
Robinson Fire Insurance Map
1886
Chicago Tribune, May 21, 1882
Biler Avenue, the Levee, Cheyenne, Little Hell, Etc.
There are certain geographical names current in this city familiar to all readers of Chicago newspapers. Among these are “Cheyenne,” “Bridgeport,” the “Levee,” etc. Yet, often as these names are used, it would puzzle most Chicaoans outside of the great army of policemen, reporters, and hackmen to bound the districts to which these names apply. Some of these designations have been in vogue for many years, and yet it is probable that ninety-nine out of a hundred Chicagoans, if asked where “Biler avenue” was by an inquiring stranger, would be unable to give an intelligent answer. Names of this character, the happy thought often of some policeman, sometimes of a newspaper writer, come and go. The names which described the hard districts of other days have passed away as the sections which they described were improved into decency. At one time “The Sands” was the notorious section of Chicago. Everybody knew what was meant when that term was used. Few know now that the territory to which it related was nothing but a little strip at the eastern end of Michigan street, near where the Peshtigo lumber-yards now are, where nine or ten frame houses, the most pretentious two stories high, embraced the howling crime and wickedness of young Chicago. But “The Sands” have disappeared, and with them other designations of former days. One of the most frequent of these was of “The Patch.” There was much more vacant prairie then to be squatted on, property owned by non-residents, producing nothing, and which lay open for the shanty of the first comer. One of these patches over on the West Side was known as “Killgubbin.” On the same side of the river were “Kansas” and “Nebraska”—names bearing witness to the date when they were given. About the only surviving patch now is the Italian settlement on Indiana avenue, near Fourteenth.
The frequent names of today arg the ones given below. There is
“Biler Avenue”,
for instance, which is an illustration of the uselessness of reforming a street by changing its name. This interesting avenue begins at Van Buren street, just east of the Rock Island depot, and runs south a few blocks. It used to be known as Griswold street, and a very bad and disreputable thoroughfare it was. In order to improve it and tone up its women, its name was changed to Pacific avenue; but by that designation it was known for only a short time. Somebody noticing that the residents of the street, most of who are women without husbands, got biling drunk, and were in a state of constant riot and effervescence, gave it the name of “Biler avenue,” which it has held for years, and which it will probably continue to hold until such time as the reforming influences of the new Board of Trade building have purified the atmosphere down, there.
Prior to 1867 there could have been no Cheyenne in Chicago, for there was no Cheyenne anywhere. That Western town, in its early years, had the rough reputation which attaches to nearly all frontier settlements, and for that reason the name was given to that section of the South Side stretching along both sides of Clark street from Van Buren south to Twelfth, and including a large portion of the territory east of Clark-a section where is unsafe for a man to go at night with any money on him, and where it is unsafe for a person to go in the daytime if he wishes to avoid solicitation first, and insult afterwards.
“The Levee.”
which takes in a stretch of State street from Van Buren south to Twelfth, is a name borrowed from New Orleans or some other Mississippi River city. Pretty much all residents of the South Side have passed along that part of State street after sunset, and are familiar to a certain extent with its peculiar characteristics-its loose women, its disreputable saloons, its bad theatres, and its Italian ice-cream shops. Just what similarity there is between such a thoroughfare and a levee, with its cotton bales, molasses hogsheads, steamboats, and roustabouts, any person with an imaginative turn of mind can see for himself.
Another word which is used with a broad and general meaning is
“Bridgeport.”
Originally, Bridgeport Addition to Chicago meant the mile square lying between Twenty-second and Thirty-first streets and Halsted and Ashland avenue. It was laid out at the time of the starting of the canal. Then it was a remote settlement near the locks, reached by a laborious journey down the Archer road. Now Bridgeport has become a generic term for smells, for riots, bad whisky, and poor cigars. People speak of “Bridgeport stinks” at a time when there is hardly a rendering-house left in what was Bridgeport, and of “Bridgeport riots” when, after all, the more disorderly section lies a mile south of there, near the Stock- Yards.
Another fond and endearing name is “Little Hell.” This is a policeman’s term, meant to
designate the affectionate and tender habits of the inhabitants of some particular little district. There was a few years ago one “Little Hell” over on the North Side, north of Chicago avenue. near Crosby and Larrabee. Of late years, however, the Devil has left that part of the country, and is now, according to the police, quartered in a West Side “Little Hell.” to wit: on Williams street, between Aberdeen and Centre avenue.
Let Them Alone.
These more notorious districts, such as “Biler avenue”and the “Levee,” have not been described so minutely in order that the stranger may have better opportunities for finding where they are—he has been able in the past, and probably will be in the future, to discover their whereabouts with very little construction—but he is advised not only to keep shy of them, but also of another place which is equally dangerous, not, perhaps, to reputation, but certainly to the pocket, and that is the “Allley,” a part of the block bounded by Madison and Washington, and Clark and La Salle streets, where are located the “bucket-shops,” in which he can get rid of more money in less time than he can by throwing all he has into the fire, and the benefits are about equal.
Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1901
Because several business houses and a bank which propose to move into Pacific avenue did not want their stationery headed “No.——, Pacific avenue,” the name of the street has been changed to La Salle street. The Council took the necessary action on Monday, night, and what was Pacific avenue is now part of the financial street of the city.
This change has given new illustration to the theory, to change the character of a street, change its name.” Alderman Kenna, the most recent convert to the idea, declares that there is a time coming when Custom-House place and Plymouth place will come into the Council for a clean bill of health.
It is not claimed that the power of a changed name will accomplish everything. It even is admitted that the change may be the indication of a reform and not the cause, but the new name is given a part of the credit for the reformation. There have been a number of instances in the past. Market street, which was the home of the “Market street gang,” was changed to Orleans street, and little has been heard of the Market street gang since.
It is argued that business-men and residents will not try to live down the character of a street until the name has lost its old associations and begins to represent new ideas. It is easier to change the name. This is recognized as being especially the case where the street is a small jog on the map which has attained an abnormal reputation. Where a part of the street has come into bad repute and the remainder is untarnished there would be little disposition to attempt reform by changing the name. This would be the case with Clark street.
“Changing the name of a street is the biggest kind of a reforming measure,” said Alderman Kenna. You have to change the name of a bad street if you want to change it in other ways. I had the name of Pacific avenue changed because some business houses and a bank wanted to come in.”
Pacific avenue already has worn out two names. Before the fire it was Griswold street. When that got too bad it was changed to Pacific avenue, and now it starts again as La Salle street.
Inter Ocean, November 17, 1902
Another Blow at the Slums.
The completion of the new Rock Island depot and the accompanying elevation of the railway tracks centering at that terminal bid fair to be marked by a transformation of the physical character of the entire neighborhood.
The southern boundary line of the better class of mercantile buildings has been moving steadily since the erection of the Board of Trude building in its present location. Up to a recent period the “board of trade clock was deserived as being bounded by Jackson street on the north, Van Buren street on the south, Pacifie avenue on the east, and Sherman street on the west.” Pacific avenue, formerly known as “Biler” avenue, has lately become an extension of La Salle street, and it is proper to speak of Jackson street as Jackson boulevard in these days.
Although the removal of the board of trade from the chamber of commerce site, southeast corner of Washington and La Salle streets, was the signal for skyscraper construction on La Salle street, and although during the last twenty years the movement of commission and banking firms has been uninterruptedly southward, both on La Salle and Dear born streets, yet Van Buren street has been regarded as the southern limit of the board of trade distriet, and until the present costly terminal improvements of the Rock Island and Lake Shore companies were fully under way there was no disposition on the part of moneyed men of interests to seek real. estate investments below that thorough-fare.
At present, however, there is a decided tendency in the direction of Harrison street, and even to a point farther south, and the probability is that within the next five years the blocks immediately south of the Rock Island depot, and those surrounding it, will bear a striking resemblance to those now lying to the north.
The elevation of the railway tracks of course, contributes largely to the desirable change in the prospects of a section of the South Side which has heretofore been anything but inviting. Already plans are made for the erection of magnificent mercantile establishments in that section at a cost of millions of dollars, and not the least pleasing feature of the movement that is going on in real estate throughout the neighborhood is the fact that it means another and a stunning blow to the South Side slums.
RUBY BELL
Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1877
Ruby Bell has a mountain of trouble upon her carroty red head. She has been held to the Criminal Court repeatedly, but always manages to escape any severe punishment. Yesterday she again made herself objectionable. Laura Madden, residing at No. 148 Fourth avenue, while passing Ruby’s den on “Biler” avenue, made an insulting remark about Ruby keeping a colored pimp. Ruby’s red- haired temper got the better of her, and, wrenching off the knob from the door, she rushed out and hammered her until she became insensible. The wounded girl was carried into No. 124 on the same street, and although her head. neck, and shoulders were badly mangled and cut, no medicine-man was summoned, because the wherewithal could not be raised. Ruby was arrested by Detective Gallagher as she was making her escape by a rear door.
Chicago Tribune, December 1, 1879
Only a few days ago Ruby Bell, the red-headed fiend of Pacific avenue, started a neat little cigar-stand at No. 310 Clark street, and every body who knew her thought she was going to carry out some of her many promises to reform. But last night all these hope were dashed tt pieces. William Overacker, a very green countryman from Omaha, stepped into the attractive cigar store, and, finding a good-looking woman behind the counter, commenced chatting, and then fooling with her. As a result. Ruby swooped down upon $155 cash in his inner vest-pocket. Overacker went to the Armory to report his loss, and Ruby closed up shop and got out of the way to escape arrest.
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