1890—Smoky Hollow

Chicago Tribune, February 21, 1954

By Gladys Priddy
Years ago you could live in Kilgubbin or the Patch and be in the very same place all of the time.

You could call home Swede Town, Shantytown (The Sands), the “Fifty Acres,” Smoky Hollow, the Gold Coast, Streeterville, or Little Hell—and you’d still be on the Near North Side.

All of these communities and more are part of the area set off from Chicago’s 74 other communities by the main and north channels of the Chicago river, North av., and the lake. Boundaries, as set by the United States census bureau are outlined in the Local Community Fact Book for Chicago 1950, source material in this article. The book is a publication of the Chicago Community Inventory, University of Chicago.

Bridges Attract Industry.
Near North Side qualifies as an old settler in the city’s family of communities included in 1837 at the city’s incorporation. Homes, great and small, and industries were being built in the area practically from the beginning.

Bridges built over the river at Rush st. in 1856 and at Erie st. and Grand av. the next year attracted several large industries, however, including the McCormick Reaper works. Thousands of small frame cottages, homes of workingmen, were built, especially west of Wells st. Between Michigan av. and the lake was the Sands or Shantytown, a district of wooden buildings which underwent raiding and burning late in the 1850s.

The 1860 population was 29,922, including many Irish and German immigrants. The Irish settled along the river as far east as State st. in Kilgubbin or the Patch. The Germans lived in small frame cottages and did truck gardening north of Chicago av. and east of Clark st. In the 1850s, Swedes settled between Grand av., Erie and Orleans sts. and the river; this was Swede Town.

Three Miles Around.
Pattern of settlement was simple; in three parts, it was transportation, work, and workers. Horse car lines began in 1859, the north side system starting at the river and following Clark st. Plants and factories expanded north along the river. More workers moved into the area’s frame cottages now often being built two to a lot.

In 1864, Chicago was built up solidly for 3 miles in every direction.

The wealthy had begun moving south. Near North Side was becoming increasingly surrounded by factories and slms. From 1862 to 1870, the population doubled, from 35,000 to 70,000. And business built up along the car lines.

Then the fire of 1871 wiped out everything.

Near North Side needed a year to catch its breath, and then rebuilding proceeded along the already established pattern. Exception was some Irish who couldn’t comply with new regulations so went north of Chicago av. to the “Fifty Acres” to build cheap wooden structures along the river to North av.

Introduce Cable Cars.
The North Western railway in the 1890s laid track along the north branch and the resultant railroad and factory smoke gave the river front district another name—Smoky Hollow.

Late 19th century also brought cable lines to Clark and Wells sts., and the Northwestern elevated was started. Business grew at transfer points.

When Potter Palmer filled in marsh land and built himself a mansion in 1882 (the landmark was razed four years ago for the present 22 story twin tower apartment at 1350 Lake Shore dr.), society began deserting the west and south sides and moving north again (reversing the trens of 20 years). By 1893, near North Side had a fashionable section of three story mansions, and seven years later, Palmer was putting expensive apartments on the drive.

While Palmer was developing Lake Shore dr., George Wellington Streeter in 1886 claimed the lake front north of the mouth of the river by squatter’s rights. Litigation went on for years over what Streeter called the “Deestrict of Lake Michigan,” and that is how the Near North Side east of Michigan av. came to be called Streeterville.

Another section was getting a name, too—in the 1880s and 1890s the part of Wells st. was becoming a blighted area into which more and more Swedes were moving—tho there were plenty of Irish left—and it became “Little Hell.”

Convert to Studios.
Residentially, the 1900-1920 period saw the old areas of homes near the Loop converted to warehouse and wholesale house use. Clark st., where business had bloomed along the horse car line, was becoming a street of hotels, second hand stores, and places of entertainment. Industry was pushing north and east from the river. Houses that survived razing for factories or stores were converted to rooming houses.

Towertown came to be the name of an area around Chicago av. where the houses were converted to studios. New mansions were built on Lake Shore dr. from Bellevue pl. to Lincoln park—but the blight west of Wells st. had spread its contaminating fingers to North av.

Also, the Italians were moving in on the Irish and Swedes between Sedgwick st. and the riverside industrial fringe—coming so fast that by 1920, “Little Sicily,” bounded by Chicago av., Orleans, Larrabee, and Division sts., was the most densely populated Italian district in Chicago.

Negroes and Persians began moving into Near North Side in 1900. Later on Greeks came.

The Town and Garden apartments, built in 1928, and the Chicago housing authority’s Frances Cabrini homes put up in 1942 replaced depressed areas in the north central part of the community. However, blighted areas generally have deteriorated further and moved east.

Average Citizen is 35.
New building has gone on somewhat steadily, too. The Merchandise Mart, finished in 1930, flanked the southwest sector where factories and wholesale houses were penetrating the blight. High apartments have gone up in the northeast and in Streeterville. East of Michigan av. is Northwestern university’s growing Chicago campus and a center of hospitals.

As a statistic, the Near North Sider of the 1950 census has a median age of 34.8—could be of almost any origin. His income median is $3,262, or lower than the city-wide median of $3,956.

7th in Retail Trade.
Yet, 70.5 per cent of the dwelling units was up before 1920. The community’s public assistance rate bears testimony to the humbleness of the west end, for 71.1 persons per 1,000 get some kind of public aid (31.2 is city-wide rate). High use of its residential areas is shown in the density of 35,800 persons per square mile, or more than twice the 17,200 city-wide distribution. The area of densest Negro settlement is west of La Salle st. between Chicago av. and Division st.

Window dressing for all of this is swank Michigan av. where the north end in 1948 ranked 7th among Chicago’s leading retail centers. And not to be forgotten are Rush st., Clark st., Chicago av., and State st. where business flourishes, sometimes in the form of places to eat, drink, and be entertained.

For Near North Side is whatever you seek—a place of healing, learning, pleasure, business . . . or just a place to live.

Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1996

It had all the makings of a history-making announcement: bureaucrats and elected officials flanking Mayor Richard M. Daley, plus a color-coded map that allowed them to paint a rosy picture of transforming the notorious Cabrini-Green housing development into a thriving neighborhood.

But the framework for a new Cabrini, announced Thursday, at a City Hall news conference, still lacks essential touches if officials are to make good on a promise of better days for Cabrini, a national symbol of public housing woes.

Conspicuously absent from the stage on which Daley stood were Cabrini resident leaders, whose lawyer labeled Daley’s plan a blueprint for destroying their community. The project’s financing is vague; it took repeated questions from reporters until a Daley aide pulled a figure out of the air, tagging the cost at $1 billion.

Even the mayor warned not to expect miracles.

“It will not happen overnight,” Daley said. “Clearly there will be bumps in the road as we work through our differences.”

Those differences are strong, though Daley and CHA Executive Director Joseph Shuldiner assured that no Cabrini resident will be displaced. But Richard Wheelock, lawyer for the Cabrini-Green residents, called the plan “ethnic cleansing, Chicago style.”

“This is the land grab that the residents have been in fear of for years,” he said. “And it’s now coming to pass.”

Chicago Tribune, September 7, 1922

“Smoky Hollow,” that history-crammed piece of Chicago west of Wells street, between Chicago avenue and Division street, is changing its racial complexion for the fourth time in forty years, and this time the switch is being made almost overnight.

A study of racial conditions at the back door of the gold coast, evoked by the clash between whites and colored people in Lincoln park on Labor day, yesterday revealed that this region, which used to be called Little Hell, originally Irish, then Swedish, then Italian, is now rapidly becoming colored. This trend of population accounts for the larger numbers of colored people now seen in Lincoln park.

And the colored people are overflowing the old boundaries of Smoky Hollow and are infiltrating the streets to the north and east—north as far as Blackhawk street and east to Clark.

Increase About 100 Per Cent.
Old-timers put the number of colored residents in the district bounded by Grand avenue, Division street, the river and Clark street, three years ago, at from 3,000 to 3,500. The families were scattered and the colored people were for the most part employed in boarding houses, hotels and in some cases in homes as servants or janitors.

Now the number is estimated at 6,500, an increase of approximately 100 per cent. Many of the newcomers work in the downtown district. The 1919 race riots on the south side proved a stimulus to the northward migration of the colored people. The increase in the last year is estimated at 50 per cent, and in some blocks on Townsend street it has been 100 per cent in six months. Two years ago there were only two colored families in Townsend street, old residents say.

Cambridge street has been given over to the colored for two blocks south of Division street; new homes are being established by them on Franklin street from Grand avenue to Division street. Wells street is being rapidly turned over to them. Division street from Wells street clear to Halsted street, is peppered with the race, members of which live above the shops and stores. Clybourn avenue is receiving its quota just north of Division street.

Process Is Interesting.
On the near north side seven churches have established to take care of the religious needs of the newcomers. One colored pastor told a Tribune reporter that ultimately, by slow infiltration, colored people will occupy the entire district between Clark and Halsted streets and North and Grand avenues.

Dispossession of the whites, who are for the most part Italians and Swediah, is accomplished in an interesting fashion. A colored family moves into a basement, paying from $7 to $15 more month rent from the old tenants were willing or able to pay. The white tenant on the first floor moves out when his lease expires. A colored family then goes in on the first floor. Next, the second floor white tenants vacate and soon the building is occupied by the colored race.

According to the government analysis of Chicago census figures by wards, there is not a single ward in Chicago without its colored population. In 1900 the city had 30,150 colored citizens; in 1910, the number had crawled up to 44,103 when the colored population was 2 per cent of the total population, and in 1920 Chicago had 109,458, an increase of 147 per cent. At present the colored population is more than 4 per cent of the population.

Great Influx Due to War.
The big importations of colored labor from the south by packing firms during the war is regarded as the major cause of the city’s unprecedented increase in colored population. But now that the war is over and even during the period of unemployment which followed the war few of those who came north have returned to their southern homes. The wider privileges enjoyed by their race in the north apparently influenced them to endure the privations which accompanied unemployment.

The ward figures show that the old term “black belt” for the city’s Negro district is now a misnomer. The city is more speckled tan belted with blacks.

Population by Wards.
Here are a few of the ward colored populations:

The smallest number in any one ward, according to the 1920 census, was seven in the Seventeenth. Almost no infiltrations have been made among the old Irish and German populations of the Fourth ward, which contained only sixteen colored citizens in 1920.

In their search for homes the colored people have established concentrated colonies as far south as Morgan Park and as far north as Waukegan, with a large and thriving colony in Evanston and another narrow one in the Winthrop avenue district. The big colony on West Lake and Fulton streets is slowly being crowded out by factories.

Massmeeting in Evanston.
Leaders of Evanston’s colored population met last night in Emerson street Y.M.C.A. and protested action of Northwestern university in barring all but students from a mile strip of beach near the campus.

It was also voted to organize the 4,000 colored citizens of Evanston immediately into a compact group to fight for business, civic, political and realty rights in the city.

An instance of alleged discrimination which brought much comment was that colored co-eds at Northwestern university had been ordered to stay out of the university swimming pool. A committee, it was said, waited on President Walter Dill Scott in vain.

The new organization, it was decided, will oppose vigorously “any racial discrimination” in the town.

Nicholas White, butler for John C. Shaffer, publisher, declared that much of the beach troubles of the colored people are due to the rudeness of their children. He advised that correction begin at home, that colored children be trained to behave themselves in public places.

Cabrini Green,

Chicago Tribune, February 15, 1940

“One neighborhood may be known as Little Hell or Black Hollow to the federal housing authorities, but it is home to us and we want to stay there.”

That was the sentiment yesterday of a committee representing 160 property owners and residents of the near north side area which the Chicago Housing authority seeks to acquire for its latest housing project, to be financed by the federal government. The committee appeared before Ald. Arthur G. Lindell (9th), chairman of the city council housing committee, to protest the housing authority’s proposal. The members accused the authority’s agents of deception and unfair tactics.

Action to Be Deferred,
Later Ald. Lindell and council leaders conferred with Mayor Kelly. The mayor then announced that council action on the proposed project probably will be deferred several weeks to give the property owners time to develop some other plans for neighborhood improvement.
poster
The Chicago Housing authority plans to build the $10,002,271 project in an area bounded by Larrabee, Division, and Sedgwick streets and a line one-half block north of Chicago avenue.

Attorney Lawrence Marino, 902 Cambridge avenue, one of the spokesmen for the protest committee, said:

Charges They’re Kept in Dark.
We have asked the housing authority for some idea of the price they will give for our property. That might help us in planning our own future. But we have been kept in the darkness.

“You aren’t the only ones,” Ald. Lindelll remarked. “The housing authority keeps the city council in the same darkness. We didn’t know they planned to build a project in your district any sooner than you did.”

“Seventy-five per cent of the residents of this district are property owners,” spoke up Dr. A. J. Lendino, 1429 Sedgwick street, a dentist.

“We did have a reputation for crime and delinquency and at one time had the name of Little Hell, but our north side civic committee has been cleaning things up. We now have seven Boy Scout troops.

Chicago Tribune, June 25, 1942

The Frances Cabrini Homes, Chicago’s first war housing project now under construction on the near north side, may have their tenants 100 noncommissioned navy officers and instructors stationed at Navy Pier. The Chicago Housing authority announced yesterday that applicants for apartments in the Cabrini project at Oak street and Hudson avenue must be war industry workers or military or civilian employés of the armed services below the rank of a commissioned officer. The 100 naval men are among the applicants for occupancy.

Cabrini Green,

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