Category: Chicago history
Historical information about Chicago, its neighborhoods and its housing.
Church of the day: St Michael in the Old Town Triangle
Holy Name Cathedral is often considered the king of Chicago's Catholic churches (it is, after all, the seat of Archdiocese of Chicago). But I'd arg [...]
The Chicago Executive Golf Club in Morgan Park
We were dying to get the story behind the Chicago Executive Golf Club, on 115th near Laflin Street in Morgan Park, but it was closed Sunday when we [...]
Beverly / Morgan Park: snapshot histories
To see how these neighborhoods grew from prairie outposts to settled enclaves stocked with historic houses, check out the Encyclopedia of Chicago's [...]
Lake View mayor holes up in City Hall
The time was 1889, and the mayor was protesting his township's annexation to Chicago, which needed the population to qualify for the 1893 World's Fa [...]
Tour historic Glessner and Clarke house museums in Prairie Avenue District
We would be remiss if we ended Prairie District day without at least mentioning two official landmark houses, each now a museum, in this historic en [...]
The history of the Prairie District with Tina Feldstein
Once home to Chicago's rich and famous, the historic neighborhood pocket known as the Prairie Avenue District has returned to prominence during the [...]
Farewell Sacred Heart Chapel
The Lake Forest City Council last night approved a plan to raze the wing of the former Barat College that houses Sacred Heart Chapel - a final blow [...]
Clock ticks on Olympic nod
As you've no doubt heard, the United States Olympic Committee announces tomorrow whether Chicago or Los Angeles will join the international competit [...]
Beverly offers great architecture, ghosts and even some new construction
Builders and buyers of new homes have paid more attention to the South Side in recent years. The South Loop's building boom has pushed into neighborho [...]
A drive through the McCormick Row House District
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks calls the McCormick
Row House District "a fine example of late-19th century residential architecture and plannin [...]
Washington Square Landmark District
Take one or two buildings of landmark or near-landmark quality. Add in a few third-rate old buildings nearby. Hire an architectural historian to wax [...]
A Wrigleyville slum for the dead?
No, not Wrigley Field. The Cubs ain't dead yet.
That's the Sun-Times take on Jewish Graceland, a cemetery that's perhaps a future condo site.
Barb [...]
Chicago's River North neighborhood: a snapshot history
River North is implanted in the minds of many Chicagoans as a ritzy enclave of upper-income homes. The venerable Encyclopedia of Chicago explains that [...]
New sidewalks underway – Chicago's Heart of Italy
We thought we'd celebrate the start of construction season with these photos taken just a short dash to the east of Heart of Italy, where city worke [...]
South Kenwood's Harvard School converting to condos
When planning the conversion of the Harvard School for Boys in the South Side's Kenwood neighborhood, developer Steve Soble pored over old yearbooks [...]
Brush up on your South Triangle history
Kick off South Triangle week at YoChicago with a little history lesson on the neighborhoods we're looking at:
Chatham, which "has the distinction of [...]
Lathrop Homes makes Landmarks Illinois' endangered list
Lathrop Homes, the public housing complex at Diversey and Damen, has made Landmarks Illinois' list of 10 most endangered historic places for 2007, the [...]
The Gold Coast's wooden alley
In 1891, three billion board feet of lumber passed through Chicago's thriving lumber market, and Chicago had 481 miles of wood-paved streets.
Only [...]
Ramova Theater in Bridgeport to be restored
Plans are in the works to turn Bridgeport's historic Ramova Theater into a restaurant and bakery, according to a tidbit buried towards the back of a [...]
See photographs of lost Chicago at lunchtime lecture
Photographer Richard Nickel was one of Chicago's most passionate preservationists. Indeed, he died in 1972 inside Louis Sullivan's circa-1890s Stock [...]