Tag: Chicago history
It's cruise season on the Chicago River
We normally don't promote a lot of "go-and-do" events around the city, but in this case I'll make an exception. The Chicago Architecture Foundation [...]
Sweet home Chicago – 173 years young
On March 4, 1837, the town of Chicago became a city. Among the 11,000-plus images in our Flickr photostream are hundreds of stunning photos of our c [...]
Touring South Shore: High schools and heavyweights
The Nation of Islam's presence in South Shore has been so significant that, as a child, Jeff Heilbrunn's wife played around with the Fruit of Islam [...]
Touring South Shore: bungalows and block clubs
Jeff Heilbrunn wrote the book on block clubs. Literally. These neighborhood organizations have existed for decades, but Jeff, with the help of Build [...]
Neighborhoods for the rest of us: New City
Being a young transplant, just about everything I know about New City (and its sub-neighborhoods, Back of the Yards and Canaryville) comes from the hi [...]
Touring South Shore: Terror Town's troubles
For South Shore to rebound, someone will have address the problems of "Terror Town," an area plagued with boarded-up buildings and open-air drug mar [...]
Touring South Shore: Life on the lakefront
Even with the economic hurdles South Shore will have to clear in the coming years, there's still a lot to envy about the neighborhood, including its [...]
Touring South Shore: A neighborhood native's first trip to the old Country Club
If you don't know much about South Shore's history, you might be surprised to learn that a neighborhood native like Jeff Heilbrunn had never been in [...]
Touring South Shore, Part 1: History and the Highlands
Our link to RedEye's "next hot 'hood" article generated a lot of comments, some of which touched on the present and future of the South Shore on the [...]
Neighborhoods for the rest of us: South Triangle
The area we call the South Triangle is big enough to contain several South Side "neighborhoods for the rest of us." Within the boundaries of the Dan [...]
The Walter Burley Griffin homes of Beverly
The final segment of my Beverly and Morgan Park drive-around features the homes of Griffin Place (formerly 103rd Place), site of the largest concent [...]
Chicago's video history: the design and construction of Lake Point Tower
Jump into the YouTube time machine and travel back to the 1960s to see the construction of Lake Point Tower, the 70-story residential high-rise at 505 [...]
The Schoenhofen Brewery: a landmark in East Pilsen
Occasionally a reader or agent ask whether we've heard any news about the Schoenhofen Brewery. The two buildings, which form a landmark district in [...]
Hyde Park and Chicago politics
Living next door to the president's Chicago home can be like living in a "circus," according to neighbor Bill Grimshaw, who is selling his Hyde Park [...]
Jefferson, Lumber and Cermak, in East Pilsen
One of my favorite Chicago intersections is Jefferson, Lumber and Cermak, in East Pilsen, just west of the Chicago River.
The street names themselv [...]
Obama's neighbor on Harold Washington
Harold Washington, Chicago's first African-American mayor, launched his mayoral campaign in Bill and Jacky Grimshaw's dining room. The Grimshaws' po [...]
The media circus at President Obama's neighbor's house
YoChicago doesn't often cover resale homes, but when a client asks whether you'd like a slot between the Associated Press and NPR to interview the P [...]