Chicago Community Area #18 - Montclare

Tonight I rode straight out on Armitage until it turned into Grand, out to Montclare. Montclare is on the western edge of the city, so Grand Avenue is sort of a gateway into Chicago. Hence there are pillars on both sides of the street which welcome people entering the city from west at Grand and Harlem. The pillars carry the Y-shaped symbol of Chicago, its four traditional stars and the motto "I will". Until today, I wasn't aware that "I Will" is one of Chicago's mottos. I only knew about "Urbs in Horto" - City in a Garden. The Chicago Public Library has a web page where they explain the symbolism behind the official Chicago city flag. Each of the six points on the four stars has symbolism. One of the points on the fourth star symbolizes the "I Will" motto. Another one of the points symbolizes the city's Latin motto (Urbs in Horto). Mayor Daley at one time entertained the idea of changing the city motto to "City of Children", evoking much discussion and debate.

Being on the edge of the city, Montclare is a relatively quiet neighborhood, primarily residential, and the local "downtown" area has a distinctive small town flavor. Further east, the car dealships bring you back to the reality of the city with their bright lights.

Chicago Community Area #34 - Armour Square

After fixing my flat and stopping at the 31st Street beachhouse, I headed up the lakefront path to 18th Street, just south of Soldier Field. The path from the lakefront to the 18th Street overpass wasn't marked at all, but I followed a couple of bikers who looked like the knew where they were going and eventually found it.

I stopped at Battle of Fort Dearbourn park (in the Near South Side community area) which had just been renamed, formerly Fort Dearbourn Massacre park, the day before. The park, located at 18th and Calumet, commemorates the battle between the Native Americans and the soldiers and settlers of Fort Dearbourn as the latter were fleeing the fort which was located in present-day downtown Chicago near Michigan and Wacker.

Continuing west on 18th to Wentworth, I entered Armour Square, better known as Chinatown. I avoided the main drag on Archer Avenue and on Wentworth south of 22nd (Cermak), and I headed straight for my favorite spot in Chinatown - Ping Tom Park. You will probably never find this park unless you know that it's there and you're looking for it. It's tucked in behind some townhouses on 19th. From 18th and Wentworth, go one block south to 19th. Turn right on 19th and go about a block west. When 19th ends at Tan Ct, veer right along a path over two railroad tracks. You'll see the Chinese-style pavilion along the river in the park. The park also includes a children's playground and a beautiful walking path.

The park is named for a Chinese businessman, Mr. Ping Tom, who worked on behalf of the Chicago Chinese community. Mr. Tom served as a trustee for a number of important civic and cultural institutions and was an advisor to US Senators, Illinois Governors and Chicago Mayors.

Chicago Community Area #36 - Oakland

I continued eastward on 47th to Drexel Blvd which is in the Kenwood neighborhood, but I didn't stop or take any photos in Kenwood on this day. Turning north on Drexel Blvd, I rode north into Oakland, a small community along the lakefront from 35th to 43rd. There's a small Chicago Landmark neighborhood in Oakland but it took me a while to find the houses I was looking for on 4100 block of S Berkeley. It started raining fairly hard and I took cover along the old railroad embankment along 41st Street. This embankment once held the Kenwood line of the Chicago L, but it was abandoned in 1957. The side of the embankment along Drexel has been painted with a strongly-themed mural.

While I was tooling around looking for 4100 Berkeley, I found a marker commemorating the place where Hannah Greenebaum Solomon lived at 4060 S. Lake Park Avenue. Ms. Greenebaum was a social reformer who lived from 1858-1942. She was the founder of the National Council of Jewish Women. She worked on behalf of Jane Addams's Hull House (which I intentionally passed on my way home) and she represented the United States at the Internation Council of Women in Berlin in 1904. The other representative was Susan B. Anthony. Being fluent in French and German, Greenebaum translated for Anthony at the conference.

I finally found the 4100 block of S Berkeley and found several homes designed by Cicero Hines. They all have a distinctive cottage feeling and several of them have been rehabbed nicely. I can't decide if the house in the photo I took is the same as the one in this photo. In Black on the Block, Mary Pattillo quotes an 1887 Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper:

Eleven Berkeley cottages on Berkeley avenue between 41st and 42nd streets. Some of them are built partially of stone and others entirely of stone. The houses embody in a marked degree the elements of the attractive and popular along with the economical and substantial.... Throughout, the Queen Anne architecture of all these houses is as attractive as it is diversified.

Pattillo continues and writes:

Despite the modest size and charm of these cottages, the owners were principals in law firms, presidents of corporations, and high-ranking officials. Such distinguished Chicagoans lived throughout North Kenwood and Oakland at the end of the nineteenth century.

Unfortunately, on my way north out of Oakland, I hit something hard with my back tire and ended up with a flat tire around 37th and Cottage Grove. I walked the bike to 35th and crossed the bridge over the railroad and Lake Shore Drive to the east over to the Lakefront Path. I changed the tube there and just as I was finishing up, it back pouring rain again. I took cover at the 31st Street beach house. The rain didn't last long so I was on my way again relatively quickly.

Chicago Community Area #38 - Grand Boulevard

The fourth new neighborhood on Sunday's ride was Grand Boulevard. The neighborhood gets its name from the street that was originally named Grand Boulevard and is now called Martin Luther King Drive. In between those two names, it was known as South Parkway Boulevard. There are several street signs that indicate taht Grand Boulevard was a center of development and performance of the Blues musical genre. The most striking memorial to the Blues is at the corner of 47th and King Drive where there are 4 statues on tall pedestals depicting musicians (trumpet, sax and guitar) and a soloist belting out their blues.

The same corner is the home of the Harold Washington Cultural Center, with a life-sized statue of Chicago's first black mayor in front. The center has unfortunately been involved in some local controversy and was the subject of a probe by the Lakefront Outlook newspaper.

Chicago Community Area #37 - Fuller Park

Fuller Park is a thin strip of a neighborhood wedged between the train tracks and the Dan Ryan expressway from 39th to 55th. I rode through on 47th, stopping at Fuller Park (the park itself) on 46th and Princeton. Unfortunately, Fuller Park is in economic decline and has been suffering since the Union Stock Yards shut down in the 1950s.

Although I knew it was a depressed and depressing area, when I looked up Fuller Park in the Encyclopedia of Chicago, I was shocked to learn the following:

• Since 1969, no new housing, public or private, has been built in the community.
• In the same period, only 12 permits for commercial development were granted by the city.
• During the 1980s, Fuller Park received fewer bank loans for home improvement purposes than any neighborhood in Chicago.
• The poverty rate is over 40 percent and single mothers head a large number of families.

Despite these hardships, I sensed a feeling of positive attitude among the people who I saw dressed up and going to church on the day I visited.

Chicago Community Area #61 - New City

After passing through Bridgeport on my way south on Halsted, I came to New City which is best known as the home of the Union Stock Yards at 4100 south (Exchange Ave). The stockyards were made famous in Upton Sinclair's novel "The Jungle". The stockyards were established in 1865 and reached their peak in early-mid 1900s, but eventually became less important as the slaughtering industry became decentralized. The stockyards closed in 1971. The former stockyards area is now an industrial park, but the original old stone gate still stands. There are many interesting articles on the web about the stockyards. Here's one.

Less well known than the old stone gate to the stockyards is the memorial to fallen firefighters which stands directly behind (west of) it. The memorial commemorates the lives of 21 firefighters who were killed while battling a blaze in the stockyards on December 22, 1910. According to this article, the Union Stock Yards fire ranks behind the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the 1947 Texas City Disaster as the third largest loss of firefighters in a single event in US History.

Continuing south on Halsted to 47th and then east on 47th, I was shocked to find a mountain of J. B. Hunt truck/train trailers at 47th and Normal, just west of the train tracks.

Chicago Community Area #31 - Lower West Side

Sunday's ride took me through several near west and south neighborhoods. I started by heading straight south on Halsted down to 1600 south into the Lower West Side which is better known as Pilsen. "Lower West Side" sounds like some place in Manhattan. I've never heard anyone here refer to it by that name.

Pilsen is an important Mexican-American community, but started out as a Czech neighborhood and is named after a city in the Czech Republic: Plzeň. The community is well-known for the many murals that are painted on the 16th street railroad embankment and on the sides of buildings throughout the area. Some of the murals depicts Eurpean scenes and reflect the Slavik origins of the neighborhood, others have a distinct Mexican/Aztec motif. Unfortunately, many of the beautiful murals are showing heavy signs of weathering.

After checking out the murals on 16th all the way down to Blue Island, I went down to one of the main commercial streets, 18th St, to return back to Halsted. At 1125 West 18th, I spotted a strange inscription over a door way: "Morticians" written in pseudo Chinese lettering. There didn't seem to be any mortician studios in the immediate vicinity and a quick Internet search was not fruitful.

[Edit 8/20/09: I was able to turn up this old photo of the Mortician's building in "better days". If you ask me, I think it looks better now.]

Chicago Community Area #23 - Humboldt Park

Tonight I rode to Humboldt Park - the neighborhood. Officially, Humboldt Park - the park - is in the West Town community neighborhood, not Humboldt Park. And after seeing the two communities, I can understand why. The park, it seems to me, is more closely connected to the neighborhoods and the people to the east.

I visited the site of Our Lady of the Angels school (corner of Avers and Iowa), where a tragic fire in 1958 claimed the lives of 92 children and 3 nuns. The school is now leased to the Galapagos Charter School, but a memorial to the lives of those who perished in the fire stands in the yard of the church which is just east of the school on Iowa.

I also ventured further west on Chicago Avenue and found that the home of Swiss Valley dairy is just across the street from Becker's Milk and Ice Cream company at Chicago and Tripp. Just across Tripp is a large truck parking lot which is full of Kemp's dairy trucks. So there's a small dairy industry along the Chicago Avenue industrial corridor in the middle of Chicago!

Chicago Community Area #42 - Woodlawn

Yesterday was a beautiful mostly-sunny day and a great day for a ride on the Lakefront Trail. At the south end of the trail, I passed along the edge of Jackson Park, in the Woodlawn neighborhood. Riders who stick to the trail and drivers who pass by on Lake Shore Drive come amazingly close to one of the most spectacular of all public art works in Chicago.

Tucked behind a bend in the road and not visible from the main thoroughfaire, it's the beautiful statue of The Republic on Hayes Drive. The 24-foot statue is a replica of the original statue which was created for the Worlds Fair in 1893. The original was almost three times as large and stood 65 feet tall!

Chicago Community Area #26 - West Garfield Park

I headed out to West Garfield Park yesterday. It's one of the smaller community areas on the far west side of the city. On a warm summer day around noon, the Madison St commercial district, between Hamlin and Pulaski, was bustling. Not particularly inviting, but it was bustling with people. This intersection of Madison and Pulaski was the site of urban riots in the 1960s, particularly in 1968, and although there are many shops on this strip today, it has never fully recovered.

According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, this commercial district started developing after 1914. At that time, Pulaski Ave was known as Crawford Street. In 1933, Mayor Ed Kelly tried to have Crawford renamed after Casimir Pulaski, a Polish-born American Revolutionary War Hero, in order to gain favor with Chicago's large Polish community. Business owners in the area protested the name change. The protests continued, lawsuits were filed, and injunctions were issued until the Illinois Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of the name change in 1952. As you can see from the photo, some owners still refuse to change their signage.

Chicago Community Area #2 - West Ridge

Although West Ridge is my home 'hood, I haven't taken the opportunity to officially document it until this week. There's nothing more iconic in West Ridge, known as West Rogers Park to natives, as Thillens baseball field at Kedzie and Devon. Thillens and its major league sized baseball signage have been around since I was a kid. When my parents would drive by Thillens with us in the car, the kids would dream of playing in the "big leagues" at a game at Thillens.

I don't think I ever got the chance to play there, but my kids have played at Thillens. Thillens opens the park for charity organizations who collect the gate fees for the organization. I don't know if Thillens themselves takes a cut at all. I don't think so. Yesterday, the Oriole Park Baseball League was charity of the day. Kids and parents were all very excited to play on a "real" baseball diamond with a real scoreboard and have the kids' names announced on the loudspeaker when they came up to bat. It doesn't get better than that!

Chicago Community Area #55 - Hegewisch

Hegewisch (pronounced "heg-wish") is the furthest southeast neighborhood in Chicago. The Burnham bike trail runs through the northern section of Hegewisch which also includes Eggers Grove forest preserve and the William Powers State Fish and Wildlife Area.

Powers SFWA is on the peaceful Wolf Lake. On the day I rode there, there were lots of families enjoying the nice weather and picnicing in the park. There was once a Nike missile battery in this park and there is now a monument to that installation in the park. The "missile" on this monument is actually just the warhead (neutralized) of the missile. The actual booster rocket of the missile was much larger.

Warning to all bikers! Do NOT ride on Ave O! It is full of potholes and just before I got to Powers SFWA, I got not one, but two flat tires! I didn't even realize that I had blown both tubes until I had finished changing my back tube and got back on to ride. To get into Powers SFWA, take the turn-off on the left side of Burnham Trail as you go south from Eggers Grove, about 200 yards before you get to Ave O.

Chicago Community Area #52 - East Side

I didn't see much of the neighborhood as I passed through the East Side community area. They have a nice bike path along Indianapolis Blvd under the east end of the skyway.

The community is very residential and has a very suburban feel to it.

State Line Rd runs along the Illinois-Indiana border. The streets to the west (the Illinois side) are named Ave B, Ave C, Ave D, etc. Before I came to down here the first time a few years ago, I didn't know that Chicago had letter-named streets. I thought that was something unique to New York.

Chicago Community Area #46 - South Chicago

After detouring from my usual route south of the South Shore Cultural Center to visit several former synagogues in the South Shore area, I ended up riding diagonally south-east on South Chicago Ave, along the edge of the South Chicago neighborhood. At the 3-way intersection of South Chicago, 92nd and Exchange, there's a little triangle formed by the intersecting streets. A small monument to Christopher Columbus stands on that triangle. It looked like something I would expect to see in Grant Park or Lincoln Park, not on a relatively forsaken strip in South Chicago. As it turns out, according to a Museology web site, this monument was originally in the downtown area, but was moved to its current location in 1909.

The fountain was a donation of John B Drake in 1892, apparently to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of Columbus coming to America. The artist was R. H Frank and it is fashioned in the Victorian Gothic style. According to this web site, the foundation has a recepticle holding two tons of ice and has ten faucets, each provided with a bronze drinking cup.

I rode east on 92nd and crossed the Calumet River there. As I approached the bridge, it was just closing after letting through a huge barge.

Chicago Community Area #43 - South Shore

On yesterday's long ride, I went all the way south along the lakefront path and further to the Indiana state line. My first stop was at the South Shore Cultural Center. This building was originally built in 1916 in the Mediterranean Revival style as an exclusive country club. The club had a well-known policy of excluding Jews, Catholics and African-Americans.

In the 1970s, the club closed and the building was sold to the Chicago Park District and was renovated. It's really beautiful, both inside and outside. Now, of course, the center is open to people of all races, religions and nationalities. The wedding reception for Barack and Michelle Obama was held here in 1992.

Chicago Community Area #21 - Avondale

Avondale is a small neighborhood south of Irving Park and north of Logan Square. I went on an architectural tour of Avondale last year, sponsored by Big Shoulders Realty. The area is primarily residential and there aren't a lot of famous sites to see, but Avondale does have some beautiful old buildings dating back to the 1890s.

In addition, I also found a unique Guatemalan bakery on Diversey. The lady who works there is very nice and there's a small area to have a drink or something from the bakery.

Chicago Community Area #19 - Belmont Cragin

I continued riding west on Armitage until it turned into Grand. At Grand and Long, I could see Prosser Career Academy. The high school has a beautiful, columned entrance, but unfortunately, an addition has been built on to the building that blocks the former entrance. I don't know if students can enter through the original doors, but I couldn't find a way to get close enough to photograph it. Instead, I went further west to Central Ave and south up the bridge over the railroad tracks. From there, I could almost get a photo of the original face of the building.

The field around the school is huge and includes several baseball diamonds, playgrounds and Hanson Stadium. The Chicago Police Grand Central district headquarters is at the corner of Grand and Central where I took this photo.

At the far west side of Belmont Cragin, where Grand meets Fullerton, the Radio Flyer Company has a giant red wagon in front of the their building.

Chicago Community Area #20 - Hermosa

Yesterday's ride took me west of Logan Square along Armitage Ave through Hermosa. I turned south at Keeler to visit the Factor 10 House.

The Factor 10 House was designed to reduce life-cycle environmental impacts by a factor of 10 compared to the average home built in America today.

There's no central air conditioning. It was designed to be cooled by natural cross ventilation throughout the open floorplan. Window placement maximizes reflected light within the interior with is painted white. The building has a green roof.

You can read more about the Factor 10 House at:

http://www.aiatopten.org/hpb/overview.cfm?ProjectID=271

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/12/three_years_ago_6.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2004/12/factor_10_house.php

http://www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/AIAhouse/beinggreen.htm

http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-sustainable-buildings3.htm

Chicago Community Area #64 - Clearing

After passing through Garfield Ridge, I continued south on Narragansett into Clearing, the neighborhood with borders Midway Airport on the south and southwest sides. Turning back east on 63rd, I found the Midway fire department. In front of the fire house, there is a decorative portal and an interpretive panel explaining it. Some snippets from the panel:

This portal displays two relief sculpture and a limestone lintel. Both architectural artifacts were salvaged from Chicago firehouses that have been demolished. The terra-cotta reliefs on the columns were originally installed on the facade of a fire house located at 2740 N Sheffield Avenue. The limestone lintel, inscribed "Chicago Fire Department," was saved from the main doorway of Engine Company #103, located at West Taylor and Laflin Streets.

The reliefs on the columns depict fire fighting tools hand carved in the hard, brown-red earthenware called terra cotta. In the panels, hoses and ladders, interwoven in a fluid composition suggestive of vines growing on a trellis, are placed against a background of laurel leaves, symbolic of honor. Overlaid on this are fire helmets and axes which integrate a heraldic crest into the organic composition.

The terra cotta panels originally framed the second story windows of the Lakeview Village Hall, which was constructed in 1886 by the City of Lakeview, before Lakeview voted to join the City of Chicago in June 1889.

I asked permission and was allowed to look around the firehouse and its unique equipment. They even have on piece which has a huge poker on the front of it which the firemen explained to me could be used to puncture a fuselage, if necessary.

Chicago Community Area #56 - Garfield Ridge

Continuing southwest on Archer, it straighten out a bit at Pulaski and started heading straighter west. After passing Cicero, I entered the Garfield Ridge neighborhood. Garfield Ridge surrounds Midway Airport on the north and northwest sides. Planes pass overhead frequently, especially those from Southwest Airlines which runs major operations out of Midway.

Archer continues its southwest path until 55th street, where the two streets merge and continue straight west as 55th. This is also the junction with Narragansett, which runs north-south. I turned south on Narragansett and stopped at Wentworth Park, which is named for John Wentworth, a 6-term US representative in the 1840s and 50s and a two-term mayor of Chicago in the late 1850s and early 1860s. As mayor, Wentworth tried to clean up the local red-light district, known as the Sands. According to the book, To Serve and Collect, the mayor created a ruse by arranging a horse race and cock fight in another part of the city. This distracted many of the Sands' customers and while they were preoccupied with the other vices, the mayor led the deputy sheriff and 30 policemen in clearing out the remaining tenants and tearing down 5 buildings and several shanties. Sounds familiar. :)

Adjacent to Wentworth Park are Kennedy High School and Kinzie Elementary School. Kinzie has several nice mosaics on its walls, welcoming the kids to the school. John Kinzie was the first permanent white settler in Chicago.

Chicago Community Area #57 - Archer Heights

Continuing southwest on Archer Avenue, I came to the Archer Heights neighborhood. This neighborhood has a strong Polish identity, particularly the Polish highlands. The highlands is an area in southern Poland, where the Carpathian Mountain range forms a natural border with Slovakia. The highest peaks in this range are the Tatra Mountains. The highlands is one of the most popular tourist areas in Poland.

Along Archer Avenue, at 4808 S, is the Polish Highlanders Alliance in America building - a social club which is the national headquarters for Polish highlander clubs across the US. The building's architecture is distinctive and described as a Carpathian chalet in the traditional Zakopane style.

The Szałas restaurant is similar in style to the PHAA building, but significantly taller. It really looks like a highlands chalet. Although I haven't been inside, online review sites describe how this restaurant is elaborately decorated with decor from the Polish highlands. On the outside, I found it particularly amusing that you can't just walk in the front door. Rather, you pull on a rope next to the door and a few minutes later one of the staff, dressed in highlander traditional garb, answers the door and lets you in. I saw this happen to a group of people when I was there, but I didn't understand why they needed to wait. It was only after I read about this unusual protocol in online reviews that I figured out what was happening.

Outside Szałas, there's a garbage can inside a box made of small logs that matches the restaurant's theme.

Chicago Community Area #58 - Brighton Park

Although my general plan was to roll straight southwest on Archer, I took a detour in Brighton Park to find an former synagogue in the area that is now a church. This area never had a large Jewish population. In fact, I don't know of a single synagogue in this entire southwest side area today. But apparently at some point there was enough of a population to support a synagogue at the corner of 38th and Homan. You can clearly see where the Star of David was cemented in over the doorway.

After returning to Archer Ave, I found another former place of worship. This time it was the former Our Lady of Fatima church, a very impressive building with some cool stone carvings around the doorway. The new building is a few blocks away at 2751 W 38th Pl.

I also spotted a vintage bulb sign at Balzeka's Used Cars. Click on the photo to enlarge and you'll see the message "u will like us" on the side of the sign. The use of the contracted "u" seems ahead of its time for a sign from this period.