The University of Illinois at Chicago's digital photo collections . Later, this hotbed of activity attracted rural migrant workers from places such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the southern United Statesfrom which racist discrimination and violence drove more than 500,000 Black Americans to Chicago. This portion of the old Humboldt Park line was not demolished for another decade, and the story goes that it would have been used by Chicago Aurora & Elgin interurban trains as a midday storage area, if service on that line could have continued after 1957. Children listen attentively at Hollstein School in 1952. 5:02 Streamliner #300, northward from Edwardsville, February 14, 1955 (Wien-Criss Archive), PCC meets PCC in this famous Bill Hoffman photo, showing CTA PCC streetcar 4373 on Western Avenue, while a Garfield Park L train crosses on Van Buren temporary trackage. Immigrants typically lived in inadequate housing near railroads and industryin bunk houses, boxcars, and section houses. Beautiful Vintage Postcards of Chicago's Restaurants from the 1950s and 1960s. Photo 537 I believe shows a detouring Halsted car turning off of Division st. onto Crosby St., not Larabee. It appears that the street has already been made a one-way, which did not happen until November 16, 1953. The rest of Madison was bussed. Visit the website (wttw.com/firsthand) to explore the elements of the project. Chicago's South Side April 1941: Life In 'The Black Belt' In April 1941, Russell Lee and Edwin Rosskam arrived in Chicago, Illinois. ISBN 1467129380, 9781467129381 (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 4389 is southbound on Western near Leland Avenue, having just passed under the Ravenswood L (todays Brown Line), where a train of wooden cars are in the station. Chicago 's historic South Side neighborhood is a largely residential community defined by its red brick houses and tree-shaded sidewalks. . Original Rainbow Cone on Western Ave in Beverly, Chicago: Grandma would take us on the bus to visit the cemetery and after we would stop at the Rainbow Cone! 12:40 Car #202 (ex-1202), between Springfield and Decatur, February 1955 Chicagos suburbs, Indiana, and other Midwestern states are popular destinations for Black residents. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 4408 on Western at 66th on July 16, 1951. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7157 is northbound on Western at 67th on June 15, 1955. The interactive map shows that by the 1950s, Black residents had started to trickle into "grade C" or "yellow-lined" European immigrant neighborhoods on the West and Southeast sides. The highest ratio of discriminatory acts to race-related tests occurred in the Near North Side neighborhood, where over half of the tests involved race discrimination, the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the Chicago Lawyers Committee found. 5,034 1950s Chicago Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Images Editorial Video Creative Editorial FILTERS CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO 5,034 1950s Chicago Premium High Res Photos Browse 5,034 1950s chicago stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The stores from left to right are: S S Kresge, on the southwest corner; The Ace department store on the northwest corner; and Sears Roebuck, the huge building on the northeast corner (with a Hillmans grocery in the basement). Note the dark areas where some touch-up painting has been done on the PCC. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7123 at Western and 69th on January 28, 1954. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA prewar PCC 4008 is southbound on Wabash at about 900 South. While the Gallaghers are said to live on Wallace Street, the house is actually located on Homan Avenue. Discriminatory housing policies meant that the majority of African American families lived like the Youngers, in kitchenette apartments - larger apartments were broken up into several smaller homes, with a very small kitchen and one bedroom. Chicago, Illinois, December 17, 1938 Secretary Harold Ickes, left, and Mayor Edward J. Kelly turn the first spadeful of earth to start the new $40,000,000 subway project. Our friend Kenneth Gear recently acquired the original Railroad Record Club master tapes. Seems to have been a good choice since the same building is still a Ford dealer today. Redone tile at the Monroe and Dearborn CTA Blue Line subway station, showing how an original sign was incorporated into a newer design, May 25, 2018. What was South Side Chicago like in the 1950s? (1) The red-and-white bus in the background belonged to the South Suburban Safeway Lines. Then, Douglas Park L trains used these tracks from 1954-58. South Side Weekly partnered with WTTW and the Invisible Institute to co-publish text and visual reporting and analysis covering the impact racial divisions have on individuals, the city, and our region. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA prewar PCC 4027 (at left) passes a postwar car on Western at 24th on June 7, 1956. Third Avenue El (New York City): 12th street beach, the beach we swam at in the 1950s, when we lived in Bridgeport. The South Side's 87th Street, for instance, was a stronghold of Black businesses, particularly during the 1980s. Re: pic508, car 4008 on Wabash Avenue. After returning from World War II, American service members brought back memories and souvenirs from the South Pacific. In the twenty years from 1890 to 1910, Chicago's African-American population increased . HOUSING SEGREGATION IN 1950S SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO Already experiencing a population boom after Reconstruction, Chicago was a popular destination for African Americans moving from the South to the North in the early 20th century. Black communities protested, and the strife culminated in five days of violence that left thirty-eight deadtwenty-three Black and fifteen white Chicagoans. This is post 1 of 6 in the series FIRSTHAND: SEGREGATION. Roy lived in the Roseland area since his birth in 1963, at 103rd Street & Wentworth Avenue. Women approach a news stand in Chicago in 1940. In my book Chicago Trolleys (page 107) there is a picture of track work being done at this location on July 17, 1954. 17:25 (Car 187, Brighton Car House, December 13, 1951 regular service abandoned April 29, 1951) A few years later, the CHA placed a light-skinned Black woman named Betty Howard in the previously all-white Trumbull Park Homes. Over the last century, an array of political and cultural forces have created clear lines of division between racial groups. To the left, is an embankment where Illinois Central commuter trains (now Metra Electric) ran. What I would also love to see is pictures of what the Chicago neighborhoods and its residents looked like during that specific time period. African Americans who settled in northern cities like Chicago, New York, and Detroit earned at least twice as much as those who stayed in the South in 1930, according to work by Leah Boustan, an. "We were far enough away from downtown to be quiet and peaceful yet close enough to shopping, the lake . (Wien-Criss Archive), The conductor of CTA 7156 is throwing a track switch at Western and Archer on November 17, 1954. Look at the bottom of the photo. 4:56 Car 5706, January 16, 1954 (Really! A more detailed 1950s map showcases crowded clusters of Irish, Italian, and smaller ethnic groups establishing new communities across the city. #536 is a companion picture from the street to #534. We mapped out hundreds of the photos and compared them with Google Street Viewto show just how much Chicago has changed. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Chicagos South Side was the center for African-American culture and business. Building Chicagos subways was national news and a matter of considerable civic pridemaking it a Second City no more! When I got to Western they ended and I recall seeing a few feet of track bent down from the last support. By the 1960s, Black residents had moved into "grade B" (blue) communities in the South Side, such as Roseland and Beverly. Will Guy Fieri Cook The Bean Before It's Windexed? 8:40 Queens Plaza station, December 31, 1954 Beneath this L platform, along 63rd Place, were streetcar tracks for Halsted cars that ended at 63rd St., as well as curb space for the two suburban bus companies, South Suburban Safeway Lines and Suburban Transit System. Sixty-three percent of the time, Black testers posing as potential renters holding CHA Housing Choice Vouchers experienced some form of discrimination. #534 looks south on Halsted from the (A line) L station, note the curved pull-offs of the overhead which is well defined along with the curves corresponding track which converges into the south bound track in view #536. The restaurant that once occupied this corner space had been gutted in a spectacular fire during the Summer of 1953, along with a tavern next door on the North Avenue side. (312 . This segment focuses on the Chicago Outfit during the period after Prohibition. 1960. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA PCC 4262 is on 77th, by the car barn at 77th and Vincennes. 29:34 (Johnstown Traction recordings were made August 9, 1953) There were approximately 813,000 Black residents in Chicago by 1960. 16:26 sounds recorded on board a PCC (early 1950s) 11. On the South Side Existence in Chicago's South Side in the 1950's was harsh. Although the show is set in Chicagos Back of the Yards neighborhood, the house used for filming is actually located in the citys North Lawndale neighborhood. The Robert Taylor Homes, located between 39th and 54th streets, had more than half of those apartments. In the twenty years from 1890 to 1910, Chicago's African-American population increased from 15,000 to approximately 4:53 Engine whistle signals, loco #12, January 17, 1954 You can hear our 19-minute conversation here. https://chicagology.com/wp-content/themes/revolution-20/century/194063rdhalsted.jpg. A cropped version of this photo ran in one of our earlier posts, but this was scanned from the original negative. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7208 is on Western near 34th on September 3, 1950. I remember old Chicago trolley buses from when I was a little girl. All copies purchased through The Trolley Dodger will be signed by the author. But future waves of immigration in the mid-twentieth century and, later, in the 1980s and 90s bolstered their numbers in the city. In Chicago, most of the South and West sides have 40 to 60 percent of residents living below the poverty level. Store which was acquired by the Sears interests who replaced the original Becker-Ryan building. Recent publications have variously mentioned that either 107th St. or 109th st. was the south end of the Halsted lines private right-of-way segment in this area. 12. . 0:56 PCC car 1557, Route 20 Cabin John line, July 19, 1953 Coverage spans 1839-1928 but no directories are available for 1840-1842, 1918-1922, and 1924-1927. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. The interactive map shows that by the 1950s, Black residents had started to trickle into grade C or yellow-lined European immigrant neighborhoods on the West and Southeast sides. The "new" green streetcars - replaced the old, wooden-seat red ones. The New York Times - August 2, 1964. 5:09 Passenger interurban #9 Shaker Heights Rapid Transit: At this time, the temporary Van Buren trackage was still under construction, and this picture was taken from the Garfield Park L station, then still in use. The segment actually ran not quite two and a half miles from 89th St. to the 10800 block of Vincennes (where 108th St. would have been had it gone through). South Side Chicago Chicago School Al Capone Al Capone's Chicago home, old Prairie avenue home, 7244 South Prairie Avenue. Riverdale. Can The New Affordable Requirements Ordinance Help Solve Chicagos Housing Inequality? The southeast corner building was nondescript, although at one point it was a Stineway drug store. As a field interviewer I had to look for displaced residents from the projects. With yt people spreading almost all across Chicago and changing so much of the neighborhoods cultures and its peoples.. its hard to imagine those areas without them. Publisher Arcadia Publishing (SC), 2018 Chicagos position as the hub of a vast railroad system enabled a bustling industrial economy that was teeming with job opportunities in its stockyards, factories, and steel mills. 03. I wish they could just appreciate from afar without taking and still destroying everything in their way. 07. Another clue that helps pinpoint the date is the light lettering on dark background seen on license plates in this image. 4:35 August 27, 1954 Length 128 pages There are pictures on my blog, and also in my book Chicagos Lost Ls. Two laws in 1947, the Blighted Areas Redevelopment Act and the Relocation Act, helped create the Chicago Land Clearance Commission, enabling the City to raze areas that it deemed blighted without regard for who it would displace. # of Discs 1 The Freight Tunnels Additionally, 7.68% of the population is represented by non-citizens. One comment, the photo of CTA 687 is at Division and Crosby, not Larrabee. 04. Most famously, the Clarks were a middle-class Black Chicago family that in 1951 attempted to move into a Cicero apartment, but couldnt last a day after thousands of white protesters set their belongings and the whole property on fire. A man walks down Clark Street in Chicago in 1940. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 4227 is on the turnback loop at Clark and Howard, the north end of Route 22. In the mid-1950s Chicago faced its first postindustrial crisis as the major meatpacking companies began to close their production facilities. All rights reserved.. Espaol: Gua de recursos COVID-19 en el sur de Chicago, The Geography of Fear: Policing a Segregated Chicago. This story was produced for WTTWS FIRSTHAND: SEGREGATION, an award-winning FIRSTHAND multiplatform, multi-year initiative focusing on the firsthand perspectives of people facing critical issues in Chicago. Building new lives in the 'Black Belt' by Alex Q. Arbuckle (opens in a new tab) You can compare the different CTA paint schemes on the first two cars. The Southeast Side is a description that the city itself continues to resist, including this neighborhood with all of Chicago's South Side communities. The purpose was to find residents that were given Section 8 vouchers vs those who did not receive them. Known as Bronzeville, the neighborhood was surprisingly small, but at its peak more than 300,000 lived in the narrow, seven-mile strip. The State Street Subway 08. 09. The first order to build rapid transit cars from PCC streetcars was in June 1953 for 150 cars; followed by a 100 car order in Feb. 1954, a 20 car order in Dec. 1954, an 80 car order in June 1955 and a 50 car order in Dec. 1955. First, a nit: I think this picture is at 107th rather than 105th. White flight caused redlining as the community was now at almost 90% black by 1960. The original objective was to treat basic illness and to train nurses and interns. Yusay beer stands out on a lot of the photos. The date is June 16, 1954. Newly rediscovered and digitized after 60 years, most of these audio recordings of Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee interurban trains are previously unheard, and include on-train recordings, run-bys, and switching. Racially restrictive covenants were also common in the Chicago area, as in the rest of the country. . Properties covered include: While the Census doesnt follow traditional Chicago neighborhood boundaries, areas of Englewood, Park Manor and Woodlawn have poverty rates above 60 percent. 1454 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605. There is no shoo-fly yet, meaning construction had not yet started on the Western Avenue bridge that would eventually go over the Congress Expressway. The PCC is going to go northbound on Route 22 Clark-Wentworth. https://thetrolleydodger.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pic566.jpg The South Side experienced a population shift during the move to suburbs following World War II. 04. Foursquare. PCCs were taken off Madison on December 13, 1953. Wandering the streets of the 'Black Belt.' 1941. Puerto Rican people are the second-largest Latinx group in Chicago. 75 years since the State Street Subway opened (October 17, 1943)