Tour Development

This route was planned to provide a succinct greatest hits of two community areas on Chicago’s Near South Side. I held four public research rides and about a dozen solo trips to and about the area to gather information and photographs on over 200 sites. On one of the rides, I had the pleasure of being accompanied by my sister Rae and brother-in-law Joe, who were visiting from Seattle join me on a couple of our loaners for some research and pictures. They are pictured just below.

As always, it is impossible to fit everything one would like to have in the tour. The route hits the major sites but also spends ample time winding through the quiet streets full of less heralded or pedigreed buildings that are somehow similarly impressive.

The Tour

Geography, description and placement of Bridgeport and Armour Square

We are standing in Bridgeport, Community Area Number 60, just three miles southwest of the loop.  The boundaries of the community are the South Branch and South Fork of the Chicago River on the North and West, Pershing (formerly 39th St and before that, Egan Avenue) on the South and the Conrail tracks on the East, formerly the Pennsylvania and Chicago and Western Indiana Railroads.  For legal boundaries, please examine the City of Chicago Community Map of Bridgeport. This tour also includes Armour Square, the adjoining community to the east, #34, 3 miles south of the Loop. Here is the City of Chicago Community Map of Armour Square. For many years, Armour Square was just part of the Bridgeport area, but the raising of the tracks split the eastern section of Bridgeport from the rest, and that became Armour Square.  The northern part of Armour Square is Chinatown, centered around Cermak and Wentworth.  The central part is known as Armour Square (neighborhood vs. Community Area) and the south is known as Wentworth Gardens, centered on the Chicago Housing Authority development of the same name.   By contrast, the much larger Bridgeport is largely considered the same area for both the Community Area and neighborhood.

To our north is the Lower West Side.

To the west is McKinley Park

To our south is New City, which is comprised of the neighborhoods of Back of the Yards and Canaryville

To our southeast is Douglas

To our northeast is the Near South Side

To our southwest is Grand Boulevard

History of Bridgeport

The origins of Bridgeport as an area are rooted in the establishment of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, with construction beginning in 1836, opening twelve years later in 1848, but the past before this is formative in the area’s land-use, political importance and unique position amongst all of the Community Areas of Chicago.

Well before the age of the canal, the Chicago River was an important travel route for various Native American nations.  Early French explorers called the Eastern end of the portaging route, Portage de Checagou or Portage des Chenes.  Jacquez Marquette and Louis Jolliet passed through the area in 1673 and Marquette returned the next year and spent winter here.  Nominally at least, the area came under French jurisdiction until 1763, but was mainly controlled by Native American nations.  From 1763 until 1783, the area passed to British rule and they dominated and controlled the lucrative fur trading routes in the Great Lakes Area until 1795.  Americans really only entered the scene in 1803 with the establishment of Fort Dearborn at present day Michigan and Wacker.

Not long after this, a tenant farm was established in this area known as Charles Lee and Russel Farm, but none locally as “Lee’s Place”.  On April 7, 1812, it was the site of a Native American raid, a precursor to that summer’s Fort Dearborn Massacre.  American activity abandoned the area until federal troops returned on July 4, 1816 to rebuild Fort Dearborn.  Gradually, the areas south of Ft. Dearborn started to repopulate.  During this time, Mack and Conant bought the former Lee’s Place land and farm and repaired it and added cabins, a trading post and a lodging house to the compound.  The place was renamed Hardscrabble.  In 1833 Hardscrabble saw a section of land used as a quarry for stone to improve Chicago’s harbor, later to be known as Stearn’s Quarry, which is the park immediately to the south of the McGuanne Park, and where we will begin the ride.  The quarry and the construction of the canal marked the transition of the area as a trading outpost to a town, which evolved into the community that we see today.

The area was plotted by the canal commissioners in 1836.  The adjacent plot Canalport was plotted by private owners the year before in 1835.  Most of the records from this time are lost to the Chicago Fire of 1871.  It is said that the way that the area came to be known as Bridgeport is that there was a bridge so low that barges would have to unload their cargo, and port it over the bridge to the other side, and reload their barge to continue on their way.  This sounds nice, but there is no practical way to believe this.  It is thought that Bridgeport was named similar to the nearby Canalport, partly to capitalize on the earlier development, and to distinguish itself from it.  Bridgeport became a real town and is referred to this as early as the 1840 census before there was water in the canal, and therefore before anyone would be forced to unload a boat, and reload it to go under any bridge.  Canalport did not survive as a town, but it is still a street in Chicago in the Lower West Side.

The canal was first an idea proposed by Louis Joliet after surveying and visiting the area in 1673.  The idea took long to come to fruition, just as every phase of the project did.  The real beginning of the canal project was the signing of the Treaty of St. Louis where President Monroe and the U.S. made peace with a variety Native American nations, who in turn ceded a large section of land to the Federal Government.  The actual construction began in 1836 under Chief Engineer William Gooding and Construction Supervisor William Beatty Archer after many starts and stops, state financing and the near bankruptcy of the state of Illinois in pursuit of the canal.  The project was literally that massive, and in turn, fueled the very growth of Chicago, and provided generations of Chicagoans with their livelihood.  Some of the initial settlers to the area during this time were the Irish, German and Norwegian workers that arrived to build the canal.

In 1847 the South Chicago School district was established with a school in Cottage Grove, and the other in Bridgeport at the intersection of present Archer and Fuller.  A year later, in 1848 the canal opened, and Bridgeport benefited with a rise in businesses to service and ever growing worker population eager to work in the new lumber yards, factories and packinghouses.  In 1863 Bridgeport became part of Chicago, and the school district joined the Chicago Public School System.  In 1865, the nearby Union Stock Yards drew many of the jobs from smaller operations in Bridgeport to much larger ones, but most of the workers still resided in the Bridgeport area, to be further from the site of so much slaughter, though sadly, not from its waste and toxicity.

Like so many Chicago communities, the area developed along many lines, but often along both nationality and religious divisions.  Congregations and parishes formed the basis of community populations, with residents of an area attached to the religious entity in its midst.  This is how Chicago was known to generations of our immediate ancestors, even if it was also thought of in terms of neighborhoods.  From the beginning of the areas modern history, you can chart the lineage of immigrants through the establishment of their religious facility, and see the changing face of neighborhoods, more so as things were added to fill in the empty space, than things displaced what was there.  It wasn’t until the city was overbuilt and had to continuously knock itself down to build on top of the remains that different types of migration patterns stop announcing their arrival with their buildings.

In modern times, we think of Bridgeport as an epicenter of Chicago politics and the birthplace of every Chicago mayor from 1933 until 1979, and again with our present mayor, Richard M. Daley.  The birth of the modern Chicago Political machine is said to have begun with the working class Irish residents seeking politically connected “patronage” jobs  as they began to recognize the growing needs of a giant municipality and the lucrative total pot when viewed from above.

Bridgeport really entered the political scene in 1931, when it helped propel Anton Cermak to the mayor’s office.  Thereafter, Bridgeport politicians Patrick Nash and Edward Kelly dominated politics in the city until the 50s.  Richard J. Daley became long-term mayor of Chicago in 1955 until his death in 1976.  His son, Richard M Daley is the fifth Chicago mayor from Bridgeport.

History of Armour Square

Armour Square is community area #34, sitting to the east of Bridgeport and 3 miles south of the Loop.  The area was just south of the fire line, but after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, therefore not subject to the new building codes that required brick construction in all new buildings.  This cost savings and proximity to the downtown area created a major population increase in the post-fire years.  The result was a primarily working-class area, and an area with incentives in the form of cheaper housing for a variety of nationalities of different immigrants coming to Chicago including Germans, Irish, Swedes, Croats, Polish, Italian, Chinese and African-Americans.

Its position along the canal made the area very accessible and transportation-rich.  This also made it desirable for railroads that wanted immediate access to the canal system.  This resulted in many major train lines building elevated sections of tracks down the length of the area, which served to do the opposite.  Now transportation was cutting it off from the rest of the city, and forming large barriers to prevent easy access to other parts of Chicago.  Gradually, the residential area began to give way to more commercial and industrial concerns, and factories, warehouses and business buildings encroached on residential areas.

Immediately to the east of this lay the notorious Levee District, a true red-light district, if there ever was one, and many of the businesses in present day Armour Park were the extensions of the business owners of the Levee District.

McGuane Park – 2700 S Halsted

One of 10 parks planned by the South Park Commission to provide relief to the city’s crowded tenement districts, McGuane Park was originally named Mark White Square.  “The squares” were small parks built on a single city block, rather than two or more blocks for most parks.  5 of the parks were these squares including this one, and nearby Armour Square Park.  This modern notion of small city parks ended up being a blueprint for many cities in America.  Mark White was the South Park Commission superintendent for twenty years, but in 1960 was renamed to honor World War 1 veteran John F. McGuane, who died that year, and lived across the park his whole life, and served on the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners for a number of years.  Sadly, the original fieldhouse from the D. H. Burnham company was demolished and replaced with an anonymous poured-concrete monstrosity in 1972.

Stearns Quarry Park

Formerly the ignobly named Park No. 531, this is now officially known as Henry C. Palmisano Park.  According to the notes regarding the Chicago Park District’s Board meeting from September 15, 2010, this was approved along with two other park namings.  Henry C. Palmisano was born and raised in Bridgeport, his family-owned and operated Henry’s Bait and Fishing in the neighborhood. Palmisano was a member of the Mayor’s Fishing Advisory Council and was an advocate for urban fishing.

Less officially, but more accurately, it is known as Stearns Quarry Park for what was here before it was parkland.  This area was once an extensive prehistoric coral reef.  In more modern history, it was a limestone quarry initially used to shore up the banks of the river and Lake Michigan, and later for decades, it was used as a landfill.  Today it is a very unique park in the Chicago Park System.

This park opened in 2009 affording people the first look of the site in over a hundred years.  For ever, it was cut off from the community, and could only be seen from the air, so life-long residents of Bridgeport didn’t get a chance to view it until last year.  The water system is a completely recycled water system, never entering the city’s system.  The stone slabs are mostly recycled concrete sections of other park buildings and foundations that were recycled in a naturalized setting to mimic the limestone that is no doubt, quite a bit less than there was nowadays.  The walls of the quarry reveal bedrock that predates the dinosaurs by nearly 200 million years.  Several fossils have been found in the quarry, including several on display at the Field Museum of Natural History.  The metal structure on the right is part of the original elevator used in the quarry operations and the metal structure on the left is what remains of the original quarry buildings along the edge of the cliff.  The fishing pond and streams are manmade, but made to look natural in a tradition that began with Olmstead and Jensen.

The quarry began operation in the 1830s under ownership of the Illinois Stone and Lime Company.  One of its partners, Marcus C. Stearns ultimately took over the company and renamed it Stearns Quarry, and it operated under his name until 1970.  At that point, the space was basically a large hole at which point it became a landfill and dump for construction debris.  It remained so for 30 years, at which point, the efforts to turn it into a park began in earnest, resulting in a completely unique city park that takes excellent advantage of the storied history, and remaining space to create much needed green space in Bridgeport.

First Lutheran Church of the Trinity – 643 W 31st St

The earliest immigrants to the area were the Irish, followed by the Germans.  The First Lutheran Church of the Trinity was a German congregation formed in 1863, and serving the Bridgeport area at this location since 1865 and is the oldest Christian congregation in Bridgeport.  The original church was located at Canal and 25th Place and the congregation moved here at this new Gothic Revival Church designed by Worthmann and Steinbach in 1913. Immediately attached is the First Trinity Community Center.

St. Anthony Catholic Church – 2815 S Wallace

An early German parish formed in 1873, St. Anthony’s hired Henry J Schlacks  to design its parish buildings including a Renaissance Revival School at 506 W 28th Place, the Classical Convent at 500 W 28th Place and Rectory at 516 W 28th Place and the Romanesque church at Wallace and 28th Place.  The build years for the various structures were from 1913 to 1915. The Church has a school, convent and rectory for neighbor buildings.

Hoyt Building – 465 W Cermak

The 1909 Nimmons and Fellows designed warehouse for the Hoyt Company was built along the rail lines to service the customers of the wholesale grocer.  Once the plan for this building was a planned artist workspace, but it was rezoned by the city council to accommodate plans to convert the building into a luxury boutique hotel to service Chinatown and the McCormick Place conventions.  The long disused diagonal Grove Street will need to be reconfigured to accommodate the new plans.

Take a look at the excellent article on Grove Street from Forgotten Chicago.

Chicago’s Chinatown

Around 1912, this area received an influx of Chinese immigrants who had previously found a home in the south Loop, but moved almost en masse to their new home on the north side of present Armour Square.  In what has become a familiar refrain in the area over the last century, the Chinese experienced tremendous anti-immigrant and racial discrimination.  The actual formation of what is one of several US Chinatowns was made possible through use of an intermediary, the H.O. Stone Company, whose Anglo-American owners secured leases on behalf of the Chinese immigrants.

In modern history, Chinatown was also a home-base for many illicit activities, not limited to, but inclusive of gambling and numbers games and the Chicago Outfit considered the base of its south side operations in Chinatown. The reputed boss of the Chinatown crew in the 80s was Angelo “The Hook” La Pietra and John “Johnny Apes” Monteleone in the 90s.

On Leong Merchants Association Building – 2212 S Wentworth

Built by Norwegian architects for Chinese businessmen clients, Michaelsen & Rognstad  were able to create a building reflective of the Kwangtung district of China’s architecture combined with very indigenous American and Prairie design patterns and methods.  The On Leong Merchants Association was an important group in developing Chicago’s Chinatown in 1912.

This building was completed in 1926 and provided them with space and options to host a wide variety of activities, with meeting halls, a shrine a school, offices and classrooms.  Like much of the buildings in Chinatown, it is an American interpretation of Chinese architecture, and has therefore a curious imprint as most theme buildings do.  In 1993, the Chinese Christian Union Church purchased the building from the Federal Government and formed the Pui Tak Center.

Won Kow Restaurant – 2237 S Wentworth

This building was built for its current tenant in 1927 by Michaelsen and Rognstad.  The Dim Sum is as good as you will ever have.  Yummy.

Emperor’s Choice Restaurant – 2238 S Wentworth

Another inspired building housing a fantastic Chinese Restaurant, this one built in 1912 by Henry Sieks.

John C Haines Public School – 231 W 23rd Place

Haines is a Mathematics and Science Magnet Cluster School.  The Queen Anne and Classical school was designed by August Fiedler in 1886.  Fiedler designed nearly 60 buildings as the architect for the Chicago Public school System.  John C Haines was mayor of Chicago from 1858 to 1860.

James Ward School – 2701 S Shields

Another very early public school, this Italliante school’s first section was built in 1874 at 27th and Shields, then called Garibaldi Street, and the school was known as Garibaldi Street Primary School.  The following year the school was renamed to honor James Ward, a member of the Chicago Board of Education.  Separate additions were to the school were built in 1897 and 1927.

St. Jerome Croatian Catholic Church – 2823 S Princeton St

The Croatian immigrants that settled in the Bridgeport area of Chicago were able to form their own parish when Father Leo Medic arrived in 1912 to form the parish for the growing population.  The original church was located at 15th near Wentworth and was purchased from a German Protestant congregation.  The present church was originally a Swedish Lutheran Church and was opened in 1922.

Armour Square Park & Armour Square Field House

2209 S Shields & 309 W 33rd Street

Armour Square park is also gloriously known as Park Number 3.  The fabulous fieldhouse was designed by D. H. Burnham and Co. and the grounds and landscaping were designed by the famed Olmstead Brothers in a Beaux Arts style.  The park opened in 1905, named as the area is, for Philip Danforth Armour, an industrialist who owned the largest meatpacking company in the world.  The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 2003.  The original grounds were a spectacular design by the Olmstead brothers, and there was not yet a stadium overlooking the park.  The South Park Commission built this amongst 5 small and 5 medium sized parks with the Olmstead brothers and D. H. Burnham and Co. that also included Bessemer, Cornell, Davis, Hamilton, Mark White (now McGuane Park), Ogden, Palmer, Russell and Sherman parks.  In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed these parks “the most notable civic achievement in any American city.”

US Cellular Field – 333 W 35th St.

Site of Comiskey Park

Owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, US Cellular Field is the home if the Chicago White Sox.  Prior to this, the White Sox played across the street for 81 years in what is now one of the stadium’s parking lots at the since demolished Comiskey Park.  In its last year, the original Comiskey Park was the oldest in-use baseball stadium in the major leagues, which is now an honor for Fenway Park.  Both the original Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field were both designed by Chicago architect, Zachary Taylor Davis.  Prior to this, the Sox played in an even older park built by Charles Comiskey which became the home of the American Giants in the Negro League when The Sox moved the Comiskey Park.

From the beginning, this new stadium was also known as Comiskey Park before US Cellular paid $68 million to own the naming rights for 20 years beginning in 2003.  It is situated immediately west of the Dan Ryan Expressway in the Armour Park Community and neighborhood, completed in time to host the Sox 1991 season after breaking ground two years earlier in 1989.  The architects were Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum.  The stadium seats 43,000 and was amongst the early generation of computer-positioned seating to help assure each seat has a good view of the game.

Robert Abbott School – 3630 S Wells

Air Force Academy High School

I am only speaking for myself when I say that there would have been no possibility of me being able to concentrate at all during game days if this was my school. Just saying.

George B McClellan Public School – 3505 S Wallace

One of Chicago’s oldest schools built around 1881 had an 1896 addition by August Fiedler that tried to compliment the Italianate original building.

Pershing Road Substation – 3858 S Lowe

Those that have taken my tours before are probably familiar with me stopping at utility buildings, and probably even familiar with my fondness for the architect of this, the Pershing Road Substation, Herman V. Van Holst and his firm von Holst and Fyfe.  Von Holst was a brilliant Prairie architect, and the one Frank Lloyd Wright entrusted to oversee his practice during his extended stay in Europe, and he was regularly employed by the Peoples Gas and Coke Company and Commonwealth Edison to design austere, prairie forms for their pedestrian structures.

Richard J Daley House – 3536 S Lowe

The recently retired Mayor Richard M. Daley has left Bridgeport, but he grew up in this house.  This bungalow was built late in the game for bungalows, in 1939, designed by Eric E Hall.  Richard J Daley was born just up the street at 3602 S Lowe, and lived his whole life on this street.

Blue City Cycles – 3201 S Halsted

This is a great full-service shop in Bridgeport owned by Owen Lloyd and Clare Knipper.  When in Bridgeport, this is where to go for all things bike.

Boys and Girls Club of Chicago, Louis L Valentine Unit – 3400 S. Emerald

The style of this building could best be described as Native American Revival Deco Moderne.  This is a recreation of a pair of Alaskan Coastal Indian totem poles, centered with a terra-cotta outcropping, and topped with an eagles head.  The style is very much Art Moderne or Art Deco, and similar campy styles, like Egyptian Revival are found in other sections of Chicago.  This building was designed by Childs and Smith in 1938 and is named for the donor of the building, a local furniture manufacturer.

Hamburg Athletic Association – 3523 S Emerald

Members of the Hamburg Athletic Association at this innocuous building have included judges, alderman, and both mayor Daleys.

Ramova Theatre – 3508 S Halsted

As many movie palaces were, the style of the Ramova Theatre was ostentatious and Baroque by design.  This is an example of a theatre block, where the entire building is able to sustain multiple streams of revenue with apartments, shops and the theatre all able to contribute to the owners coffers.  This theatre was designed by Meyer O. Nathan and was opened in 1929.  It was a sister theater to the Music Box on the north side, and like the Music Box, had an atmospheric interior with clouds and stars  effects on the ceiling of the auditorium, and a Spanish Renaissance exterior, complete with Spanish countryside murals inside.

Check out this peak inside the Ramova from Chicagoist.

Central Manufacturing District

35th Street to Pershing and Morgan to Ashland

This was the first modern American industrial park.  It was established in 1905 by Frederick H. Prince.  He had in-house architects S. Scott Joy and later Abraham Epstein design all of the buildings, and built with his own staff, and financed to its tenants which included Spiegel, Wrigley and Westinghouse amongst others.

Bubbly Dynamics – 1048 West 37th Street

Right in the heart of the Central Manufacturing District is a pretty cool building, taken over by a variety of cool businesses.  This is Bubbly Dynamcs, where tenants run the gamut from powder coater to frame builders and roving mobile bike repair businesses.

Spiegel Office Building – 1038 W 35th St

Declared a National Landmark on May 15, 2009, the Spiegel Office Building is an Art Moderne building designed by Abraham Epstein, founder of A. Epstein and Sons, one of the largest architectural and engineering companies in the world.  This was a building to house the offices of the Spiegel mail-order business.  They have two other surviving buildings within the Central Manufacturing District, including their warehouse at Racine and 35th Street which we will see next.

Zhou B Art Center – 1035  W 35th Street

This giant 84,000 square-foot warehouse is owned by the Zhou brothers, DaHuang and ShanZuo.  They are themselves artists, but sought to find space to display the work of many artists, and offer opportunity in the Bridgeport community for the reclaimed use of a classic warehouse building in the Central Manufacturing District.  The building has two very large exhibition spaces, numerous galleries, offices, a café and of course, a gift shop.

This giant 84,000 square-foot warehouse is owned by the Zhou brothers, DaHuang and ShanZuo.  They are themselves artists, but sought to find space to display the work of many artists, and offer opportunity in the Bridgeport community for the reclaimed use of a classic warehouse building in the Central Manufacturing District.  The building has two very large exhibition spaces, numerous galleries, offices, a café and of course, a gift shop.

Spiegel Warehouse (Presently East Bank Storage and Bridgeport Art Center) – 1200 W 35th Street

Up until recently, the Bridgeport Art Center wascalled the Artists of Eastbank, and indeed, this facility shares space with East Bank Storage.  Both occupy the warehouse space of the Speigel mail-order company.

Another honored historical site. Can’t you tell?

Wilson Park & Wilson Community Center

1122 W 34th Place & 3225 S Racine

Both the close-by park and this community center are named for John P. Wilson was a Bridgeport politician who was in succession, a City Alderman, chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Recreation and Deputy Commission of Public Works.  The center is a former city public bath house.  It was built in 1929, opening the following year.  Alderman Wilson was instrumental in locating the bathhouse in Bridgeport, where public bathing facilities were a welcome addition to a very crowded area that lacked adequate plumbing in many residences.  By the time the Chicago Park District acquired the facility in 1959, this was no longer the case, and the use of bath houses was no longer necessary.  It is now a community center with a variety of activities, and a gymnasium, named for Joseph Bertucci, who worked to transform the bathhouse into its current use as a recreational activity center.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church – 3101 S Aberdeen

The German parish of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church hired Albert Fisher to design both the Rectory in 1901, and the church, which replaced the original, in 1909, in partnership with Hermann J Gaul in that case.  They are appropriately and understandably a German Gothic design.

St. Mary of Perpetual Help Parish – 1038 W 32nd Street

St. Mary of Perpetual Help parish  was founded in 1886 and was part of the Polish immigration wave in the 1880s.  The church was designed by Henry Engelbert, and built from 1889 to 1892 in a Romanesque style.

Co-Prosperity Sphere – 3219 S Morgan St

For those of you that don’t know about Ed Marszewski, he is a rabid and native Chicago artist, activist and thought-provoker.  He is the creator of the Lumpen Times, and this is his physical home to various artistic and cultural endeavors.  According to their website, The Co-Prosperity Sphere (C-PS) is an experimental cultural center located in Bridgeport, The Community of the Future.

The Sphere is a public platform for art and ideas and is an advocate for emerging art in all its forms. We produce exhibitions, socially engaged projects, critical publications and community initiatives. The C-PS hosts exhibitions, screenings, presentations, installations, festivals, meetings, classes and performance programs in its 5,000+ square foot complex.

Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple (Immanuel Presbyterian Church) – 1035 W 31st St

While it may have minor elements changed to fit its modern use, the bulk of the bold design in this church by John Wellborn Root from 1892, remains intact.  This would have been one of his final designs as it was completed in the year before his death.

The South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River begins near the present-day intersection of Lock and Fuller.  It was part of a Native American portage system, particularly during the wet seasons, but centuries later was used to dump the waste of the nearby stockyards and plating companies.  The name Bubbly Creek comes from the literal bubbling of methane as the animal parts and liquids decomposed in the stagnant waters that often were caked hard with fat and hair from the animal, blood, offal and waste dumped there.  Amazing as it is, the area is now home to Bridgeport Village, a multimillion dollar home enclave on the banks of Bubbly Creek.  On any decent-weather day, you can see fishermen lined up along the banks near the fork of the South Branch River, fishing, and presumably eating their catch.  The clean-up work in the area is nearly impossible to believe in light of the description of the Creek in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.

St. Barbara’s Catholic Parish – 2851 S Throop

Part of the second wave of Eastern-European immigrants to the area, the parish of St. Barbara’s was formed in 1910 as part of the largely Polish immigrants at the turn of the century, a generation after the first Poles arrived to the area.  The brilliant red brick church with an octagonal dome and a tall bell-tower are designed by Worthmann and Steinbach in 1912, when this was right next door to the active Stearns Quarry.  St Barbara’s parishioners are known to talk of times when the blasting at the quarry would cause the church and school to shake.