Old Town, Chicago
Encyclopedia
Old Town is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, bounded by the Ogden Ave. right-of-way on the northwest, Larrabee Street on the west, Clybourn Avenue on the southwest and Division Street on the south and Clark Street on the east and northeast. It spans across eastern parts of the community areas of Lincoln Park
and the Near North Side
,. It is part of Chicago's 43rd ward. Old Town includes the Old Town Triangle Historic District. The Old Town Triangle Historic District is bounded on its northwest side by the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way,[3] its northeast side by Lincoln Avenue and Wells Street, and on its south side by North Avenue.[4] This historic district sits within the Old Town Triangle Association (OTTA), a Lincoln Park neighborhood bounded by the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way, Clark Street and North Avenue. It sits inside the community area of Lincoln Park and is part of Chicago's 43rd ward. Old Town north of North Avenue is in Lincoln Park, and south of North Avenue is part of the Near North Side. It is now an affluent gentrified neighborhood.
Old Town is today considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings.In the 1950s,the majority of this area was an enclave to the first Puerto Ricans to emigrate to Chicago. They referred to this area as part of "La Clark" until commercialization decorated late 1960s shop signs with the name of Old Town. The neighborhood is home to St. Michael's Church, originally a Bavarian-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire. St. Michael's, Holy Name Cathedral, Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph's catered also to Latinos with Spanish speaking masses.
The neighborhood is also home to the famed The Second City improvisational comedy troupe. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern. In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilited a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios. Through the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park.
Old Town was also home to many gays & lesbians from the 1920s through the 1980s. There were numerous gay bars lining Wells Street (all of them closed now). This was the first "gay ghetto" in Chicago, predating the current Lake View neighborhood (which is the current epicenter of gay life); the first homophile organization in American history, the Society for Human Rights, was established by Henry Gerber at his home
on North Crilly Court in 1924. As the area gentrified, the gays moved further north to Lincoln Park and then Lake View neighborhoods.
Old Town has one Brown-Purple Line 'L' station at 1536-40 North Sedgwick Avenue. It is one of the oldest standing stations on the 'L'.
The land known as Old Town originally served as a home and trade center to many Nations including Potawatomi
, Miami
and Illinois
. Following the Treaty of Chicago
in 1833, most of the indigenous people were forcibly removed, and the land was then settled in the 1850s by German
-Catholic
immigrants. Clark Street is a leftover of the culture, it being an old road which followed the high point next to Lake Michigan
.
Old Town is home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings. The neighborhood is also home to St. Michael's Church
, originally a Bavaria
n-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire
. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern.
In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilitated a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios
. Through the 1930s, an art colony
emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park.
During the 1960s the neighborhood was the center of the yippie and hippie
counter culture
in the midwestern United States. This was mostly because by the 1950s and 1960s many of the original families that had settled in the neighborhood had moved to the suburbs during white flight
, leaving older, Victorian buildings with storefronts available to rent for cheap. This dense storefront-laden area (Wells & North Ave.) became the nexus of hippie culture, (as well as the newly emerging out-homosexual culture) and gave rise to the boutique
s (Crate and Barrel
for example) in the neighborhood today. Seed Magazine was a literary staple of the neighborhood at the time.
The violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention
transpired around the convention center, Grant Park
, Old Town, and Lincoln Park
, adjacent to Old Town.
The film The Weather Underground
has a scene on La Salle Avenue in Old Town, which describes the Zeitgeist of the era.
During the 1960s and 1970s Old Town became the center of Chicago folk music
featuring singer-songwriter
s such as Bob Gibson
, Steve Goodman
, Bonnie Koloc
, and John Prine
playing at several clubs on Wells Street, such as The Earl of Old Town. The Old Town School of Folk Music
was closely associated with these artists and clubs. The largest and most successful of the folk clubs was Mother Blues, which featured nationally known artists and groups such as Spanky and Our Gang, Jose Feliciano, Odetta, Oscar Brown, Jr, Bob Gibson, Josh White, and Chad Mitchell. It also presented comedian George Carlin, Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66, and The Jefferson Airplane.
A few of the institutions from the 1960s era still exist today, such as The Second City
, the Old Town Ale House, Bijou Video
, the Old Town School of Folk Music
(which moved after the 1968 riots), the Up Down Tobacco Shop (which used to be located just south of its current location), and the Old Town Aquarium.
, the neighborhood experienced a tense racial division during the 1970s and 1980s which left a de facto segregation between Old Town north of North Ave. and Old Town south of North Ave. In the early 2000s this trend has begun to shift towards a gentrification of the area south of North Ave. on Sedgwick, Blackhawk, Hudson and Mohawk streets, near the Marshall Field Garden Apartments. The area to the west of these streets, near the North and Clybourn Red Line stop has been dubbed "SoNo" by real estate developers. SoNo's boundaries are North Avenue, Halsted Street, Division Street and the North Branch of the Chicago River and it is not part of Old Town. Currently, Old Town south of North Avenue is a mixture of rich and poor, though is steadily gentrifying. The continued demolition of the Cabrini–Green housing projects to the south has led to significant demographic changes in the neighborhood.
Lincoln Park, Chicago
Lincoln Park, is one of the 77 community areas on Chicago, Illinois North Side, USA. Named after Lincoln Park, a vast park bordering Lake Michigan, the community area is anchored by the Lincoln Park Zoo and DePaul University...
and the Near North Side
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...
,. It is part of Chicago's 43rd ward. Old Town includes the Old Town Triangle Historic District. The Old Town Triangle Historic District is bounded on its northwest side by the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way,[3] its northeast side by Lincoln Avenue and Wells Street, and on its south side by North Avenue.[4] This historic district sits within the Old Town Triangle Association (OTTA), a Lincoln Park neighborhood bounded by the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way, Clark Street and North Avenue. It sits inside the community area of Lincoln Park and is part of Chicago's 43rd ward. Old Town north of North Avenue is in Lincoln Park, and south of North Avenue is part of the Near North Side. It is now an affluent gentrified neighborhood.
Old Town is today considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings.In the 1950s,the majority of this area was an enclave to the first Puerto Ricans to emigrate to Chicago. They referred to this area as part of "La Clark" until commercialization decorated late 1960s shop signs with the name of Old Town. The neighborhood is home to St. Michael's Church, originally a Bavarian-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire. St. Michael's, Holy Name Cathedral, Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph's catered also to Latinos with Spanish speaking masses.
The neighborhood is also home to the famed The Second City improvisational comedy troupe. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern. In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilited a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios. Through the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park.
Old Town was also home to many gays & lesbians from the 1920s through the 1980s. There were numerous gay bars lining Wells Street (all of them closed now). This was the first "gay ghetto" in Chicago, predating the current Lake View neighborhood (which is the current epicenter of gay life); the first homophile organization in American history, the Society for Human Rights, was established by Henry Gerber at his home
Henry Gerber House
The Henry Gerber House is a house at 1710 North Crilly Court in the Old Town Triangle Chicago Landmark District of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1885. In the 1920s it housed the apartment occupied by Henry Gerber, founder of the short-lived Society for Human Rights,...
on North Crilly Court in 1924. As the area gentrified, the gays moved further north to Lincoln Park and then Lake View neighborhoods.
Old Town has one Brown-Purple Line 'L' station at 1536-40 North Sedgwick Avenue. It is one of the oldest standing stations on the 'L'.
Early history
Potawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
, Miami
Miami tribe
The Miami are a Native American nation originally found in what is now Indiana, southwest Michigan, and western Ohio. The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma is the only federally recognized tribe of Miami Indians in the United States...
and Illinois
Illiniwek
The Illinois Confederation, sometimes referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were a group of twelve to thirteen Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America...
. Following the Treaty of Chicago
Treaty of Chicago
The Treaty of Chicago may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in Chicago, Illinois between the United States and the Ottawa, Ojibwe , and Potawatomi Native American peoples.-1821 Treaty of Chicago:...
in 1833, most of the indigenous people were forcibly removed, and the land was then settled in the 1850s by German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
-Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
immigrants. Clark Street is a leftover of the culture, it being an old road which followed the high point next to Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
.
Old Town is home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings. The neighborhood is also home to St. Michael's Church
St. Michael's Church, Old Town, Chicago
St. Michael's Church in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago is a Roman Catholic church staffed by the Redemptorist order of priests. The parish was founded to minister to German Catholic immigrants in 1852 with its first wooden church completed that year at a cost of $750 . The building stands at...
, originally a Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern.
In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilitated a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios
Carl Street Studios
The Carl Street Studios is an enclave in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood.-Early years:The Carl Street Studios complex began its life as a single family three story mansion built during the 1880s, and was, during part of these early years, reputedly owned by a mayor of the city of Chicago...
. Through the 1930s, an art colony
Art colony
right|300px|thumb|Artist houses in [[Montsalvat]] near [[Melbourne, Australia]].An art colony or artists' colony is a place where creative practitioners live and interact with one another. Artists are often invited or selected through a formal process, for a residency from a few weeks to over a year...
emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the Towertown neighborhood near Washington Square Park.
Hippie years
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
counter culture
Counter Culture
Counter Culture is a 2005 compilation double album by English folk/rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper featuring 25 classic Roy Harper songs, cherry picked according to his mood in April 2005. This collection spans 35 years of song writing and is intended as an introduction for anyone who's not sure...
in the midwestern United States. This was mostly because by the 1950s and 1960s many of the original families that had settled in the neighborhood had moved to the suburbs during white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
, leaving older, Victorian buildings with storefronts available to rent for cheap. This dense storefront-laden area (Wells & North Ave.) became the nexus of hippie culture, (as well as the newly emerging out-homosexual culture) and gave rise to the boutique
Boutique
A boutique is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specializes in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewelry. The word is French for "shop", via Latin from Greek ἀποθήκη , "storehouse"....
s (Crate and Barrel
Crate and Barrel
Crate & Barrel is a 170+ store chain of American retail stores, based in Northbrook, Illinois, specializing in housewares, furniture , and home accessories. Its corporate name is Euromarket Designs, Inc. The company is wholly owned by Otto GmbH.-Founding:Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first...
for example) in the neighborhood today. Seed Magazine was a literary staple of the neighborhood at the time.
The violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
The 1968 Democratic National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968. Because Democratic President Lyndon Johnson had announced he would not seek a second term, the purpose of the convention was to...
transpired around the convention center, Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
, Old Town, and Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is an urban park in Chicago, which gave its name to the Lincoln Park, Chicago community area.Lincoln Park may also refer to:-Urban parks:*Lincoln Park , California*Lincoln Park, San Francisco, California...
, adjacent to Old Town.
The film The Weather Underground
The Weather Underground
The Weather Underground is a 2002 documentary film based on the rise and fall of the American radical organization The Weathermen. Using much archive footage from the time as well as interviews with the Weathermen today, the film constructs a linear narrative of the militant organization.The film,...
has a scene on La Salle Avenue in Old Town, which describes the Zeitgeist of the era.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
featuring singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s such as Bob Gibson
Bob Gibson (musician)
Samuel Robert Gibson was a folk singer who led a folk music revival in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was known for playing both the banjo and the 12-string guitar. He introduced a then largely unknown Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival of 1959. He produced a number of LPs in the decade...
, Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
, Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc is an American folk music singer-songwriter, actress, and artist who was considered one of the three main Illinois-based folk singers in the 1970s, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine forming the "trinity of the Chicago folk scene."...
, and John Prine
John Prine
John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
playing at several clubs on Wells Street, such as The Earl of Old Town. The Old Town School of Folk Music
Old Town School of Folk Music
The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists...
was closely associated with these artists and clubs. The largest and most successful of the folk clubs was Mother Blues, which featured nationally known artists and groups such as Spanky and Our Gang, Jose Feliciano, Odetta, Oscar Brown, Jr, Bob Gibson, Josh White, and Chad Mitchell. It also presented comedian George Carlin, Sergio Mendez and Brazil '66, and The Jefferson Airplane.
A few of the institutions from the 1960s era still exist today, such as The Second City
The Second City
The Second City is a improvisational comedy enterprise which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.The Second City Theatre opened on December 16, 1959 and has since expanded its presence to several other cities, including Toronto and Los Angeles...
, the Old Town Ale House, Bijou Video
Bijou Video
Established in 1969 by Steven Toushin, Bijou Video is a company specializing in the production of gay pornographic films, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.-History:...
, the Old Town School of Folk Music
Old Town School of Folk Music
The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists...
(which moved after the 1968 riots), the Up Down Tobacco Shop (which used to be located just south of its current location), and the Old Town Aquarium.
1970s until today
After the Martin Luther King assassination, and the subsequent riots1968 Chicago riots
The 1968 Chicago riots were sparked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was shot while standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968 at 6:01 pm. Violence and chaos followed, with blacks flooding out onto the streets of major...
, the neighborhood experienced a tense racial division during the 1970s and 1980s which left a de facto segregation between Old Town north of North Ave. and Old Town south of North Ave. In the early 2000s this trend has begun to shift towards a gentrification of the area south of North Ave. on Sedgwick, Blackhawk, Hudson and Mohawk streets, near the Marshall Field Garden Apartments. The area to the west of these streets, near the North and Clybourn Red Line stop has been dubbed "SoNo" by real estate developers. SoNo's boundaries are North Avenue, Halsted Street, Division Street and the North Branch of the Chicago River and it is not part of Old Town. Currently, Old Town south of North Avenue is a mixture of rich and poor, though is steadily gentrifying. The continued demolition of the Cabrini–Green housing projects to the south has led to significant demographic changes in the neighborhood.