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| During
the early twentieth century, Chicago's Uptown district was the largest
and most popular retail and entertainment area on the city's north side.
The district stretched along Broadway and Sheridan Road between Montrose
and Lawrence Avenues. The historic center of the district was the
intersection of Broadway and Wilson Avenue. In fact, prior to the 1920s,
Uptown was more commonly known as the Wilson Avenue District. By 1930,
the focal point of the district had shifted toward Broadway and Lawrence
Avenue, which neighborhood boosters and businessmen promoted as "Uptown
Square" in an attempt to increase the intersection's
distinctiveness and popularity. The name, however, never caught on with
the general public.
This section of the Uptown neighborhood developed more slowly than adjacent areas. The earliest settlers to the area were German and Swedish families, who built modest farm houses on the high ground along present-day Clark Street as early as the 1850s and 1860s. The area east of Clark Street remained largely undeveloped until the 1890s, owing in part to its rough landscape of swampy marshes and sand dunes. Uptown's greatest period of residential development began in the mid-1890s. In 1894, the area's first residential subdivision was developed on land bounded by Sheridan Road, Clark Street, and Montrose and Lawrence Avenues. The project was the work of William Deering, head of Deering Harvester Company, who had purchased the property with the expectation of profiting from its development. That same year, another subdivision was laid out on land near the lake between Lawrence and Ainslie Avenues that same year. Wealthy Chicagoans, many in search of a suburban lifestyle within easy reach of the city, quickly purchased lots within these subdivisions and erected elaborate, all-brick homes with broad porches, private gardens, and adjacent carriage houses. The area's first apartment building was completed in 1900 on the southeast corner of Kenmore and Lawrence Avenues. Transportation improvements during the same period spurred additional residential and commercial growth in the area. In 1896, the Clark Street streetcar line was extended north through the district and a new streetcar line was opened along Lawrence Avenue between Broadway and Milwaukee Avenue. Four years later, the Northwestern elevated railroad was extended north to Wilson Avenue, thus providing easy access between the district and downtown Chicago. With the installation of new transportation facilities and the opening of the Wilson and Clarendon Avenue beaches for recreational purposes, Uptown became an increasingly attractive place to live during the 1910s and 1920s. As the demand for housing in the district grew, land values and property taxes pushed upward. Seeing both new burdens and new opportunities in the district's shifting economic fortunes, many property owners sold their homes to developers who replaced them with larger, more profitable apartment buildings, office buildings, or movie theaters. During the 1920s, dozens of new ten- and fifteen-story apartment buildings were built on land formerly occupied by handsome mansions. Sheridan Road, once lined by spacious mansions, began to remind some observers of the Loop or upper Manhattan. In time, overbuilding drove apartment rents down to levels low enough that Uptown became an attractive place of residence for young, unattached men and women, many of them newcomers to the city of Chicago. Their presence in the neighborhood served to enliven Uptown's night life, but also troubled older residents who did not appreciate their love of jazz and willingness to use public space for identifying potential sex and marriage partners. The economic boom of the 1920s also brought several new office and commercial buildings to the Uptown district, prominent structures that not only helped attract customers to the area, but also helped define the visual landscape. These structures included the Uptown Theater (1925), the Aragon Ballroom (1927), the Sheridan Trust and Savings Bank on the southeast corner of Broadway and Lawrence (1926), and the headquarters of the Mutual Insurance Company on the southwest corner of Sheridan and Lawrence (1927). In 1927, plans were floated by developer Victor J. Curto for the construction of a twenty-six-story, art deco skyscraper on the northeast corner of Broadway and Lawrence. Dubbed the Uptown Square Building, it would have housed a department store on its ground floor and been the largest office building north of the Loop. Construction of the tower, however, never got underway, doomed by the lack of interested tenants and the collapse of the real estate economy in 1929. By 1930, Uptown was home to more than 65,000 residents and almost 2,000 stores, movie theaters, and restaurants. As the area's population increased and less expensive apartments became the predominant form of housing, its ethnic composition became more diverse. Increasing numbers of Russian Jews moved into the area from Chicago's west side, as did small numbers of Greek-Americans, African-Americans, and, after 1945, Asian-Americans. The district's population continued to increase between 1930 and 1950, albeit at a much slower rate, then declined in the 1960 census. This loss of residents was both cause and effect of a decline in residential construction and renewal of the existing housing stock that began in the 1930s and continued became more pronounced during the 1950s and 1960s. Most new residential development during the post-World War II years was confined to the construction of high-rise, high-rent apartment and condominium buildings along the edge of Lake Michigan. During the 1950s, large numbers of large apartments were subdivided into smaller apartments more suitable for individuals than couples or families. Commercial activities declined during the 1960s and 1970s as the social composition of Uptown changed and Chicagoans increasingly turned to suburban strip malls for their retail and entertainment needs. Prominent employers-- most notably Mutual Insurance Company-- also abandoned the district for suburban locations. City officials initiated an urban renewal program for the district in the 1960s, but it failed to arrest the loss of customers and residents. During the 1970s and 1980s, Uptown obtained a reputation as an unsafe, arson-prone neighborhood. Years of neglect and captial disinvestment in Uptown have yet to be completely overcome. |
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Page authored: 7
February 2000 -
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