This is our 241st post, and we are gradually creating a body of work and an online resource for the benefit of all railfans, everywhere. With all the different types of people Chicago attracted at this time, the entertainment industry became a powerful force to be reckoned with. We look forward to hearing from you. 16:26 sounds recorded on board a PCC (early 1950s) The River Tunnels The city, which had been 85.9 percent white in 1950 and 76.4 percent in 1960, saw that proportion fall to 65.6 percent in 1970 and 49.6 percent in 1980. 07. Railroad Record Club North Shore Line Rarities 1955-1963 13. Order Our New Book Building Chicagos Subways The station was closed in 1952, probably just a few months before this picture was taken. What Time is Halloween Trick-or-Treating in Chicago? The bulk of the items are from the 1920s-1950s. Chicago's historic South Side neighborhood is a largely residential community defined by its red brick houses and tree-shaded sidewalks. What was South Side Chicago like in the 1950s? It costs money to maintain this website, and to do the sort of historic research that is our specialty. Note that the platforms have been moved to the east and no longer extend over Halsted St. Altoona & Logan Valley: Chris Goes of Goes Lithography Co. had a plant at 61st Street beside the Dan Ryan. Housing discrimination is still a significant problem in Chicago. Open in Google Maps Foursquare 1312 W 111th St, Chicago, IL 60643 (773) 238-7171 homeofthehoagy 1,461. (312 . (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 4028 is on Western at 27th on November 20, 1955. 3:45 Box motor #5 05. By the 1960s, Black residents had moved into grade B (blue) communities in the South Side, such as Roseland and Beverly. 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. The Chatham 14 Theatre . (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7243 is on Western at the Chicago River on June 10, 1956. 02. 1950. The light green paint originally used on these cars faded badly and was hard to match. 18. The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.Read the press release here. At the end of Shameless, Lip has decided to sell the Gallagher house for a mere $75,000 a far cry from the $250,000 he was offered by a developer before he pushed too hard and lost that deal. Another clue that helps pinpoint the date is the light lettering on dark background seen on license plates in this image. The materials include articles, correspondence, flyers, news clippings and reminisces. Photo 537 I believe shows a detouring Halsted car turning off of Division st. onto Crosby St., not Larabee. Median income and employment plummeted, and L ridership fell. Mexican residents of the area around Jane Addamss Hull House settlement housetodays University Villagehad a similar fate as the Puerto Ricans. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7157 is northbound on Western at 67th on June 15, 1955. 4:56 Car 5706, January 16, 1954 We are donating $5 from the sale of each disc to Kenneth Gear, who saved these and many other original Railroad Record Club master tapes from oblivion. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA PCC 4208 is southbound on State Street at 64th, just a few blocks south of where car 7078 was involved in a horrific crash with a truck on May 25, 1950. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7238 is southbound on Western at the Douglas Park L on April 22, 1955. Check out these old photos of Illinois from the 1940s. Chicago Photos . 2. He is still stuck on the poverty line, working a food delivery job to support his girlfriend Tami and their son Freddie. Chance The Rapper Will Host 'Saturday Night Live' Next Month, How To Look Like Svengoolie: Sven Shows You How To Do The Makeup (VIDEO). Title Building Chicagos Subways (Wien-Criss Archive). The photographer who took the black-and-whites is not known, but it seems possible it was someone who did not live in this area, but came to visit. 06. CHA admitted they lost track of thousands of displaced people as they moved to other Black neighborhoods. Many thousands gathered to celebrate the starting of work on the subway. Much of the promised housing failed to materialize, and its uncertain whether the CHA will ever build new housing for the 40,000 families currently on their waiting lists. Photos 534, 535 & 536 Englewood, at 63rd & Halsted was one of Chicagos largest and most important commercial shopping districts outside of the loop. The big building on other side is the old Madison carbarn. Between 1950 and 1960 Chicago's population shrank for the first time in its history, as factory jobs leveled off and people moved to the suburbs. Black families in Chicago lost between $3 billion and $4 billion in wealth because of predatory housing contracts during the 1950s and 1960s, according to a new report released Thursday. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 6154 is southbound at Halsted and Congress on October 5, 1953. Chicago, though arguably racially diverse overall, is considered by researchers to be the nation's most racially segregated city. The PCC is going to go northbound on Route 22 Clark-Wentworth. Jimmy Emery from Chicago Heights was particularly involved, as written in the preceding article. Your financial contributions help make this web site better, and are greatly appreciated. 04. Total time: 74:02 Last Run of the Hagerstown & Frederick: 7113 crossing back to the right-hand track would have involved the same procedure unless there was a common, wired, trailing crossover a couple of blocks further. These housing projects, as they became known, are represented by orange dots on the interactive map. The developments were primarily clustered into six groups in addition to scattered sites with low-rise buildings and row houses. 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. It was converted to apartments in 1985. The introduction to Polk's Chicago Directory 1923 provides a brief history of Chicago directories and a list of published volumes. Recorded between 1955 and 1963 on the Skokie Valley Route and Mundelein branch. 4:53 Engine whistle signals, loco #12, January 17, 1954 Western Ave. cars had used the carbarn at 69th and Ashland until it closed. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 453 and 190 are on Halsted at 63rd Place on May 21, 1954. Known as Bronzeville, the neighborhood was surprisingly small, but at its peak more than 300,000 lived in the narrow, seven-mile strip. Then, Douglas Park L trains used these tracks from 1954-58. IIRC, Jalens Snack Shop, the new occupant, was up and running by the Summer of 54 and for many years after that. 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. Prior to its more official naming, the media referred to the Bronzeville neighborhood and adjacent areas using derisive names such as the "Black Belt," "Black Ghetto," and even more appalling names such as "Darkie Town." Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. 5:20 #80, October 1954 People wait for a streetcar in downtown Chicago. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7227 is on Western at Bross on October 15, 1954. We thank him for his generosity. Is BCD Travel a good company to work for. Amazing! This move included the expansion of popular music styles, bringing jazz to Chicago and the rest of the country. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7038 is on Western at Van Buren on June 11, 1956. Between 1925 and 1950, Chicago's black literary output rivaled the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Tenants were promised a right to return to soon-to-be-built housing on the sites and placed on voucher waiting lists, but many residents struggled to meet the bureaucratic requirements to be considered. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Chicagos South Side was the center for African-American culture and business. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 7284 is on Western at the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on October 8, 1953. Dates: 1936-2004. (Wien-Criss Archive), CTA 4408 on Western at 66th on July 16, 1951. Railroad Record Club Traction Rarities 1951-58 I grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s and '60sliterally across the street from U.S. Steel. I wish they could just appreciate from afar without taking and still destroying everything in their way. There are pictures on my blog, and also in my book Chicagos Lost Ls. During its heyday, there was Soft Sheen Products, a $100 million-a-year. Through the citys use of eminent domain, much of that neighborhood, which included Black, Italian, Greek, and Jewish residents, was razed in the 1960s for the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway and the development of the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus. It is very unlikely that he will ever be able to recoup his investment, but we support his efforts at preserving this important history, and sharing it with railfans everywhere. 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. In 1950, 5% of the Chicago area Jews lived in suburbs. Look at this classic car in Rockford back in 1956. This view is looking south along Western at 71st St. With maybe at least a few St.Louis-built cars being included in some of those orders; the Pullman cars were largely gone from the streets by the end of 1955. Along with hundreds, or perhaps even a few thousand other onlookers, I watched as 30 ft flames gutted the building that July evening. After that, the streetcars had to use the 77th and Vincennes barn. Subways Since 1960 Chicago Hoods: West Side. In 1979 there were still 10,000 employees at the plant, which was a 50% reduction, but starting in 1980 thousands more were left unemployed. One of my enduring childhood memories, growing up in the 1970s and 1980s on Chicago's South Side, was something I called the "boundary." First, they were all taken in Chicago during the 1950s. 10:36 (recorded May 3-7, 1958 line abandoned July 1958) This corresponds to the white on dark green format of the 54 Illinois plates. 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