A Short History of Englewood
Portrait of Black Chicago
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Copyright 2004
Prairie Beginnings
History has aptly conveyed Chicago's unique and colorful character through its many nicknames: The Windy City, The City of Big Shoulder, the “I will” City, and City of the Century. Today, it is primarily known as the city of neighborhoods. Centuries of immigration have created a patchwork landscape of ethnic communities. These conclaves of diversity maintain many of their native customs and traditions. Maybe, this is what makes Chicago the most American of cities.
Each of the seventy-seven neighborhoods in Chicago has a distinctive history. Once, over one thousand trains would pass through Englewood in one day. It was the brass ring for immigrant families coming from the Stockyard shanties two miles north. Englewood's businesses and stores rivaled the finest shops in Chicago. But today it is conspicuously missing from most tourist maps.
Englewood is just a five minute drive from the Chicago Loop with the magnificent Chicago skyline in your rear view mirror. One twist of the Dan Ryan Expressway and the skyline turns into smokestacks; two twists and there is moss growing in the cracks of the embankment and boards on windows of the houses along the top. Here lies Englewood, home to 3,000 people. Despite despair and decay, there remains an indomitable spirit. Englewood has an important story to tell in American history.
As the French explorer, LaSalle, traveled along the southern banks of Lake Michigan in 1681, he came to the place the Indians called Checaugua, or Chicago. From there he crossed a small portage to reach the Checaugau River, later renamed the Des plains. The Native American Indian tribes just west of this portage were the Mascoutins. They were the original inhabitants of Englewood. By the time the land was officially entered for settlement in the United States Government Land Office at Chicago in 1840, they had already left.
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