A Short History of Englewood
Portrait of Black Chicago
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration
Copyright 2004
Rebuilding & Expansion
In 1871, the Great Chicago fire destroyed over twenty-eight miles of streets, causing over one hundred thousand Chicagoans to lose their homes. Many people moved to the city's fringe during the rebuilding and Englewood experienced a population boom. Chicagoans rebuilt with brick and stone. Their houses reflected the “City of Big Shoulders;” they were proud bulwarks meant to last forever. In 1885, a house on the corner of Halstead and 63rd Street sold for $4,800. Chicago officially annexed Englewood along with Hyde Park, Jefferson and Cicero, in 1889, to boost population statistics, and secure its bid to host the Columbian World's fair.
Englewood was a whirl of social activity in the late 19th century. Churches held “sociables” and charged ten cents admission for picnics in the summer and oyster suppers in the winter. Clubs were very popular; the Terpsichorean Club (dancing) was a favorite. In the history, The Story of Englewood, author, Gerald Sullivan remembers “rivalries” in certain halls when one club claimed rights and another club would enter. The Masonic Englewood Lodge No. 690 was chartered in 1872; fifty years later, it had parented over four other local lodges; each one had over a thousand members. Englewood's early demographic population consisted of middle class Anglo-Americans with a few Swedish and German Immigrant families.
The history of Chicago's ethnic neighborhood can be attributed to William J. Quarter, the first Catholic bishop in Chicago, who established the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Peter as national churches in 1846 so that German Immigrants could hear the Mass celebrated in their own language. Next, Quarter established the parish of St. Patrick for his own countrymen, the Irish. The separation of groups was intended by Quarter as a temporary solution but it became the framework of Chicago's neighborhoods.
In 1840s, the Potato Famine devastated Ireland. Millions died of starvation and disease; a million more left their homes; some were looking for a better life; most were fleeing a horrific death. When the Irish began arriving in Chicago they were met with scorn and distain. It was not just that they were poor, but they were Catholic. Newspapers helped spread Anti-Irish prejudice. Cartoons often portrayed the Irish as gorilla-like caricatures with a jug of liquor in one hand and a club in the other. In 1868, the Chicago Evening Post read, “Scratch a convict or a pauper and the chances are you tickle the skin of an Irishman.” That same year The New York Times reported two Know-Nothing lodges in Englewood. Their political platform rested on the belief that foreign born Catholics should be barred from politics and municipal power.
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