'Bridgeport' is a neighborhood on the
south side of
Chicago, Illinois,
USA. It is one of 77
community areas of Chicago. Historically and still today, a large section of the neighborhood has served as an enclave of the
Irish-American community in Chicago, as large numbers of immigrants from Ireland settled in this working class neighborhood beginning in the
1830s. Many of the same Irish immigrants who helped build the
Erie Canal later came to Chicago to work on the
Illinois and Michigan Canal. Because of inadequate funding for the project, the State of
Illinois began issuing "Land
Scrip" to the workers rather than paying them with money. A large number of those Irish-Americans who received the scrip used the scrip to purchase canal-owned land to settle at the northern end of the canal, at its junction with the south branch of the
Chicago River which is near the original Bridgeport village, named ''Hardscrabble'', centered on what is now the diagonal section of Throop Street
[1], the northwest side of the present day well-defined Bridgeport community area. See also
South Side Irish and
Finley Peter Dunne. Dunne's Mr Dooley character lived on "Archey Road" (present day
Archer Avenue, Chicago ) in Bridgeport.
Bridgeport has also been home to a large number of
Lithuanian-Americans, particularly along Lituanica Avenue, which runs between 31st Street and 38th Place one block west of Halsted. Today, there are also large numbers of first and second generation
Mexican-Americans who, like the Irish immigrants of the mid-late
19th Century, also settled in the Bridgeport area due to its affordability and proximity to their work.
Bridgeport is home to two magnificent churches in the so-called
Polish Cathedral style:
St. Mary of Perpetual Help and
St. Barbara in Chicago. Visible from both the
Stevenson Expressway as well as the
Dan Ryan, these monumental edifices tower over the neighborhood. The
Art Institute of Chicago has recently done restoration work on the historic
paintings in the
Shrine Altars at
St. Mary of Perpetual Help which date back to
1890, and plans are in the works to restore the beautiful
stained glass windows and to complete the painting of the interior ceilings and
dome. Bridgeport is also home to St. Jerome Croatian Catholic Church, which holds services in both Croatian and English.
Although it is often stated that the
Chicago White Sox' home field,
U.S. Cellular Field, is in Bridgeport, the stadium is actually located one block to the east, in the small
Armour Square neighborhood.
The father-son mayors of Chicago,
Richard J. and
Richard M. Daley, are both Bridgeport natives.
Bridgeport has been the home of five of Chicago's 45 mayors. They are, in order,
Edward Kelly,
Martin Kennelly,
Richard J. Daley,
Michael Bilandic, and
Richard M. Daley. At one point, Bridgeport held the mayor's office for 46 straight years.
According to the
2000 Census, the population of Bridgeport is 33,694. Chicago's RedEye newspaper, a free offshoot of the widely circulated Chicago Tribune, has called Bridgeport, along with Rogers Park, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago. Due to the short commute to
Illinois Institute of Technology, many students choosing to move off-campus have relocated here.
Bridgeport is served by the Bridgeport News, a neighborhood newspaper delivered weekly on Wednesdays to homes throughout the neighborhood. The Bridgeport News has lately added color formatting and is now available on the Internet.
External links
★
City of Chicago Bridgeport Community Map
★
Bridgeport A brief history and look into one of Chicago's oldest neighborhoods
★
[2]
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