OLD TOWN, CHICAGO

'Old Town' (sometimes called Old Town Triangle) is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, bounded by Armitage Avenue on the north, Division Street on the south, Larrabee Street on the west, and Clark Street on the east.[1] It sits inside the community areas of Lincoln Park and the Near North Side, and is part of Chicago's 43rd ward.

Contents

History of Old Town

Early History

Hippie Years

Old Town in Popular Culture

Photo Gallery

Quote

See also

External links

History of Old Town

Early History

The land known as Old Town originally served as a home and trade center to many Nations including Potawatomi, Miami and Illinois.[2] Following the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, most of the indigenous people were forcibly removed, and the land was then settled by German-Catholic immigrants in the mid to late 19th century. Clark Street is a leftover of the culture, it being an old road which followed the high point next to Lake Michigan.
Old Town is today considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings. The neighborhood is also home to St. Michael's Church, originally a Bavarian-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire[3]. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern.
In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilited a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios. Through the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the "Towertown" neighborhood near Washington Square Park.
Old Town has one Brown-Purple Line El station at 1536-40 North Sedgwick Avenue. It is one of the oldest standing stations on the 'L', and it is currently under renovation.

Hippie Years

During the 1960s the neighborhood was the center of the yippie and hippie counter culture in the midwestern United States. This was mostly due to the fact that by the 1950s and 1960s many of the original families that had settled in the neighborhood had moved to the suburbs during white flight, leaving older, victorian buildings with storefronts available to rent for cheap. This dense storefront-laden area (Wells & North Ave.) became the nexus of hippie culture, (as well as the newly emerging out-homosexual culture) and gave rise to the boutiques (Crate and Barrel for example) in the neighborhood today.

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The violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention transpired around the convention center, Grant Park, Old Town, and Lincoln Park, adjacent to Old Town.


The film The Weather Underground has a scene on La Salle Avenue in Old Town, which describes the ''Zeitgeist'' of the era.
During the 1960s and 1970's Old Town became the center of Chicago folk music featuring singer-songwriters such as Bob Gibson, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, and John Prine playing at several clubs on Wells Street, such as The Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else's Troubles, and the Quiet Knight. The Old Town School of Folk Music was closely associated with these artists and clubs.
As of 2006, a few of the institutions from the 1960s era still exist, such as The Second City, the Old Town Ale House, Bijou Video, the Old Town School of Folk Music (which moved after the 1968 riots), the Up Down Tobacco Shop and the Old Town Aquarium.
After the Martin Luther King assassination, and the subsequent riots [4], the neighborhood experienced a tense racial division during the 1970s and 1980s which left a de facto segregation between Old Town north of North Ave. and Old Town south of North Ave. In the early 2000s this trend has begun to shift towards a gentrification of the area south of North Ave. on Sedgwick, Blackhawk, Hudson and Mohawk streets, near the Marshall Field Garden Apartments. The area to the west of these streets, near the North and Clybourn Red Line stop has been dubbed "SoNo" by real estate developers.

Old Town in Popular Culture

★ The Old Town Art Fair is one of America's oldest art fairs, having started in 1950.

★ Portions of the film Return to Me were shot at Twin Anchors in Old Town.

★ The Illegal Blues Brothers Bar operated in Old Town.

★ A portion of The Hunter starring Steve McQueen was shot in Old Town at the Ravenswood El Station

★ The Old Town Triangle area was designated a Chicago Landmark District in 1977

★ Vi Daley is the current Alderman of Old Town

Photo Gallery

Quote

'If you can hear the bells of St.Michaels, then you are in Old Town'.

See also

German Immigration

External links

★ Photos of Old Town

★ Old Town Merchants and Residents Association.

★ Abbie Hoffmans testimony at the Chicago 7 trial

★ City Of Chicago landmark of Old Town

★ Chicago Reader article about Old Town and gentrification

★ The Old Town School of Folk Music