Rogers Park, Chicago
Rogers Park, Chicago
Main page
2189180

Rogers Park, Chicago

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
2189180

Rogers Park, Chicago

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Rogers Park, Chicago

Rogers Park is a neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, and one of the city's 77 municipally recognized community areas. Located 9 miles (14 km) north of the Loop along the shore of Lake Michigan, it features green spaces, early 20th-century architecture, live theater, bars, restaurants, and beaches. Rogers Park is known for its racial and cultural diversity: according to the Chicago Sun-Times, it is the community that most closely matches the city's ethnic makeup as a whole.

The community is bounded by the city of Evanston along Juneway Terrace and Howard Street to the north, Ridge Boulevard to the west, Devon Avenue and the Edgewater neighborhood to the south, and Lake Michigan to the east. West Ridge, just to the west, was part of Rogers Park until the 1890s and is still sometimes referred to as "West Rogers Park." In the early 1900s, what is today the main campus of Loyola University Chicago was established at the neighborhood's southeastern end, along the lake.

The Rogers Park area was colonized at the convergence of two Native American trails predating modern metropolitan Chicago, that evolved into Rogers Avenue and Ridge Boulevard. The Pottawatomi and other regional tribes settled in Rogers Park from season to season. The name of Indian Boundary Park west of Rogers Park reflects this history as does Pottawattomie Park near Clark Street and Rogers Avenue.

In 1809, the Karthauser Inn was established as stagecoach stop and tavern. Phillip Rogers of Ireland purchased 1,600 acres (650 ha) of land in the area from the 1830s to 1856. He operated a toll gate beside his home at what became Ridge and Lunt Avenues and often traded and worked with the local tribes.

During the period 1844 to 1850 arriving colonizers started farms along a ridge in the western portion of Rogers Park, avoiding the often flooded lowlands to the east. In 1870 Rogers' son-in-law, Patrick I. Touhy, sold 100 acres (40 ha) to land speculators, including John Farwell, Luther Greenleaf, Stephen Lunt, Charles Morse, and George Estes; all of whom contributed names to streets in the area. With an additional purchase of 125 acres in 1873 these speculators together with Touhy formed the Rogers Park Building and Land Company. Also in 1873, the Chicago & Northwestern Railway completed a line through the area and constructed a station at Greenleaf Ave. The population was 200 and a post office was opened in July 1873.

On April 29, 1878, voters incorporated Rogers Park as a village of Illinois governed by six trustees. In 1885, the Chicago, Evanston & Lake Superior Railroad, a predecessor of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, built a combination freight and commuter line through eastern Rogers Park on the present "L" right-of-way with a stop at Morse Avenue. By 1893, the population was 3500, the North Shore Electric Railroad expanded its service into the area, and the village of Rogers Park was annexed to Chicago.

The Rogers Park Women's Club opened the first library in 1894. In that year, the Great Fire of Rogers Park destroyed the business district.

By 1904 the population had grown to 7,500. The Northwestern elevated line was extended from Wilson (4600N) to Howard Street (7600N). St. Ignatius College moved to the lakefront in 1912 and changed its name to Loyola University in 1915. Successive generations brought about vast cultural changes to the former village. By 1930 the population was 57,094 making Rogers Park one of Chicago's most densely populated areas. Chicagoans began to move to new planned communities in the north suburbs by the 1930s, which ushered in the migration of German, English, Irish, and Jewish families to Rogers Park. With the devastation in Europe following World War II, many additional immigrants found their way to Chicago and the Rogers Park neighborhood. A growing and vibrant Hispanic community has grown along Clark Street since 2000.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.