Chicago's Other Suburbs

Abstract

CHICAGO is a city of suburbs. The metropolitan area contains hundreds of civil divisions spread over several counties. fragmentation of local government is a product of the past century. In its early, heady decades the city kept pace with growth by annexing newly developed areas on its fringe. On 29 June 1889 Chicago quadrupled in size overnight by annexing the towns of Jefferson and Lake and the village of Hyde Park. About that time, however, entire subdivisions were being developed with levels of services carefully adjusted to the economic status of intended residents. The settlement of homogeneous districts created a demand for local control (Keating 1988). In the twentieth century the pace of annexation slowed almost to a halt after World War I. Increasingly, many suburbs sought to be exclusive. By using zoning and other powers they aspired to create and maintain environments that would attract affluent whites. In Chicago, as in other American cities, the achievements of the affluent suburbs are well known. For example, local promoters boosted Kenilworth as a place that was admirably suited to the wants of the business and professional man. It was emphasized that there were manufacturing plants, no unsightly buildings ... to mar its natural beauty. The author continued, This condition has been made possible by a rigid enforcement of building regulations incorporated in every deed. These restrictions require that no houses shall be constructed below a stipulated price, and that all buildings must be set at least forty feet back from the street (Cole 1907, 283). More positively, a wide range of services and improvements added to the cost of each lot (Keating 1988, 74). In some cases the rhetoric was overblown; reality was mundane. But many suburbs became very attractive places in which to live and raise a family. Some, like Kenilworth, that stretched northward along the shore of Lake Michigan have been studied (Ebner 1988) and clearly were the inspiration for the influential Burgess model of the city (Burgess 1925), which assumed that the suburbs were the home of the affluent. But suburbanization had another side. Along with the Kenilworth-type suburb was a very different sort, of which Park is an example (Fig. 1). Incorporated as a village in 1882, it took its current name in 1884. Boosters of Park, like those of most suburbs, emphasized the ease of commuting to the Loop, but reality compelled them to modulate other assertions. Melrose Park offers an ideal place of residence to thrifty people. It has not all the advantages in the catalog, but like all the communities in the Chicago district it has a good, honest climate (Jenkins 1925). To the businessperson or professional this would have been damning with faint praise, but plain folk would have been interested to know that the district contained the National Malleable and Steel Castings Company, the American Brake Shoe and Foundry, Edward Hines Lumber, Park Plating, and American Can. Park was marketed as and in large part became a blue-collar suburb. The story of Park and other blue-collar suburbs that surrounded Chicago has not been told. Case studies have demonstrated the existence of individual suburbs that were occupied by factory workers, who ranged from the native-born labor elite to unskilled immigrants (Kane and Bell 1985; Harris 1991). Focusing on Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century, this article offers an exploratory overview of a large and complex subject. In terms of blue-collar suburban settlement Chicago was not typical of large American cities. In 1940, of the six largest metropolitan areas in the United States, Chicago had the lowest proportion of blue-collar workers living beyond city limits (Harris 1990). It fits prevailing suburban stereotypes better than many metropolitan areas but not very well. Blue-collar suburbs were not uniform in character. …