Douglas, Chicago

Douglas
—  Community area  —
Community Area 35 - Douglas
Prairie Shores in Bronzeville
Location within the city of Chicago
Coordinates: 41°49.8′N 87°37.2′W / 41.83°N 87.62°W / 41.83; -87.62Coordinates: 41°49.8′N 87°37.2′W / 41.83°N 87.62°W / 41.83; -87.62
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Cook
City	Chicago
Neighborhoods	List Bronzeville Groveland Park Lake Meadows The Gap Prairie Shores South Commons Dearborn Homes Ida B. Wells Ickes Praire Homes
Area
– Total	1.7 sq mi (4.33 km2)
Population (2000)
– Total	26,470
– Density	15,833/sq mi (6,113.2/km2)
	population down 13.64% from 1990
Demographics
– White	6.59%
– Black	85.5%
– Hispanic	1.11%
– Asian	5.25%
– Other	1.53%
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
– Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Codes	parts of 60609, 60616 and 60653
Median income	$27,800
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

Douglas, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas. The neighborhood is named for Stephen A. Douglas, a famous Illinois politician, whose estate included a tract of land given to the federal government. The Douglas tract later became the infamous Civil War Union prison camp, Camp Douglas, located in what is now the eastern portion of the Douglas neighborhood. Another part of the Douglas estate at Cottage Grove and 35th, he gave to the Old University of Chicago.^[1] As part of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid, the Olympic Village was planned to be located on a 37-acre (150,000 m²) truck parking lot south of McCormick Place that is mostly in the Douglas community area and partly in the Near South Side.^[2]

The Douglas community area stretches from 26th Street South to Pershing Road along the Lake Shore including parts of the Green Line along State Street and the Metra Electric and Amtrak passenger railroad tracks which run parallel to Lake Shore Drive. Burnham Park runs along its shoreline, containing 31st Street Beach. The community area also contains part of the neighborhood of Bronzeville, a very famous center of African-American culture in the city.

Neighborhoods

Bronzeville

Bronzeville is a neighborhood located in the Douglas and Grand Boulevard community areas on the South Side of the City of Chicago around the Illinois Institute of Technology and Illinois College of Optometry. It is accessible via the Green, Red Lines of the Chicago Transit Authority or the Metra Electric District Main Line. In 2011 a new Metra station, Jones/Bronzeville Station, will open to serve the neighborhood on the Rock Island and planned SouthEast Service.

Victory Monument and Ida B. Wells-Barnett House

In the early 20th century, Bronzeville was known as the "Black Metropolis," one of the nation's most significant landmarks of African-American urban history. Between 1910 and 1920, during the peak of the "Great Migration," the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of African-Americans fled the oppression of the south and emigrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs. Many famous people were associated with the development of the area including: Andrew "Rube" Foster, founder of the Negro National Baseball League; Ida B. Wells, a civil rights activist, journalist and organizer of the NAACP; Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, noted artist, author, and one of the co-founders of the DuSable Museum of African American History; Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman pilot; Gwendolyn Brooks, famous author and first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, actress Marla Gibbs, legendary singers Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls, and Louis Armstrong, the legendary trumpet player and bandleader who performed at many of the area's night clubs. The neighborhood contains the Chicago Landmark Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District.^[3]

47th Street was and remains the hub of the Bronzeville neighborhood and in recent years has started to regain some of the former glory of years gone by. Gone for good, however, is the Regal Theater (demolished in 1973), where many great performers took the stage.

During the 1950s and 1960s, a decision was made to replace the "slums" with several straight miles of high-rise public housing projects, managed by the Chicago Housing Authority, essentially isolating and simultaneously concentrating the poor black population in this section of the city. The largest complex was Robert Taylor Homes.

Origins of the name

The name itself was first used in 1930, by James J. Gentry, a local theater editor for the Chicago Bee publication. It refers to the brown skin color of African-Americans, who predominated in that area. It has become common usage throughout the decades.^[4]

Prairie Shores

Originally a 5-building 1677-unit housing project erected in 1962 by Michael Reese Hospital, Prairie Shores is now simply a middle-class community. Along with the adjacent Lake Meadows development, this was the city's largest urban renewal project at the time of its inception in 1946 that included Illinois Institute of Technology, and Mercy Hospital. The development was funded under the Title I of the Housing Act of 1949, using US$6.2 million ($45 million today) of subsidies.^[5]

Groveland Park

Of all the sections of Douglas originally developed by Stephen A. Douglas, only Groveland Park survives. Its homes are built around an oval-shaped park. Groveland Park is located between Cottage Grove Avenue, 33rd Street, 35th Street and the Metra Electric railroad tracks.

Education

Several buildings on the Illinois Institute of Technology main campus, such as Machinery Hall pictured here, have been designated as Chicago Landmarks and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The following Chicago Public Schools campuses serve Bronzeville: Beethoven School, Phillips Academy High School, Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, Chicago Military Academy, Walter H. Dyett High School are schools within this community.

Bronzeville is also home to the renowned Illinois Institute of Technology, which is famous for its engineering and architecture programs. It also is home to the VanderCook College of Music and the Illinois College of Optometry; in 2006 the Great Books liberal arts school Shimer College moved into the neighborhood.

References

1. ^ http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1448.html
2. ^ Hinz, Greg. "Plan for 2016 Olympics disclosed". Crain Communications, Inc.. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22191. Retrieved April 2, 2007. 
3. ^ "Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. http://www.ci.chi.il.us/Landmarks/B/BlackMet.html. Retrieved 2007-05-10. 
4. ^ "Bronzeville Stories". http://www.iit.edu/~bronzeville-stories/history.html. 
5. ^ Garvin, Alexander (2002). The American city: what works, what doesn't. McGraw-Hill Professional. p. 167. ISBN 0071373675. http://books.google.com/books?id=-0h134NR1s0C&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=Prairie+Shores+apartments+Michael+Reese&source=bl&ots=UJcO6qc9bw&sig=xfmzifpwTJVPKKBEK8FBf2KPvHg&hl=en&ei=OvQvTP-dEoehnQefuKjkAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CDcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Prairie%20Shores%20apartments%20Michael%20Reese&f=false. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 

External links

Chicago portal

• Official City of Chicago Douglas Community Map
• Bronzeville at Explore Chicago, The Official City of Chicago Tourism Website
• Bronzeville Online
• Historic district
• Bronzeville History
• Bronzeville Politics and Housing
• Bronzeville travel guide from Wikitravel