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The Near South Side is one of the most dynamic of
Chicago's communities. It has undergone a metamorphosis from a Native
American homeland to a blue collar settlement, to an elite socialite
residential district, to a center for vice, to a slum, to a public
housing and warehouse district, and finally to the home of a newly
gentrified residential district.
The Near South Side was initially noted for wagon trails winding
through a lightly populated bend of Lake Michigan. This area was
first populated by settlers working for the Illinois & Michigan
Canal, who subsequently worked in the lumber district. Proximity
to the railroads attracted light manufacturing and shops. In 1853,
the community was absorbed by the extension of the city limits to
31st Street. In 1859, a South State Street horse-drawn streetcar
line, linking the area to downtown, attracted wealthy families to
the area.
By the time of the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, it was home to some
of the city's finest mansions and most elite social families. However,
by the turn of the century, rapid transit evolved and many families
moved slightly farther from the Loop business district. The railroads
brought warehouses and light manufacturing.[3] Michigan Avenue between
14th Street and 22nd Street became "Auto Row". The "Levee"
vice district of brothels and gambling dens around Cermak Street
and State Street prospered until 1912. Burnham Park and several
accompanying institutions were built in the 1910s and 1920s.[3]
World War I and post World War I Great Migration settlers moved
in and created the low-rent "Black Belt". Urban renewal
and public housing projects later replaced some of the slums. In
the 1940s, the city's worst slums were on the Near South Side.
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