Sheridan Park

The near-west side became the dumping ground for thousands upon thousands of European immigrants who found their way to Chicago at the turn of the 20th century. That mass migration of southern Europeans, necessary to provide the labor force that fueled America’s industrial revolution, ended in 1924. By an act of Congress the further immigration of southern Europeans was restricted.

Sheridan Park was one of the several institutions that evolved in response to the needs of the immigrant community. The ethnic composition of the near-west side immigrants at the turn of the 20th century consisted of Italians, Greeks, Jews, Irish, German, French, and a smattering of other ethnic groups that had been deposited in the near-west side slums.

Italians occupied the inner core of the near-west side neighborhood, from the river on the east on out to the westernmost boundaries; Jews and Germans lived south of Roosevelt Road,  The Jews created an outdoor flea market, which became known as both Jew Town and Maxwell Street. Greeks occupied the delta created by Harrison Street and Blue Island Avenue just north of the Jane Addams’ Hull House.  The Irish lived north of the Greek Delta.  And the French and Norwegians lived northwest of the Greek Delta.  (Bethlehem Howell Center.)

The exodus out of the near-west side slums began shortly after WWI. The exodus was led by the French, Norwegians and Irish. By the end of the great depression and the beginning of WWII (circa 1939), the Jewish and Greek presence was reduced to their businesses; e.g. Greek Town and Jew Town (Maxwell Street). Italians were the only ethnic group that remained as a viable community.  They thrived through the prohibition era, the great depression, WWII, the construction of two Interstate expressways during the 1950s, beyond the razing of the neighborhood to make way for the UIC, and the ethnic cleansing being orchestrated by the UIC’s Hull House Museum.

Jane Addams, co-founder of Hull House, America’s first settlement house, in 1889, labeled the near west side, “The Hull House Neighborhood.”  It remained as such until the demise of the neighborhood by the UIC in 1963. The Jane Addams’ Hull House, whose initial purpose was to improve the lives of the immigrant residents, provided social services and challenged the establishment to improve the living conditions of the crowded residents.  The Hull House complex was completed with the opening of its summer camp, the Bowen Country Club, in Waukegan Illinois, in 1912.

That same year, 1912, Sheridan Park came into being. While the Jane Addams’ Hull House and the various non-secular institutions provided social services for the immigrants who resided in the squalor of tenement houses, the alleged purpose for building Sheridan Park in 1912 was to provide breathing space to the congested near-west side residents. The Special Park Commission identified several potential sites for the new "playground parks" including a small 3.5-acre area adjacent to the existing Jackson School. The site of the park was in the very heart of Little Italy, between Aberdeen and May Streets, a few doors north of Taylor Street.