What Are The Events That Reflected The Mecca Apartment Building In Chicago

The Mecca apartment building in Chicago lived a long and difficult life before eventually being demolished in 1952. The shifting demographics in Chicago shaped the culture of the Mecca. The changing political and social climates around the country also had a great influence on the building’s culture and its residents. The time periods that most influenced the Mecca were 1900-1919, 1920-1939, and 1940-1950. These eras included events such as World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II, which all affected the Mecca.

The Mecca was constructed in 1891 in Chicago and was originally purposed to be a hotel. However, shortly after the building was constructed, the US economy took a down turn and the building was converted into an apartment

American consumerism increased throughout the country, which brought about a new popular culture. The music of the 1920’s became an important part of that pop culture. Jazz took hold of the music industry in the south, and as it gained popularity, it spread north. Chicago experienced its own jazz revolution during this decade with the opening of many jazz clubs where popular jazz performers would come play. The Mecca became an influence on local jazz musicians in Chicago and they incorporated the Mecca into their songs. In 1924, Jimmy Blythe and Priscilla Stewart recorded a song entitled “Mecca Flat Blues.” This song described the residents of the Mecca in a way that fit with the building’s culture, as well as the national culture. The portrayed Mecca woman took on modern female ideas of the 1920’s. The Mecca woman was no longer a quiet woman, as she was expected to be in previous eras. She was now owning and embracing her sexuality, which was a new and drastically different thing for woman to do in the early 20th century. While each city had their own style of jazz, the blues were a more popular style in Chicago, particularly around the Mecca because the blues fit the lives of the Mecca’s residents. These residents lived challenging lives because of the growing population in the apartment building, which led to family disputes and a lack of privacy. The growing population in the Mecca became an even

However, the people who lived in the Mecca would tell a different story. Life Magazine published an article on the Mecca shortly before its destruction in 1951. The article illustrated the building as a slum that used to be stunning before the African American community took it over in the early 1910’s. For Chicagoans who did not live in the Mecca, the building was an eyesore that deserved be demolished to make way for the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Mecca’s residents, however, called the building home and, while it was not the most ideal living situation towards the mid 20th century, the Mecca offered life to its residents. Although the building became overcrowded and run down, the Mecca gave its residents a culture that could be found nowhere else. The Mecca was a place for African Americans to congregate and live together, where they were supported by friends and family that shared in their experiences. Reporters at the time of the Mecca’s demolition only reported the negative aspects of the building, which caused popular perceptions of the Mecca to be very different from the resident’s perceptions of the building. Negative popular perceptions of the Mecca contributed to the desire to tear down the building, and it was ultimately demolished in