Wicker Park: The Great Chicago Fire Of 1871

Wicker Park was just a prairie before two brothers Charles and Joel Wicker purchased land along Milwaukee Avenue in 1870. When the Great Chicago Fire happened, and the city was starting to rebuild itself some chicagoans looked beyond the city limits. The land attracted families wanted to rebuild after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The Great Fire spurred the first wave of development. Homeless chicagoans looked for building new houses. Eleven days after the fire the Aid society had 200 lots on Milwaukee Avenue for the construction of cheaps homes for the victims of the fire along Milwaukee Ave(Kreashko,2015). German, Scandinavians and other immigrants moved to Wicker Park after the Great Fire(Heidemann,2013). Wicker Park became a resident

When they witnessed the vulnerability of the wood construction many of the residents of wicker park started making their homes out of bricks and stone. In 1890 wicker park was an architectural showplace, with houses designed in various styles(Best,2005). All the houses were in a circle surrounding the park that community was named after. Most of Wicker Park was made up of wealthy residents, but everything change in the 19th century. During the 19th century working-class African Americans and Eastern Europeans who lived in small cottages filled up the streets(Best,2005). In 1930s Wicker Park undergo a dramatic racial and class change. The wealthy abandoned their mansions while the poor and the working-class kept on

But unfortunately it was cut short. Wicker Park didn’t dodge the troubles of the Great Depression of 1929. The financial crisis occurred and the industries and businesses owners that called Wicker Park their home had to close their doors(Kreashko,2015). The great fire birthed Wicker Park, the great collapse ended the first glorious age of Wicker Park.
In Nelson Algren book The Man with the Golden Arm and Never Come Morning focuses on junkies, gamblers, and drunks in some areas in the neighborhood(Nelson Algren). His book Never Come Morning was banned for decades from the chicago public library. Between 1930s-1950s, polish immigrants came into the area in big numbers of groups after the World War 2(Byrne,2008). They came in and established their ethnic groups and offered shops, restaurants, and banks in their group, people spoke their language, it was like a small