From the Saturday, March 22, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
The WISCH LIST
By Dave Wischnowsky
Chicago is a city of many things, including nicknames.
From the Windy City to the Second City to the City of Big Shoulders, that Toddlin’ Town has plenty of monikers. It also has plenty of neighborhoods – 77, to be exact – all of which have nicknames, too.
Last week, MentalFloss.com, which specializes in interesting facts and odd bits of knowledge, published an article entitled, “How Chicago’s Neighborhoods Got Their Names.”
The piece taught me about neighborhoods that I barely know, such as Pill Hill (named for all the doctors who once called the area home), Gladstone Park (named after British Prime Minister William Gladstone) and Jackowo (named from the Polish spelling of Saint Hyacinth’s Basilica – Bazylika Św. Jacka).
And for the neighborhoods I thought I knew well, I learned that I didn’t really know many of them well at all. To enlighten you, I wanted to share a few of my favorite facts about Chicago’s favorite neighborhoods.
GOLD COAST
Originally called “The Astor Street District,” this North Side stretch along Lake Michigan took the name of John Jacob Astor, America’s first multi-millionaire.
Astor didn’t actually live in Chicago, but the residents so badly wanted to project an air of wealth that they still used his name. It worked, as enough wealthy families eventually moved there after Lake Shore Drive opened in 1875, that it was rechristened the “Gold Coast.”
LAKEVIEW
This bustling North Side neighborhood wasn’t actually named for its view of the lake.
Rather, it was named for a hotel, which was named for the view of the lake. Built in 1854, the long-vanished Hotel Lake View once stood at the convergence of Sheridan Road and Lake Shore Drive.
LINCOLN PARK
Originally a cemetery for victims of cholera and smallpox, Chicago relocated most of the area’s graves in the early 1860s and briefly christened the neighborhood “Lake Park,” before bestowing its current name after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865.
LINCOLN SQUARE
During the 1800s, this area of the North Side was originally known as “Celeryville” as local farmers claimed it to be the celery capital of the world. Apparently, their taste for vegetables eventually wore off and residents named it after Lincoln Avenue, the main road through the region.
O’HARE
It’s not just an airport, it’s a neighborhood, too. One named after Edward “Butch” O’Hare, a Chicagoan and World War II Navy aviator. O’Hare received a Medal of Honor in 1942 for single-handedly attacking a squadron of Japanese bombers while defending the U.S.S. Lexington. He died a year later in another battle.
Interestingly, O’Hare’s father was one of Al Capone’s lawyers, who turned over information to the government that eventually helped send Capone to jail for tax evasion. In 1939, O’Hare was killed by two gunmen near Douglas Park on the West Side – perhaps not coincidentally.
PILSEN
It’s now home to a largely Mexican population, but during the 1870s this South Side area was populated by many Czech immigrants. They came to call the area “Plzeň” after the second-biggest city in West Bohemia, which eventually morphed into Pilsen, which stuck.
RIVER NORTH
Christened “River North” in the 1970s to appeal to yuppies (it worked), this area along the north branch of the Chicago River was instead known for years as “Smokey Hollow” because of the plumes spouting out from all the factories along the waterway and nearby railroad tracks.
HEGEWISCH
This South Side enclave was named for Adolph Hegewisch, a manufacturer who established the community in 1883. Curiously, during World War II, however, Hegewisch’s first name began to appear as “Achilles” in texts and histories, either as a mistake or a deliberate attempt to distance his legacy from Hitler.