Old Town Triangle Historic District
(U.S. Registered Historic District)
Chicago's Old Town
Location:	Chicago, IL
Built/Founded:	1872
Architect:	Multiple
Architectural style(s):	Italianate, Queen Anne, Other
Added to NRHP:	November 08, 1984
NRHP Reference#:	84000347 [1]
Governing body:	Local

Old Town (sometimes called Old Town Triangle) is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, bounded by Lincoln Avenue on the north, Division Street on the south, Halsted Street on the west, and Clark Street on the east.^[2] It includes the Old Town Triangle Historic District. It sits inside the community areas of Lincoln Park and the Near North Side, and is part of Chicago's 43rd ward. For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... Helvenston House, part of the Ocala Historic District, in Ocala, Florida. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1536x2048, 2188 KB) Summary Self Made Licensing I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... This article is about the largest city of Illinois. ... A typical plaque showing entry on the National Register of Historic Places. ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... This article is about the year. ... For other uses, see Chicago (disambiguation). ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Lincoln Avenue is a major diagonal thoroughfare of the north side of city of Chicago. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The sign on Wrigley Field Halsted Street is a major north-south street in Chicago, Illinois. ... Chicagos Clark Street is occasionally a diagonal, and occasionally a north-south street running near the shore of Lake Michigan from the city limits with Evanston (where it is called Chicago Avenue, and further north, Green Bay Road) south to Cermak Road. ... Lincoln Park, also designated as Community Area 7, is one of the northside Chicago community areas that divide Chicago, Illinois in the United States. ... The Near North Side is the part of Chicago, Illinois just north of the downtown central business district (the Loop). ...

It was settled in the 1850s by German immigrants and became a center of hippie culture in the 1960s. It is now an affluent gentrified neighborhood. For the British TV show, see Hippies (TV series). ... In San Francisco, during the mid-1960s, the bohemian center of the city shifted from the old Beat enclave of North Beach to Haight-Ashbury (pictured) as a response to gentrification. ...

History of Old Town

Early History

The land known as Old Town originally served as a home and trade center to many Nations including Potawatomi, Miami and Illinois.[2] Following the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, most of the indigenous people were forcibly removed, and the land was then settled in the 1850s by German-Catholic immigrants in the mid to late 19th century. Clark Street is a leftover of the culture, it being an old road which followed the high point next to Lake Michigan. Rain dance, Kansas, c. ... The Miami are a Native American tribe originally found in Indiana and Ohio, and now living also in Oklahoma. ... There was much conflict with a neigboring tribe of aliens!The Illiniwek (also known as the Illini, Illinois, Illinois Confederacy) were a group of six Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River valley of North America. ... The Treaty of Chicago may refer to either of two treaties between the United States and the the Ottawa, Ojibwe (Chippewa), and Potawatomi Native American peoples. ... Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one located entirely within the United States. ...

Old Town is today considered an affluent and historic neighborhood, home to many of Chicago's older, Victorian-era buildings. The neighborhood is also home to St. Michael's Church, originally a Bavarian-built church, and one of 7 to survive the path of the Great Chicago Fire[3]. Many of the streets and alleys, particularly in the Old Town Triangle section, predate the Great Chicago Fire and do not all adhere to a typical Chicago grid pattern. Not to be confused with St. ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... Artists rendering of the fire, by John R Chapin, originally printed in Harpers Weekly The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday October 8 to early Tuesday October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about four square miles in Chicago, Illinois. ...

A Marker

Old Town is in the upper right portion of this map of Chicago from 1875. Note how 'Sedgwick' is misspelled 'Sedgewick'

In 1927, sculptors Sol Kogen and Edgar Miller purchased and subsequently rehabilited a house on Burton Place, near Wells Street, into the Carl Street Studios. Through the 1930s, an art colony emerged in the neighborhood as artists moved from the "Towertown" neighborhood near Washington Square Park. Sedgwick may refer to: Sedgwick, Arkansas Sedgwick, Colorado Sedgwick, Kansas Sedgwick County, Colorado Sedgwick County, Kansas Sedgwick, Maine Sedgwick, Cumbria General John Sedgwick Geologist Adam Sedgwick This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Template:Format The Carl Street Studios is an enclave in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. ... See also Artist collective An art colony or artists colony is a place where arts practitioners, usually visual artists and craftspeople, live and interact with one another. ...

In the late 40's,many Puerto Ricans who served in World War II for the United States military emigrated along with "Tomateros" or tomato pickers to a large section of Old Town.The area known to Latinos as "La Clark" included old hotels turned apartment buildings and other low rent dwellings,interpersed between Dearborn and Halsted Streets and between Ohio and North Ave.Businesses and church organizations were formed by these Puerto Rican and other Latino pioneers at Holy Name Cathedral,St.Joseph,Immaculate Conception and St.Michael's.The activists group known as the Young Lords(then a street gang in the early 60's)made the corner of Wieland and North Ave. one of their primary hang outs.There,they attacked visiting sailors,Hippys and other gangs who they felt were intruding into their territory,at the same time Old Town was transforming via Urban Renewal,into a nightclub and business strip.

Hippie Years

During the 1960s the neighborhood was the center of the yippie and hippie counter culture in the midwestern United States. This was mostly due to the fact that by the 1950s and 1960s many of the original families that had settled in the neighborhood had moved to the suburbs during white flight, leaving older, Victorian buildings with storefronts available to rent for cheap. This dense storefront-laden area (Wells & North Ave.) became the nexus of hippie culture, (as well as the newly emerging out-homosexual culture) and gave rise to the boutiques (Crate and Barrel for example) in the neighborhood today. Seed Magazine was a literary staple of the neighborhood at the time. For the British TV show, see Hippies (TV series). ... The Youth International Party (whose adherents were known as Yippies, a variant on Hippies) was a highly theatrical political party established in the United States in 1967. ... For the British TV show, see Hippies (TV series). ... During the 1960s the term underground acquired a new meaning in that it referred to members of the so-called counterculture, i. ... White flight is a term for the demographic trend where working- and middle-class white people move away from increasingly racial-minority inner-city neighborhoods to white suburbs and exurbs. ... Since its coinage, the word homosexuality has acquired multiple meanings. ... Look up boutique in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Crate & Barrel Headquarters Crate & Barrel is a chain of American retail stores, based in Northbrook, Illinois, specializing in housewares, furniture (indoor and out), and home accessories. ...

The violent events that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention transpired around the convention center, Grant Park, Old Town, and Lincoln Park, adjacent to Old Town. The 1968 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1968, for the purposes of choosing the Democratic nominee for the 1968 U.S. presidential election. ... The Taste of Chicago is held in Grant Park annually around Independence Day. ... Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a 1,200 acre (4. ...

The film The Weather Underground has a scene on La Salle Avenue in Old Town, which describes the Zeitgeist of the era. Abbott Howard Abbie Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was a social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the Youth International Party (Yippies). Later he became a fugitive from the law, who lived under an alias following a conviction for dealing cocaine. ... The Chicago Seven The Chicago Seven were seven (originally eight) defendants charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to violent protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. ... This article is about the 2004 film. ...

German population density in the United States, 1872.

During the 1960s and 1970's Old Town became the center of Chicago folk music featuring singer-songwriters such as Bob Gibson, Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, and John Prine playing at several clubs on Wells Street, such as The Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else's Troubles, and the Quiet Knight. The Old Town School of Folk Music was closely associated with these artists and clubs. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (948x1155, 196 KB) [edit] Summary From The Statistics of the Population of the United States, Compiled from the Original Returns of the Ninth Census, 1872. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (948x1155, 196 KB) [edit] Summary From The Statistics of the Population of the United States, Compiled from the Original Returns of the Ninth Census, 1872. ... Folk song redirects here. ... The term singer-songwriter refers to performers who both write and sing their own material. ... This article is about the pitcher. ... Steve Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. ... Bonnie Koloc (born in Waterloo, Iowa) is an American folk singer/songwriter, actress, and artist who was considered one of the three main Illinois-based folk singers in the 1970s, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine. ... John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has achieved widespread critical (and some commercial) success since the early 1970s. ... The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. ...

As of 2006, a few of the institutions from the 1960s era still exist, such as The Second City, the Old Town Ale House, Bijou Video, the Old Town School of Folk Music (which moved after the 1968 riots), the Up Down Tobacco Shop and the Old Town Aquarium. Second City redirects here. ... Established in 1969 by Steven Toushin[1], Bijou Video is a company specializing in the production of gay pornographic films, based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. ... The Old Town School of Folk Music is a Chicago teaching and performing institution that launched the careers of many notable folk music artists. ...

After the Martin Luther King assassination, and the subsequent riots [4], the neighborhood experienced a tense racial division during the 1970s and 1980s which left a de facto segregation between Old Town north of North Ave. and Old Town south of North Ave. In the early 2000s this trend has begun to shift towards a gentrification of the area south of North Ave. on Sedgwick, Blackhawk, Hudson and Mohawk streets, near the Marshall Field Garden Apartments. The area to the west of these streets, near the North and Clybourn Red Line stop has been dubbed "SoNo" by real estate developers. “Martin Luther King” redirects here. ...

Old Town Facts

The Sedgwick El station

• The Old Town Art Fair is one of America's oldest art fairs, having started in 1950.

• Portions of the film Return to Me were shot at Twin Anchors in Old Town.

• The Illegal Blues Brothers Bar operated in Old Town.

• A portion of The Hunter starring Steve McQueen was shot in Old Town at the Ravenswood El Station

• The Old Town Triangle area was designated a Chicago Landmark District in 1977

• Vi Daley (no relationship to the mayor) is the current Alderman of Old Town

• Old Town has one Brown-Purple Line El station at 1536-40 North Sedgwick Avenue. It is one of the oldest standing stations on the 'L'.

Return to Me is a romantic movie rated PG. Return to Me was directed by Bonnie Hunt and starred David Duchovny as Bob and Minnie Driver as Grace. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Hunter is a 1980 film directed by Buzz Kulik based the exploits of real-life bounty hunter Ralph Thorson. ... For other uses, see Steve McQueen (disambiguation). ... Vi Daley (born February 19, 1943) is the alderman of the 43rd Ward (map) in Chicago. ... The Brown Line (Ravenswood Service) of the Chicago Transit Authority Chicago L rapid transit system, is a 11. ... The L[1], variously, if perhaps incorrectly, styled L, El, EL, or L, is the rapid transit system that serves Chicago, Illinois in the United States. ... Sedgwick is an L station on the CTAs Brown Line, with weekday peak time service on Purple Line. ...

Photo Gallery

The intersection of North Ave. and Wells in 2006	A building in Old Town built in the 1920s	Loews Theater at Pipers Alley	Home of a 19th century network engineer In telecommunication, the term network engineering has the following meanings: 1. ...
A Marker	The Midwest Buddhist Temple [1], with St. Michael's visible in the upper right	A Fachwerk-style building, the site of a former Butchery A Fachwerk-style building in Chicagos Old Town, the site of a former Butchery Fachwerk is a German term that often describes timber-framed buildings in general, but refers in particular to a certain kind of wall framing with small square panels. ... Butcher shop in Valencia A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. ...	St. Michael's Church Not to be confused with St. ...
The exterior of the Up Down Tobacco Shop	A window display at the Up Down Tobacco Shop	The sign outside The Old Town Aquarium	A Plaque about Carl Street Studios on the Building itself Template:Format The Carl Street Studios is an enclave in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. ...

Quote

'If you can hear the bells of St.Michaels, then you are in Old Town'.

See also

German Immigration German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Photos of Old Town
• Old Town Merchants and Residents Association.
• Abbie Hoffmans testimony at the Chicago 7 trial
• City Of Chicago landmark of Old Town
• Chicago Reader article about Old Town and gentrification
• The Old Town School of Folk Music
• Young Lords origins

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