MORGAN PARK
MORGAN PARK Compiled by Anna Carvlin Neighborhood Captain
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA CARVLIN
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n 1886 pamphlet enticing would-be homeowners describes Morgan Park as a destination with “high and rolling character” a “mere step” on the suburban Rock Island line from the “bustling mart” of the city’s center to the “quiet of green fields.” While the only green fields remaining are parks and cemeteries, many spots in Morgan Park are indeed quiet and still hold much of the quaintness its developers originally intended. About a decade after the Potawatomi ceded land to the U.S. government, one very wealthy Thomas Morgan purchased about 2,000 acres on and around the Blue Island Ridge, sight unseen, while still in England. Morgan then relocated via his own ship, with home furnishings, dairy cattle, and wolfhounds for hunting in tow. A year after the Civil War, when people moved North from the South in droves, spurring escalated economic activity, Morgan’s heirs sold the estate to the Blue Island Land and Building Co., which planned, developed, and founded Morgan Park. It was touted as a religious, educational, and temperance community—dry from the start—and incorporated in 1882. People often combine neighboring Beverly with Morgan Park to refer to the Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood. They usually mean to include the west side of Morgan Park, not the area east of Vincennes Avenue or the interstate. The Vincennes Trace, what is now Vincennes Avenue, was once a well-trodden buffalo migration route, which Native Americans utilized for their purposes over centuries. During the Great Migration, Black people who moved to the area lived east of the natural dividing line Vincennes created, in a tacit understanding they wouldn’t, or could not, live west of it. Those racial dividing lines largely persisted through the 1960s. The construction of Interstate 57 in the sixties further solidified the geographical division to create two separate Morgan Parks. The two different ward boundaries may better reflect a true community connection. Today Morgan Park is integrated racially but still segregated
block by block. As of 2013, it was the largest Black-majority area with the highest percentage of white people. Morgan Park was annexed by Chicago in 1914 after a heated twenty-year battle. Women, who had the year prior gained limited suffrage in Illinois, carried the vote. They wanted better schools, police, and fire protection. Now, the majority of Morgan Park men and women consistently vote Democrat in national and local elections, although some areas are more “purple” than others. In continuing with its founders’ intent to promote excellence in education, Morgan Park lays claim to the longest running Montessori program at a Chicago Public School, Clissold Elementary. Observers can feel the history while walking through the community. Present-day residents keep busy preserving old houses, their stories, and still riding the Rock Island train line. Special thanks to Carol Flynn of the Ridge Historical Society for assisting with several important details of the area’s history. (Anna Carvlin) Neighborhood captain Anna Carvlin is a public health advocate, yoga instructor, writer, and aspiring fiddler. She lives with her family in Morgan Park. This is her first contribution to the Weekly.
BEST STROLL INTO THE PAST
Prospect Park and Surrounding Streets
To get a sense of Morgan Park through the ages, take a stroll through Prospect Park and the surrounding streets. The park itself was imagined and designed by Danish SEPTEMBER 16, 2021 ¬ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 63
