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CCC Reference
Overview
Chicago is made up of 77 officially designated community areas. Each of these may contain one or several neighborhoods and, as such, materials related to neighborhoods are oftentimes combined with materials for the greater official community area in which they fall. Records of community organizations, local historical societies, and city records like the examples below are generally more abundant at the community area level.
Additionally, because the community areas are officially designated, it is also possible to find statistical data which may not be available at the neighborhood level. For example, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) provides statistical data about the northeastern region of Illinois, specifically Chicago and the surrounding areas, and includes community data snapshots for each of the 77 individual community areas in Chicago. These snapshots provide demographic information on population, employment, housing, education, and many other characteristics about the area that may prove useful to researchers.
Collections exemplifying some of the various types of community area resources are listed here, but this list is not comprehensive.
Archival Sources
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Austin Newspapers Collection, 1876-1997 (bulk, 1970-1997), Chicago Public Library
Collection Summary: The bulk of the collection consists of runs of the The Austin Herald (1876), The Austin News (1970-1975), and The Austinite (1911-1980). Additionally, the collection holds an issue each of Austin Topics and The Austin Vindicator in oversize folders. Recent donations of contemporary Austin area newspapers have necessitated the creation of a supplement containing runs of both the Austin Weekly News and the Austin Voice from 1987 to 1997. Issues of the Windy City Word run from 1991 until 1997. -
Uptown Chicago Commission Papers, 1945-1986, Chicago History Museum
Collection Summary: Correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, financial records, press releases, and topical files of the Uptown Chicago Commission (UCC), a representative community organization, founded in 1955, in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago to serve as a forum for communication and as a catalyst for action for Uptown residents, community organizations, institutions, and businesses.
(See also UCC Photographs, 1978-1991 and UCC Visual Materials, 1955-1975) -
Hyde Park Historical Society Collection, 1830-2009, University of Chicago
Collection Summary: The Hyde Park Historical Society was founded in 1977 to record and preserve the history of the Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood. Included are the Hyde Park Historical Society's administrative records, as well as its collection of historic materials. The collection contains architectural drawings, artifacts, audio material, clippings, correspondence, deeds, manuscripts, maps, memorabilia, oral histories, photographs, postcards, posters, publications, scrapbooks, and slides. -
Lincoln Park Conservation Association Records, DePaul University
Collection Summary: The Lincoln Park Conservation Association records contain reports, minutes of community meetings, correspondence, maps, photographs, promotional materials, publicity, financial records, and publications of the LPCA and of its seven affiliated neighborhood associations, the Lincoln Central Association, the Mid-North Association, the Old Town Triangle Association, the Park West Neighborhood Association, the Ranch Triangle Association, the Sheffield Neighborhood Association and the Wrightwood Neighborhood Association. -
Logan Square Neighborhood Association Records, 1962-1971, Chicago History Museum
Collection Summary: Committee reports, correspondence, financial records, fundraising and publicity materials, meeting agendas and minutes, news clippings, newsletters, petitions, press releases, surveys, and other records related to daily operations, program planning, and projects of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA), a nonprofit community organization serving the Logan Square community.
Krueger, Robert W., 4759 N. Sheridan, 1988, Chicago Public Library
https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/chipublib/58/8p5vf0m/
Books and Other Published Sources
WorldCat allows you to search the holdings of libraries around the world. Check to see if these titles are at a library near you! If not, see if a local public library or a university with which you are affiliated allows you to do interlibrary loan. WorldCat may not include images or summaries for all titles.
From Diversity to Unity: Southern and Appalachian migrants in Uptown Chicago, 1950-1970 by ISBN: 9780739118344Publication Date: 2009-07-15From Diversity to Unity is a community study of settlement and adaptation of southern and Appalachian migrants to the neighborhood of Uptown Chicago. Oral histories, community newspapers, and secondary sources reveal the human experience of urban migration. Following the postwar collapse of the coal industry, Appalachian migration to northern cities increased significantly. Roger Guy examines this migration, placing particular emphasis on the role of women in the settlement of the migrants in a new place. From Diversity to Unity fills a valuable niche in urban and Appalachian history and is ideal for scholars and students of urban and Chicago history as well as Appalachian and ethnic studies.
The Chicago Greystone in Historic North Lawndale by ISBN: 9780978965006Publication Date: 2007-05-08In 2006, the residents of Chicago's North Lawndale community joined forces with the city's Department of Housing and Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Chicago in a grassroots campaign to preserve the historic greystones of North Lawndale and to plan, support, and guide the neighborhood's future growth and vitality. The organization they formed, the Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative, seeks to raise awareness of this historic residential building type. The first of a two-volume guide to these remarkable Chicago homes, The Chicago Greystone in North Lawndale presents the history of the greystone as a type of residential building, provides a history of the neighborhood and the initiative, and reflects on the unique character of North Lawndale. Accompanied by captivating photographs of the greystones and profiles of local residents, The Chicago Greystone in North Lawndale offers comprehensive information on greystone structures and geography, as well as information on North Lawndale's urban development and cultural heritage. A must for anyone interested in this exciting facet of Chicago architecture, or how one Chicago neighborhood reclaimed its pride of place, this volume is a fascinating introduction to the Chicago greystone and one of its most notable communities.
The Battle of Lincoln Park: urban renewal and gentrification in Chicago by ISBN: 9781948742092Publication Date: 2018-10-16In the years after World War II, a movement began to bring the middle class back from the Chicago suburbs to the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the city's North Side. In place of the old, poorly maintained apartments and dense streetscapes of taverns and butchers, "rehabbers" imagined a new kind of neighborhood--a renovated, modern community that held on to the convenience, diversity, and character of a historic urban quarter, but also enjoyed the prosperity and privileges of a new subdivision.But as the old buildings came down, cheap studios were combined to create ever more spacious, luxurious homes. Property values rose swiftly, and the people who were evicted to make room for progress began to assert their own ideas about the future of Lincoln Park. Over the course of the 1960s, divisions within the community deepened. Letters and picket lines gave way to increasingly violent strikes and counterstrikes as each camp tried to settle the same existential questions thatbeguile so many cities today: Who is this neighborhood for? And who gets to decide?
Hidden History of Uptown and Edgewater by ISBN: 9781626191433Publication Date: 2013-10-01If any place in Chicago has been all things to all men, it has to be the corner of the city that is occupied by Edgewater and Uptown. Babe Ruth and Mahatma Gandhi found a place of refuge at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, but the locale has also been a sanctuary for Appalachian coal miners and Japanese Americans released from internment camps. Al Capone reportedly moved booze through a secret tunnel connecting the Green Mill and the Aragon Ballroom, "Burglar Cops" moonlit out of the Summerdale police station, and a "Kitchen Revolt" by some not-very-ordinary housewives sent once-invulnerable machine ward boss Marty Tuchow on his way to Club Fed. Ferret out the hidden history of Uptown and Edgewater with veteran beat reporter Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places.
Online Sources
- Chicago Community Areas MapAn interactive, color-coded map showing Chicago's 77 Community Areas.
- Encyclopedia of ChicagoThe Encyclopedia of Chicago is a reference resource focusing on Chicago and its surrounding areas created through collaboration between the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library, and Northwestern University.
- Explore Chicago CollectionsExplore Chicago Collections is a resource created by Chicago Collections that allows the user to search the collections of member institutions throughout the city.