Slot Machines for Bars in Calumet Heights, Chicago

History

Postwar building shaped most of what stands here today. The Park District bought more than 17 acres between 1947 and 1950 for the park that became Jesse Owens Park. Small houses covered the filled-in quarry near 92nd Street, stores gathered at the corner of 87th Street and Stony Island, and Pill Hill rose on the limestone ridge, mostly between 1954 and 1967. Its nickname is traditionally traced to doctors at South Chicago Hospital.

The Calumet Heights subdivision dates to 1887, when developer Samuel E. Gross bought part of a canal and dock company's land. The company had acquired the property in the 1870s, when the ground was swampy and few people lived on it. A railroad built yards on the western edge in 1881, and a quarry near 92nd Street brought more settlers. Chicago annexed Hyde Park Township in 1889, though homebuilding stayed slow for decades. The name joins the Calumet River to the ridge underfoot.

The area today

Stony Island Avenue carries the commercial corridor, and the CTA's No. 28 Stony Island bus connects 103rd Street with 47th Street and Lake Park. In 2020 a senior housing complex opened on formerly vacant land at 9401 S. Stony Island. The Bronzeville Children's Museum is at 9301 S. Stony Island. Jesse Owens Park, first called Stony Island Park, has a fieldhouse built in 2009, ball diamonds and tennis courts. Dougherty Park on Kingston Avenue grew from twin ballfields that the South East Little League built in 1953. Pill Hill's modern houses, with steep roofs and low profiles, line the ridge.

Bars and restaurants here

If you run a room here, you know the licensed scene is small and sits on two streets. On 87th Street, west of Stony Island, the license records list a tavern. Just south of 87th on Stony Island, near the corner where shops gathered after the war, they list a grill and bar, and farther south, near 89th, a tavern that also holds a public place of amusement license. At least one establishment here has applied with the state for video gaming licenses.