Slot Machines for Bars in Chatham, Chicago

History

Hunters called the wet ground between 79th and 95th Streets Mud Lake, and the farmers who settled its western half in the 1860s called it Hogs Swamp. The first structures were the Illinois Central's corncribs, built along its tracks in 1860. In 1889 Chicago annexed the area along with the rest of Hyde Park Township, and railroad workers, Hungarian and Irish, lived in the Dauphin Park subdivision. Central Chatham was subdivided as Chatham Fields in 1914, bringing strict property standards the whole community adopted. The bungalows of the 1920s turned a working-class district into a middle-class one. Streetcar lines helped shops cluster along Cottage Grove and 79th, and the terra cotta storefronts built near 79th and Cottage Grove between 1911 and 1930 became part of a Chicago Landmark district in 2008.

Black families seeking room beyond crowded Bronzeville began arriving after World War II. In 1950 fewer than 1 percent of Chatham's residents were Black; by 1960 most were. The turnover was relatively uncontested: churches welcomed Black members, and in 1955 the neighborhood's Chatham-Avalon Park Community Council started including Black residents. The schools and strict property standards drew middle-class families, and some of the country's most successful Black-owned businesses had Chatham addresses, including Johnson Products, Seaway National Bank and Independence Bank.

The area today

Chatham lies between 79th and 95th Streets, with the Illinois Central tracks and the Dan Ryan Expressway marking its edges, and it has long held one of the most solidly middle-class Black populations in the city. The Red Line stops at 79th and 87th along the Dan Ryan; the Metra Electric's 79th Street/Chatham station was rehabilitated and reopened in December 2024 with elevators and an enclosed street-level lobby. On 79th itself are the Whitney M. Young Jr. Branch Library at King Drive, there since 1973 and gut-renovated in 2019, and the concrete roof of the 1959 Pride Cleaners building at St. Lawrence, Googie design set into a streetscape of about the 1920s. Cole Park at 85th, acquired by the Park District in 1960 at residents' request, was named for Nat King Cole in 1967. The Black-owned shops and restaurants of the business district from 75th Street to 79th are dubbed the Blacknificent Mile.

Bars and restaurants here

The licensed scene in Chatham is spread out. The taverns sit on 87th between King Drive and Cottage Grove, on 79th east of King Drive, and on Cottage Grove just south of 79th, with one more on Vincennes Avenue. Several are lounges; some hold the City's public place of amusement license, and one on 83rd near Cottage Grove has a patio. On 79th, a Mexican kitchen near Michigan Avenue holds a license, and the business district to the north, from 75th to 79th, is known for its Black-owned shops and restaurants. Some establishments here have applied with the state.