Slot Machines for Bars in Hegewisch, Chicago

History

Railroads crossed this marsh in the 1850s, but the town came later. In 1883 Adolph Hegewisch, who ran the United States Rolling Stock Company, a railcar maker, laid out a model town for his workers, as George Pullman was doing across Lake Calumet. He put a factory on 100 acres at what is now Brandon Avenue and 135th Street and announced canals to draw other industry. The canals were never built for lack of capital, and the town fell far short of the 10,000 residents he predicted.

Chicago annexed Hegewisch in 1889. Steel mills rose in and around the town, and Irish, Swedish, Polish, Czechoslovakian and Yugoslavian workers settled here. Polish immigrants had reached Hegewisch by 1884 and were set on forming a parish of their own by 1902. St. Florian built a four-story school in 1908, nearly two decades before work began on a permanent church and school in 1927. After the 1980 closure of Wisconsin Steel in South Deering, layoffs shrank the population, and residents later blocked a plan for a Calumet airport.

The area today

Hegewisch fills the far southeast corner of Chicago, where 134th Street leads toward Indiana, and Brandon and Baltimore avenues carry its old business strips. The South Shore Line stops at Hegewisch station on Brainard Avenue, with trains to Millennium Station downtown. The branch library, dedicated in 1991, is named for the founder and holds public art. The church and school building begun in 1927 now houses Christ Our Light Parish.

Hegewisch Marsh, 130 acres of woodland, wetland and prairie along the Calumet River off Torrence Avenue, has almost three miles of trails and shelters wetland birds and other wildlife. WBEZ called it the city's largest wetland, and the marsh outlasted the industrial period that fragmented the Calumet region's wetlands. Wolf Lake also draws recreational traffic.

Bars and restaurants here

If you run a room here, your block is probably Brandon, Baltimore or Avenue M. Neighborhood taverns sit on all three streets. A taqueria on Brandon adds a kitchen to the mix, a banquet hall on Brainard Avenue holds a caterer's license, and a not-for-profit club holds a license on Baltimore. Brandon runs through the corner at 135th Street where the founder put his factory.

Some establishments here have applied with the state for video gaming licenses.