Slot Machines for Bars in Hermosa, Chicago

History

Scottish settlers arrived in the 1880s and named the woods and prairie Kelvyn Grove, and German and Scandinavian farmers took up land to the northwest and south. The railroads drew the first industry. A locomotive works planned for the tracks in 1882 stood empty until it was sold to the Laminated Wood Company, and by 1886 the Expanded Metal Company, a furnace maker and a Washburn and Moen warehouse had followed. Developers laid out a subdivision called Garfield for the workers. One of them, Keeney, built cottages there, persuaded the railway to add a stop and gave money toward a depot that took his name. Chicago annexed the area in 1889 as Hermosa. Walt Disney was born in 1901 in a Tripp Avenue cottage his father built at Palmer Street, and the family left in 1906. Streetcar lines reached North, Armitage and Fullerton avenues in 1907, and by 1920 the population stood at 15,152 as Polish, Irish and Italian families joined the Swedish and German community. By 1942 bungalows and two-flats predominated. Hispanic residents grew from 31 percent of the population in 1980 to 84 percent in 2000, with Puerto Ricans the largest Hispanic group.

The area today

Rail lines and embankments still mark Hermosa, six miles northwest of the Loop, and Metra's Healy station on Fullerton Avenue is on the Milwaukee District North line. Kelvyn Park, at 4438 W. Wrightwood Avenue, has a two-story brick field house from 1928. In 2022 Block Club Chicago called the area a majority Latino, working-class neighborhood, and its bungalow historic district is on the National Register of Historic Places. On Armitage Avenue, the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, established in 1971, occupies the former Karlov Theater, a 900-seat house that ran from 1917 to 1952. Smashed Plastic, a vinyl pressing plant, works out of the former Hammond Organ factory at 4200 W. Diversey Avenue, and the Disney birthplace at 2156 N. Tripp Avenue was on the 2026 Open House Chicago tour.

Bars and restaurants here

On Fullerton Avenue at Keystone, The Levee is a corner tavern with two rooms, pool and darts, and sports on the TVs behind the bar, in what Block Club calls a former bowling alley and burlesque house. On Armitage Avenue, Rica Arepa, a Venezuelan restaurant at 4253 W. Armitage, has a heated, enclosed patio that Block Club's 2026 patio guide lists for Hermosa. Over on Kostner Avenue, Right Bee Cider, established in 2014 inside the former Schwinn bicycle factory at 1830 N. Kostner, runs a taproom that opens straight onto its production floor.