Slot Machines for Bars in Washington Heights, Chicago

History

Farmers worked this ground from the 1830s to the 1860s, until the railroads arrived. Rail workers settled here temporarily in 1864 and 1865, and in 1866 Willis M. Hitt and Laurin P. Hilliard purchased the farmland between 103rd and 107th Streets and laid out lots along 103rd Street, originally Tracy Avenue. The Blue Island Land and Building Company platted 1,500 acres between 99th and 107th in 1869. In the 1870s the Rock Island commuter line made the wooded Blue Island Ridge more accessible, and Washington Heights incorporated as a village in 1874. Brainerd, laid out from 87th to 91st Streets, had only six houses by 1885 for lack of transit. Washington Heights and Brainerd joined Chicago in 1890, Fernwood in 1891. Brick bungalows built from 1920 to 1950 gave the blocks their look, and the area held 17,865 residents in 1930. African American families began settling east of Halsted after World War II, and the population peaked at 36,540 in 1970. A community organization of block clubs formed in 1966 for the area's upkeep and economic growth.

The area today

Washington Heights is a residential community area, and several of its landmarks are public. Woodson Regional Library, at 9525 S. Halsted and named for the historian Carter G. Woodson, opened in 1975 to house the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection on Black history and literature, and WTTW reported that it was renovated in 2018. Brainerd Park, at 1246 W. 92nd, covers 9.56 acres with a gymnasium, four baseball fields and a spray pool; the Park District named it in 1941, and the name goes back to a founder of the Rock Island Railroad. Metra's 103rd Street/Washington Heights stop on the Rock Island Line keeps a depot built in 1910 and rehabbed in 2023. WTTW also reported in 2021 that churches line 95th Street.

Bars and restaurants here

City records show taverns on Ashland Avenue around 91st Street, one of them with an outdoor patio, and another tavern on Halsted Street near 97th, a little south of Woodson Regional Library. On Hermitage Avenue near 90th, one room holds an on-premises consumption license together with package goods and an outdoor patio. If you run a room here, you work a residential community area one corner at a time.