Book Description

Against the backdrop of Chicago's creation and development, the Wicker Park district's emergence and explosion as a vital contributing factor to the city's rich historic fabric is chronicled in Wicker Park from 1673 thru 1929 and Walking Tour Guide. A fascinating patchwork of people; buildings; companies; political, religious, social, and community organizations; and events, the book provides the reader with a window into life in Wicker Park in the mid 1800's through the early 1900's. The United States' civilization was laboriously pushing from east to west as Wicker Park's immigrant factory workers struggled for a better life; sea captains' brought the world to Chicago; and merchants, industrialists, bankers, politicians, physicians, priests, ministers, and beer barons met a myriad of challenges.Waves of immigrants started with Irish, German, Norwegians and were followed by Eastern European Jews and Poles. Easch brought the development of institutions, organizations, and buildings, many of which continue to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century Wicker Park Community.Stories about and from the people of those times clamor for the reader's attention, taking them on a roller coaster ride of emotions that range from amazement to belly laughs and salty tears.Early residents included: famous brewing families such as Uhlein (Schilitz Brewing Company), Legner (West Side Brewing Company), and Seipp (Seipp Brewing Company); future corporate moguls such as the Pritzker Family (Hyatt Hotels, Hammond Organ and McCall's Magazine), and Arie Crown family (Hilton Corporation, General Kynamics and the Rock Island Railroad); entertainment workd names such as Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studios, and movie impresario Michael Todd; as well as Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author Saul Bellow.Whether you take an armchair tour or self guided walking tour of this historic Chicago neighborhood, your experience will be enhanced by more than 275 photos, illustrations, maps, and diagrams clearly relating how the district came to be and how it grew. Internationally renowned, Wicker Park is both on the National Register for Historic Places (1979) and a Chicago Landmark Neighborhood (1991).