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The subject property located
in Section 19 was set aside as canal land and was available for purchase in
May 1849 a year after the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal.
Three purchasers bought the NW ¼ of Section 19 in 20, 40 and 80 acre parcels
with prices per acre ranging between $25 and $30 per acre. Section 19 is
divided into Blocks by 1855 while land speculation was rampant in the City
of Chicago. Section 19 and the subject property consist of Block 6 and
partial Block 5. In 1855 over one hundred and twenty firms existed that
platted additions, subdivisions and extensions. No historic maps were
identified that depict land owners; these early maps were lost in the
Chicago Fire in 1871.
However, the history of the subject property is predominately that of an
Irish and German immigrant ethnic ghetto. Census records indicate that in
1860 and 1870 the subject property was densely populated by Irish and German
immigrants. The earliest identified maps that illustrate the further
subdivision of the Blocks in Section 19 into lots appear on the 1886
Robinson Fire Insurance Map.
Jane Addams, the famous
social reformer, established Hull House directly to the east of the subject
property to address the issues of such immigrant ethnic ghettos. The major
issue facing the ghettos was overpopulation and waste. In fact as early as
1860, the link between water borne contagion and cholera was well known. The
establishment of the sewer system and raising the grade to create flow for
sewage began in 1854.
Despite the know link
between disease and water, many ghetto tenements did not hook into the sewer
system. Historic photos of the near west side confirm that this was the case
in the subject property. A review of the surrounding neighborhood and extant
buildings outside of the subject property clearly delineate the progression
of the ghetto from working class cottages to three and four story tenement
buildings.
The immensity of the ghetto
problem is best foreshadowed in the following tenement reform law passed in
1894; It shall be unlawful for any person
or corporation to maintain any privy vault or suffer the same to be and
remain upon any premises abutting upon or adjoining any street, alley, court
or public place, in which is located any public sewer. Any person or
corporation violating the provisions of this section shall be fined not less
than ten or more than two hundred dollars for each offense.
Despite such a law, by 1910, in 6 out of
the 16 districts, 79 of the privy vaults were found. The largest numbers
were found back of the Yards and in South Chicago, but others also found in
the Italian district on the near north side. In 1901, at the South Chicago
District was described as an area where there is no sewerage, unless that
name is given to a system of gutters by which a certain amount of sewerage
is carried off. There is usually an odor from the foul waste matter which
accumulates in these places. The land is undrained and in some cases the
water stands for months under the houses and upon vacant lots. In certain
places there was a green scum upon the water, which showed that it had been
standing stagnant for some time. There are no water-closets and the outlawed
privy vault is in general use. The yards, streets and alleys are
indiscriminately used for the disposal of all sorts of garbage and rubbish.
Almost no garbage boxes were found. None of the streets are paved and the
whole district is filthy beyond description. The atmosphere of the
neighborhood is clouded with smoke, and the district is extremely dreary,
ugly and unhealthful.
In 1901 on the West side, seven years
after the outlaw, there were 1,581 privies in the 44 blocks east of Halsted
near Hull House, used by 10,686 people in 2,308 separate families. Post
1901 in many places the vaults were replaced by yard closets located under
the sidewalk, near the alley or in some other conspicuous place. The
problems continued through the 1930s and in fact privies were located
throughout the city as late as 1950. This is illustrated in the Revised
Chicago Code, 1931, sec. 1443, which provided that in every new tenement
house there shall be a separate water closet in a separate compartment
within each apartment, accessible to each apartment, without passing through
any other apartment, provided that where there are apartments, consisting of
only one or two rooms, there shall be at least one water closet for every
two apartments. Every water closet compartment in every existing tenement
house shall have a window opening upon a street, alley, yard or court, or
vent shaft, and every water closet compartment in every existing tenement
house shall be ventilated by such a window or else by a proper ventilating
pipe running through the roof. Every water closet compartment in every
tenement house shall be provided with proper means of artificially lighting
the same. If fixtures for gas or electricity are not provided in any such
compartment, then the door thereof shall have ground glass of wire glass
panels or transoms.
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