What stories do these streets whisper? We are standing in Belmont Cragin. It is one of Chicago’s 77 community areas. Belmont Cragin is on the Northwest Side. It sits eight miles from the Loop.
Belmont Cragin has a rich history. Native American people were the first to live here. European settlers came in the 1830s. By the 1880s factories and plants popped up. This boosted the population. Belmont Cragin was part of Jefferson Township. Chicago annexed it in 1889. Factories continued to arrive in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many closed by the late 20th century.
Immigrants have long made Belmont Cragin home. They came from Ireland Poland and Italy. By the 2000s the community shifted. Latinx communities became the majority.
Whiskey Point was an early hub. George Merrill opened a saloon there after 1835. He served truck farmers heading to the city. Michael Moran established a hotel in 1862.
Cragin Brothers & Company arrived 20 years later. They processed tin plate and sheet iron. Their plant covered 11 acres. The Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad built a station. It was at Leclaire Avenue. This served the company’s employees. The station closed in 2006. Cragin also bought a rivet company. They moved workers and machinery from Connecticut. Job opportunities and rail service brought settlers. Cragin’s population reached 200 within two years. The town had a general store two schoolhouses and a church.
The Belt Railway Company extended service in 1883. Plants developed in Hanson Park and Galewood. Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company opened a wire products branch. Western Brick and Tile Company liked Galewood’s clay soil. By 1891 Westinghouse Church Kerr & Company Iron Works arrived. So did Pitts Agricultural Works Warehouse. Also the Rice and Bullen Malting Company.
In 1922 W. F. Hall Printing Company built a plant. It covered 17 acres. This spurred manufacturing development. Swedish German and Irish workers moved nearby. By 1920 Poles and Italians arrived. The area’s population quadrupled. It reached 60221 by 1930. One-third were foreign-born. The community became known as Belmont Cragin in the 1930s. Zenith and Ecco also came. Builders constructed bungalows Cape Cods and two-flats. Belmont Park was a popular residential area.
From the post-war years until the 1990s Europeans populated Belmont Cragin. They were German Greek Irish Italian Polish and Scandinavian. Catholic and Lutheran churches and schools were common.
A retail district developed along Belmont Avenue in the 1920s. It was known as Belmont Central. Goldblatt’s Woolworth’s Walgreens and SS Kresge’s opened stores. JC Penney also arrived. Riis Park began as a golf course. Jan Jenssen designed it as a park. The CTA extended electric bus service in the 1940s.
The Brickyard Shopping Mall opened in 1977. It drew shoppers from other areas. The original mall was enclosed. It was demolished in 2003. Big box stores replaced it.
Central Soya was located south of Grand Avenue on Laramie. Revere Copper opened a war material plant in 1943. Western Electric assembled radar units there from 1953 to 1963. Glidden paint was near the train station. Cragin Department Store was on Armitage. Hawthorn Melody Dairy was at Grand and Laramie.
Belmont Cragin’s population grew in the 1980s and 1990s. The Hispanic population increased significantly. By 2000 the area was 65 percent Hispanic.
Hall Printing closed by 1995. The area experienced a drop in manufacturing jobs. Residents organized to address crime and school overpopulation. Today Belmont Cragin has four neighborhoods. They are Belmont Central Brickyard Cragin and Hanson Park.
Belmont Cragin has supported the Democratic Party in recent elections. In 2016 Hillary Clinton received 15403 votes. Donald Trump received 2376 votes.
Belmont Cragin continues to evolve. Its history is visible in its streets homes and residents.