Little Italy, Chicago

Jane Addams labeled the community as "The Hull House Neighborhood."[3] One of the first newspaper articles ever written about Hull House acknowledges an invitation sent to the residents of the "Hull House Neighborhood." It begins with the salutation, "Mio Carissimo Amico," and is signed, "Le Signorine, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr."[7] Bethlehem-Howard Neighborhood Center Records further substantiate that, as early as the 1890s, the inner core of "The Hull House Neighborhood" was overwhelmingly Italians. If those were the demographics as early as the 1890s, the flight of other ethnic groups, which began after the start of the 20th century, suggests that virtually the entire community from the Chicago River on the east end out to the western ends of what came to be known as "Little Italy" and from Roosevelt Road on the south to the Harrison Street delta on the north — the inner core of the Hull House Neighborhood, was wall-to-wall Italian from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Little Italy used to encompass a much bigger area, but the construction of the University decimated the neighborhood. Many of the residents in the area were against the idea. Florence Scala, Chicago's legendary Taylor Street activist and longtime Hull House cohort, blamed the board of directors of Hull House for betraying the thriving, vibrant, tight knit neighborhood.[8] Scala accused them of encouraging Daley to go ahead and destroy the neighborhood. In 1963, the trustees of Hull-House accepted an offer of $875,000 for the settlement building. Jessie Binford and Scala took the case to the Supreme Court. The court found in favor of the university and the settlement was closed on March 28, 1963.[9]

Some speculated the reason Daley chose Little Italy as the location for the University was payback, he was unhappy with the area politically and was moving UIC there to break up the Italian neighborhood and their power base. However, the area had voted overwhelmingly in favor of Daley.[10] Following World War II, several developments hindered the cohesion of the community. The construction of the Eisenhower Expressway and the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical district forced many to move. The establishment of the Circle Campus of UIC in the 1960s by Mayor Richard J. Daley further dispersed the community. During the construction of the 100-acre (0.40 km²) UIC campus, 200 businesses and 800 homes were bulldozed in Little Italy, with 5,000 residents displaced.[11]

University Village was formerly home to several Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing developments. These were grouped under the acronym ABLA. Those developments were: the Jane Addams Homes (first public housing development in Chicago), Grace Abbott Homes, Robert Brooks Homes, Robert Brooks Extension, and Loomis Courts. Most of ABLA razed by the CHA as part of the CHA's Plan for Transformation, a program of demolition and redevelopment as mixed-income housing.

ABLA was demolished in stages in the early 2000s. and is currently being redeveloped as townhouses and condominiums under the name Roosevelt Square. The developer has received $9.7 million from the Roosevelt/Racine Tax Increment Financing District.

Rents in the area have risen in the past few decades due to an influx of condominiums, townhouses, and the proximity of Little Italy to UIC and the Loop. An example of this gentrification: in the 1990 census, no homes in the Little Italy sample area were reported to be worth more than $400,000. By contrast, according to the 2000 census, 62 homes were reportedly worth more than $500,000, and 13 of those were worth at least $1 million.[2]

In the 22nd Ward on the city's Near North Side, a Sicilian enclave known alternately as "Little Sicily" and "Little Hell" was established in an area formerly populated by Scandinavians.[16] It was considered the most colorful Italian neighborhood,[12] and was home to 20,000 Italians by 1920.[12] The neighborhood no longer exists due to the construction of the Cabrini–Green public housing projects on the site during and after World War II. By the mid 1960s, crime and social problems resulting from the housing projects caused many of the earlier residents to leave.[16]

An Italian enclave exists along Grand Avenue to Chicago Avenue between Aberdeen Street and Washtenaw Avenue. As noted by Maureen Jenkins, Staff Reporter for Chicago Sun Times: "You're still likely to hear folks speaking dialects from Sicily and the coastal city of Bari, which stands on the "heel" side of the Italian boot in the Puglia region. In fact, this sliver of Grand—with its private men's clubs and markets where sausage still is made by hand—feels way more "Little Italy" than current-day Taylor Street".[17]

On the city's Lower West Side, a community centered on 24th and Oakley called the "Heart of Italy" or "Little Tuscany" is composed mostly of Northern Italian immigrants.[18] While Taylor Street goes by the popular Little Italy moniker, that designation once belonged to a stretch of decades-old ristoranti on the 2400 block of South Oakley, an area now known as Heart of Italy.

Perhaps the largest concentration of Italian businesses and residents in present-day Chicago is located along Harlem Avenue on the Northwest Side and neighboring Elmwood Park.

The area from the river to the Dan Ryan, 26th to 39th (excluding the Wentworth Gardens housing project) has a large Italian population, specifically in the eastern portion near Armour Square Park. Located on Shield Ave in the Old Italian American Club, founded by Angelo La Pietra in the early 1980s.[19] The neighborhood is home to several Italian churches, bakeries and restaurants.