Chicago

Travel & History

Illinois and Michigan Canal

Written By: Focl - Sep• 18•11

michigan-canalThe Illinois and Michigan Canal ran 96 miles (155 km) from the Bridgeport neighborhood in Chicago on the Chicago River to LaSalle-Peru, Illinois, on the Illinois River. It was finished in 1848 when Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth presided over its opening; and it allowed boat transportation from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal enabled navigation across the Chicago Portage and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, opening before railroads were laid in the area. Its function was largely replaced by the wider and shorter Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900 and it ceased transportation operations in 1933.

Illinois and Michigan Canal Locks and Towpath, a collection of eight engineering structures and segments of the canal between Lockport and LaSalle-Peru, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

Portions of the canal have been filled in. Much of the former canal has been preserved as part of the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor.

In 1824, Samuel D. Lockwood, one of the first commissioners of the canal, was given the authorization to hire contractors to survey a route for the canal to follow.

Construction on the canal began in 1836, although it was stopped for several years due to an Illinois state fiscal crisis related to the Panic of 1837. The Canal Commission had a grant of 284,000 acres (1,150,000 km) of federal land which it sold at $1.25 per acre (309 $/km²) to finance the construction. Still, money had to be borrowed from eastern U.S. and British investors to finish the canal. (more…)

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Al Capone

Written By: Focl - Aug• 06•11

Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the “Capones”, was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931.

Al CaponeBorn in Brooklyn, New York to Italian immigrants, Capone became involved with gang activity at a young age after being expelled from school at age 14. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicagoto take advantage of a new opportunity to make money smuggling illegal alcoholic beverages into the city during Prohibition. He also engaged in various other criminal activities, including bribery of government figures and prostitution. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. He made various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a “modern-day Robin Hood”.

Capone was publicly criticized for his involvement in the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, when seven rival gang members were executed. Capone was convicted on federal charges of tax evasion, and sentenced to federal prison. His incarceration included a term at the new Alcatraz federal prison. In the final years of Capone’s life, he suffered mental and physical deterioration due to late-stage neurosyphilis, which he had contracted as a youth. On January 25, 1947, he died from cardiac arrest after suffering a stroke.

The Torrio-Capone organization, as well as the Sicilian-American Genna crime family, competed with the North Side Gang of Dean O’Banion. In May 1924, O’Banion discovered that their Sieben Brewery was going to be raided by federal agents and sold his share to Torrio. After the raid, both O’Banion and Torrio were arrested. Torrio’s people murdered O’Banion in revenge on October 10, 1924, provoking a gang war. (more…)

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Chicago Southland

Written By: Focl - Jul• 25•11

south chicagoThe Chicago Southland is the suburban region south and southwest of the City of Chicago, made up of approximately 70 municipalities. This region has been known as the Chicago Southland by the local populace and regional media for about 20 years.

Bordered by Bedford Park (near Chicago Midway International Airport) on the north, the Chicago Southland extends south to Peotone, and more recently Kankakee. Its eastern boundary is the Illinois/Indiana State Line, and the region extends west to New Lenox, one of several rapidly-growing Will County communities near Joliet. Known for its blue collar roots, the Chicago Southland was once home to the region’s steel mills and heavy industry. Some heavy industry still remains, but many Southland communities are transforming themselves into service-oriented economies as the bulk of heavy industry moves out of the Chicago metro region.

Major residential development has made its way to the Southland as Chicago’s northern and western suburbs are filling in and developers search for the last available open land for subdivisions. Southland property values continue to soar, especially in the southwestern portion of the region. Nevertheless, housing remains affordable compared to the northern and western suburbs. In 2007, Forbes Magazine rated three Southland municipalities as being the most “livable” suburbs in the Chicago Metropolitan area: South Holland, Park Forest, and Homewood. The November 17, 2009 issue of BusinessWeek named Tinley Park one of America’s Best Places to Raise Your Kids.

Located at the nation’s crossroads, the Chicago Southland is served by interstates I-80, I-90, I-94, I-294, I-55, and I-57, and the six major U.S. rail lines. The Lincoln Highway - America’s first transcontinental paved roadway – crosses another famous highway, the Dixie Highway, in Chicago Heights, hence the city’s nickname, “The Crossroads of the Nation.” The Tri-State Tollway (I-80/I-294) which runs through this region has an oasis appropriately named the Chicago Southland – Lincoln Oasis near South Holland.

The Chicago Southland is home to the First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre  (formerly the Tweeter Center), a large outdoor music theater; Balmoral Park Race Track  in Crete; and Toyota Park, new home of the Chicago Fire MLS Soccer Team. Business in the area look to the Chicago Southland Chamber of Commerce as it the main regional business organization. Several media outlets and regional organizations can provide additional information on the Chicago Southland, including: the Southtown Star , The Orland Park Prairie, The Tinley Junction, The Mokena Messenger, The Frankfort Station,The Homer Horizon, and The New Lenox Patriot.

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University of Chicago

Written By: Focl - Jul• 19•11

UCThe University of Chicago (U of C, UC, UChicago, or simply Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Societywith a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890. William Rainey Harper became the university’s first president, in 1891, and the first classes were held in 1892. It has a reputation of devotion to academic scholarship and intellectualism and is affiliated with scores of Rhodes Scholars and 85 Nobel Prize laureates.

The University consists of the College of the University of Chicago, various graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees organized into four divisions, six professional schools, and a school of continuing education. The University enrolls approximately 5,000 students in the College and about 15,000 students overall.

In 2008, the University spent $423.7 million on scientific research. University of Chicago scholars have played a role in the development of the Chicago School of economics, the Chicago School of sociology, the law and economics movement in legal analysis, the Chicago school of literary criticism, and the physics leading to the world’s first man-made, self-sustainingnuclear reaction. The University is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States

The University of Chicago was created and incorporated as a coeducational, secular institution in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller on land donated by Marshall Field. It emerged from a Baptist university of the same name that had closed in 1886 due to financial difficulties. William Rainey Harper became the modern University’s first president on July 1, 1891, and the first classes were held on October 1, 1892.

The business school was founded in 1898, and the law school was founded in 1902. Harper died in 1906, and was replaced by a series of three presidents whose tenures lasted until 1929. During this period, the Oriental Institute was founded

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Chicago Public Schools

Written By: Focl - Jul• 09•11

chicago schoolChicago Public Schools, commonly abbreviated as CPS by local residents and politicians and officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, is a large school district that manages over 600 public elementary and high schools in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Public Schools is currently the third largest school district in the United States, with more than 400,000 students enrolled in the school district. The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard M. Daley after he convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under the mayor’s control. Illinois school districts are generally governed by locally-elected school boards, where each district board hires a superintendent, who in turn hires administrators such as principals, who then must be approved by the school board. In contrast, Chicago Public Schools has a Board of Education whose members are appointed by the mayor, essentially making the entire system completely accountable to the mayor. The last two CEOs chosen by the mayor have not been educators by background, which has been mildly controversial.[citation needed] CPS is headquartered in the 125 South Clark Street building in the Chicago Loop. Jean-Claude Brizard is the current CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). A previous CEO, Arne Duncan, became Secretary of Education under President Obama.

CPS is a vast system of primary, secondary, and disability schools confined to Chicago’s city limits. This system is the second largest employer in Chicago with over 43,000 employees.

Most schools in the district, being prekindergarten-8, elementary, middle, or secondary, have attendance boundaries, restricting student enrollment outside of any given residential area. A school may elect to enroll students outside their attendance boundaries if there is space, and or if it has a magnet cluster program. Full magnet schools, such as Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy, are open to student enrollment citywide, provided that applicants meet a level of high academic standards: living near a magnet school does not guarantee admission. Magnets offer a variety of academic programs with various focuses (agriculture, fine arts, international baccalaureate, Montessori, Math, Literature, and Paideia programs, among others). The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) is the system’s only audition based performing and visual arts high school. Chicago was the largest city in the country without a public high school for the arts until the establishment of ChiArts in 2009. (more…)

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Origin Windy City

Written By: Focl - Jun• 27•11

The city of Chicago has been known by many nicknames, but it is most widely recognized as the “Windy City“. There are three main possibilities to explain the city’s nickname: the weather, as Chicago is near Lake Michigan; the World’s Fair; and the rivalry with Cincinnati.

The earliest known reference to Chicago as the “Windy City” is from an 1858 Chicago Tribune article. The first known repeated effort to label Chicago with this nickname is from 1876 and involves Chicago’s rivalry with Cincinnati. The term “Windy City” is often erroneously claimed to have been first used by The Sun editor, Charles Dana, in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, long after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition ended.

Chicago had long billed itself as an ideal summer resort because of its cool lake breeze. The Boston Globe of July 8, 1873, wrote that “a few years ago, Chicago advertised itself as a summer resort, on the strength of the lake breezes which so nicely tempered the mid-summer heats.” The Chicago Tribune of June 14, 1876, discussed “Chicago as a Summer Resort” at length, proudly declaring that “the people of this city are enjoying cool breezes, refreshing rains, green fields, a grateful sun, and balmy air—winds from the north and east tempered by the coolness of the lake, and from the south and west, bearing to us frequent hints of the grass, flowers, wheat and corn of the prairies.” A typical summer weather forecast on TV or radio will predict a day’s high temperature, with the appended comment: “cooler near the lake.” The February 4, 1873, Philadelphia Inquirer called Chicago “the great city of winds and fires.”

Chicago has been called the “windy” city, the term being used metaphorically to make out that Chicagoans were braggarts. The city is losing this reputation, for the reason that as people got acquainted with it they found most of her claims to be backed up by facts. As usual, people go to extremes in this thing also, and one can tell a stranger almost anything about Chicago today and feel that he believes it implicitly. (more…)

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Raising of Chicago

Written By: Focl - Jun• 12•11

During the 1850s and 1860s engineers carried out a piecemeal raising of the level of central Chicago. Streets, sidewalks and buildings were either built up or else physically raised up on jacks. This work was paid for both out of the public purse and by private property owners.

The city of Chicago scarcely rises above Lake Michigan upon the shore of which it stands, and so for many years during the nineteenth century there could be little or no naturally occurring drainage at the city surface. Standing water festered and caused living conditions to be unpleasant, or much worse. Epidemics including typhoid fever and dysentery blighted Chicago six years in a row culminating in the 1854 outbreak of cholera that killed six percent of the city’s population. Sanitary conditions were in no small measure blamed for these deadly outbreaks.

The crisis forced the city’s engineers and aldermen to take the drainage problem seriously and after many heated words had been spent—and following at least one false start—a solution eventually materialised. In 1856, engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough’s plan for the installation of a city-wide sewerage system was submitted to and adopted by the Common Council. Drains were laid, roads and sidewalks were covered with several feet of soil and refinished, and much of the rest of the city was put on jacks and raised to the new grade. (more…)

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Health systems in Chicago

Written By: Focl - Jun• 11•11

Chicago is home to the Illinois Medical District, on the Near West Side. It includes Rush University Medical Center, the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, Jesse Brown VA Hospital, and John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, the largest trauma-center in the city.

The University of Chicago Medical Center was ranked the 14th best hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report. It is the only hospital in Illinois ever to be included in the magazine’s “Honor Roll” of the best hospitals in the United States. The Chicago campus of Northwestern University includes the Feinberg School of Medicine; Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which is ranked as the best hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area by U.S. News & World Report for 2010-11; the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is ranked the best U.S. rehabilitation hospital by U.S. News & World Report; the new Prentice Women’s Hospital; and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, which is currently under construction.

The University of Illinois College of Medicine at UIC is the largest medical school in the United States (2,600 students including those at campuses in Peoria, Rockford and Urbana–Champaign). In addition, the Chicago Medical School and Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine are located in the suburbs of North Chicago and Maywood, respectively. The Midwestern UniversityChicago College of Osteopathic Medicine is in Downers Grove.

The American Medical Association, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, American Osteopathic Association, American Dental Association, Academy of General Dentistry, American Dietetic Association, American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, American College of Surgeons, American Society for Clinical Pathology, American College of Healthcare Executives and the American Hospital Association, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are all based in Chicago.

 

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Chicago Medical School

Written By: Focl - May• 30•11

The Chicago Medical School is one of the graduate schools of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Founded in 1912, The Chicago Medical School (CMS) has nearly a 100 year history of a broadly-based socially constructive admission process relatively unlike that of other medical colleges. CMS was originally founded as a night school. Under the leadership of Dean John J. Sheinin CMS achieved full American Medical Association approval.

In 1935, Dr. John J. Sheinin became Dean and decided that the school must be saved. Prior to Dr. Sheinin, and due to CMS’s lack of affiliation with a hospital the school had been struggling with financial problems. To help keep the school open in the 1940s, a wealthy retired Chicago businessman named Lester North Selig issued a challenge to his contemporaries in Chicago’s business world: Did they or did they not support a medical school where admission was based on merit alone? By 1948, Dr. Sheinin had won accreditation for the school by consistently strengthening its curriculum along with its financial and community support.

The non-profit Chicago Medical School operated from the beginning on the principle that admission should be based on merit alone. In particular, “Chicago Med” admitted women and minority applicants decades earlier than most professionals schools. As the school’s 1912-13 bulletin states, “[I]t is the firm belief of the Faculty of this school that there are deserving men and women, who, if given a second opportunity, will soon ‘catch up’ with and even surpass those students who have had earlier opportunities and advantages.” It delivered quality medical education to a wide range of students, by now numbering in the tens of thousands. (more…)

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Lake Michigan

Written By: Focl - May• 25•11

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron (and is slightly smaller than the US state of West Virginia). Hydrologically, the lake is a large bay of Lake Michigan-Huron, having the same surface elevation as Lake Huron (among other shared properties). It is bounded, from west to east, by the U.S. states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. The word “Michigan” originally referred to the lake itself, and is believed to come from the Ojibwa word mishigami meaning “great water”.

Some of the earliest human inhabitants of the Lake Michigan region were the Hopewell Indians. Their culture declined after 800 A.D., and for the next few hundred years the region was the home of peoples known as the Late Woodland Indians. In the early seventeenth century, when western European explorers made their first forays into the region, they encountered descendants of the Late Woodland Indians: the Chippewa, Menominee, Sauk, Fox, Winnebago, Miami, Ottawa, and Potawatomi. It is believed that the French explorer Jean Nicolet was the first non-Native American to reach Lake Michigan in 1634 or 1638.

With the advent of European exploration into the area in the late 17th century, Lake Michigan became part of a line of waterways leading from the Saint Lawrence River to the Mississippi River and thence to the Gulf of Mexico. French coureurs des bois and voyageurs established small ports and trading communities, such as Green Bay, on the lake during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The first person to reach the deep bottom of Lake Michigan was J. Val Klump, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Klump reached the bottom via submersible as part of a 1985 research expedition. (more…)

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