Run a Self-Guided Route: The Battle of Lincoln Park by Daniel Kay Hertz

Suggested way to use this page: After reading the book, lace up your shoes and head to Kapej Coffee to run a 4-mile route inspired by Daniel Kay Hertz’s The Battle of Lincoln Park.

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About The Battle of Lincoln Park and Daniel Kay Hertz

Daniel Kay Hertz is a Chicago Native currently working for the Chicago Department of Housing. He formerly worked for Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and City Observatory. The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago was published in 2018. [Source]

In this nonfiction book, Hertz writes about the dramatic transformation that took place in this neighborhood between post-World War II and the early 1970s, shifting Lincoln Park from a predominately working class neighborhood to one of the wealthiest in the city of Chicago. Artists and young professionals Hertz refers to as “rehabbers” were idealists in the 1940s and 1950s and had existential crisis in the 1960s and 1970s. These majority young, white, middle class professionals interacted with the larger social and economic systems at their disposal to craft this area. Though after the Chicago Fire in 1871 Lincoln Park was home to many Victorian homes and middle class families, the area was heavily working class by the time World War II began, ranking 60th out of 75 neighborhoods in terms of income. Initially, entire areas of the neighborhood were redlined. However, by the time the phase of urban renewal had finished in the early 1970s, the neighborhood population had decreased from over 100,000 to 68,000 (more single family homes) and over half the adults had college degrees when the city average was only 8%.

This book takes a detailed dive into the forces that molded local and national policy and the grassroots rehabbers that propelled them and helps us reflect on current iterations of gentrification. We also hear about the way community activists like the Young Lords Organization (YLO) challenged the proponents of urban renewal and fought for their space in an ever-gentrifying area.

On this route, you’ll pass stunning Victorian homes and blocks that were completely razed to construct 1970s-era residential buildings. You’ll stop by the home of one of Chicago’s first LGBTQ activists and see a modern day convenience store that you’d never know was once a community center for the Young Lords Organization. The history of modern Lincoln Park is fascinating, complicated, and nuanced—enjoy uncovering it along this route.

“The rehabbers in Lincoln Park were successful not because of their special ingenuity, but because of their position in interlocking social, political, and economic systems, such as ongoing efforts to segregate black Chicagoans on the South and West Sides, and the combination of happenstance and public policy that created a permanent stronghold of the wealthy in the Gold Coast just south of Lincoln Park in the early 20th century.” (14)”

— Daniel Kay Hertz (page 14)

Get Interactive: Suggested Stops & What to Look For Along the Route

RH and 3 Arts Cafe (1300 North Dearborn)

The RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) opened in 2015. This is the site of Three Arts Club, founded in 1912 a group of rich women, including Jane Addams, to support women coming to study “the three arts:” drama, music, and painting.

As you leave RH and head to the next step, notice The Carl Sandburg Village surrounding you. Business tycoon Arthur Rubloff–the same guy who conceived mag mile–conceived Carl Sandburg Villages. By the time the first tenants arrived in 1963, the city had evicted over 1,000 homes and cleared both sides of half mile stretch of Clark Street to make 2,000 apartments in high rises and townhomes. The average rent became the modern day equivalent of $1,000-1,800/month when previously it was $600 (modern equivalent). See if you can spot all of the literary-themed complexes. Many of the displaced residents were Puerto Ricans who lived on “La Clark.”

Carl Street Studios (155 W. Burton Place)

The RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) opened in 2015. This is the site of Three Arts Club, founded in 1912 a group of rich women, including Jane Addams, to support women coming to study “the three arts:” drama, music, and painting.

As you leave RH and head to the next step, notice The Carl Sandburg Village surrounding you. Business tycoon Arthur Rubloff–the same guy who conceived mag mile–conceived Carl Sandburg Villages. By the time the first tenants arrived in 1963, the city had evicted over 1,000 homes and cleared both sides of half mile stretch of Clark Street to make 2,000 apartments in high rises and townhomes. The average rent became the modern day equivalent of $1,000-1,800/month when previously it was $600 (modern equivalent). See if you can spot all of the literary-themed complexes. Many of the displaced residents were Puerto Ricans who lived on “La Clark.”

Carl Street Studios (155 W. Burton Place)

Carl Street Studios (named as it was formerly on Carl Street) was founded by Edgar Miller (commercial artists who did advertising posters for Marshall Field’s department store, was instructor at SAIC), Sol Kogen (Russian-Jewish artist who lived in Paris in the early 20s-friend of Miler from SAIC and Hull House), and Jesus Torres (Mexican Immigrant who worked in industry before being “discovered” at Hull House). When the three friends bought this property, they gutted, renovated, and added artistic touches. Coincidentally, when the Great Depression started new construction stopped, and they set a trend for renovating old homes (as there were not many new developments to buy from). They created “colonies” of artists and businessmen. This would start a new pattern of rehabbing in this area. The Gold Coast was able to benefit from this artistic community while staying in their wealth bubble, mostly due to zoning. Hertz writes, “People on the social fringes of affluent Chicago set up communities on the social fringes of affluent neighborhoods, close enough to make a living from their wealth but far enough to avoid high rents and disapproving looks.”

Crilly Court and Henry Gerber Home (1710 North Crilly Court)

The 12 row houses on one side and flats on the other were built by developer Daniel Crilly after the Fire of 1871. This community was initially middle class then after the turn of the century converted into working class. After the depression, similar to the sentiment on Carl Street (see above), Daniel Crilly’s son Edgar Crilly started to make renovations in exchange for higher rent. This created a mix of working class and young professionals, while the surrounding neighborhood remained working class. Still, the New Deal Agency Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)—the agency that graded neighborhoods from A (“Best) to D (“Hazardous”)—labeled both Carl Street and Crilly court RED, resulting in ineligibility for federal support. (This didn’t last. Keep reading!)

At 1710 North Crilly Court, there is a National Historic Landmark for the house where Henry Gerber lived from 1924-1925. He was a World War I veteran who made this apartment his headquarters for the Society for Human Rights and its newspaper Friendship and Freedom, often considered the first gay rights organization in the U.S.

Menomenee Club and the Old Town Triangle Association (1763 N North Park)

Group of community members (=rehabbers, mostly from Crilly Court/Carl Street Colony, not longtime residents) formally created this group in 1948, in part hopes to beautify and improve the neighborhood standards to avoid slum clearance since the area had been redlined. These rehabbers helped each other with clean ups, looked after kids, and aimed to “prove that “the comforts and privileges of middle-class American suburbs could be brought to–and enhanced by–their inner city surroundings.” (43).

The Old Town Triangle Association is famous for hosting the annual Old Town Art Fair.

Lincoln Park High School (2001 N Orchard St)

Formerly known as Waller High School (the name was changed in the 1970s along with new construction). By the time this high school plays an important role in the story of transformation, there have already been many demographic shifts in Lincoln Park. By 1960, there were lower numbers on the census due to more single family homes in both Old Town and Lincoln Park, the number of college degree holders had doubled in Old Town, and the displaced Latinos from Old Town (see above: Carl Sandburg Villages) and the increase in African American residents caused housing tension. The Lincoln Park Conservation Association (LCPA) and the Lincoln Park Conservation Community Council (Community Council) were two entities most active in what Hertz calls the Battle. The former was primarily active in the conservation piece of the neighborhood (small scale demolition and rehabbing), while the latter, though it had some overlap, was interested in the “General Neighborhood Renewal Plan” (GNRP) that included several phases of large-scale demolition and conservation with the goal of successfully reversing the trend of white, middle class families from moving to the suburbs and seeing a loss of historic neighborhoods. In the book, this part gets pretty nitty-gritty; there are a lot of waves, people, organizations, and back and forth that influence how this plan rolls out.

The importance of Lincoln Park High School is that this was the stage for many face-offs between LCPA and the Community Council and the Young Lords Organization, the activists group that started as a street gang in 1986 to protect Puerto Ricans and but later took on the task of fighting city development plans that put Puerto Rican communities at risk. One of the groups founding members is Cha Cha Jimenez, who was born in Old Town but due to gentrification had been displaced to Lincoln Park.

At one July 1969 Council Meeting YLO members took to the stage. There were punches—and chairs—thrown.

Walgreens (834 West Armitage)

Former site of the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church (now a Walgreens) otherwise known as People’s Church. Became hub for Young Lords Organization (YLO) when they forcefully invited themselves in, but Rev. Bruce Johnson was okay with it! They offered free breakfast, free healthcare, daycare, and a Puerto Rican cultural center.

This route was created by Allison Yates, owner and founder of Read & Run Chicago. Read & Run Chicago originally ran this route at running tours in May 2021 and May 2022!