Bridgeport
A map of Bridgeport that we could explore.
HISTORYBridgeport was founded in the 1830's and was originally called Hardscrabble due to a former farmer who lived in the area died due to a Native American raid on his farm. When the Illinois and Michigan Canal was being built to connect the Chicago River with the Mississippi River, Irish immigrants moved to the Bridgeport area to be closer to their canal building job site. At the time, Irish immergrants were looked down upon and segregated due to their lack of a proper education, poverty, and Roman Catholicism beliefs. Because they were uneducated, only doing dangerous work such as digging the canal was available.
When the canal opened in 1848, factories opened along the river, giving more work opportunities for the Irish. The area was dubbed Bridgeport due to Ashland Ave. Bridge; the bridge was rather low, meaning any cargo that was tall had to be taken off the boat and be put back on after the boat crossed under, thus making the area a "port" of sorts.
After the Civil War, the Irish population saw that for them to progress in the city and be respected, they had to win political offices in the city. By using pubs and churches as ways to spread political ideas, the Irish were able to get themselves into political offices due to the word of mouth community; most of these politicians sided with the Democratic party. five Mayors have been born in Bridgeport, the most recent being Richard M. Daley, son of Mayor Richard J. Daley.
THE TRIP
Joe R., Sudeep, and I left campus around 10AM, heading west down 35th Street until with the goal of getting to the Bridgeport Art Center (1200 W 35th St).
Guaranteed Rate Field (333 W 35th St) is the home of the Chicago White Sox. Formally known as New Comiskey Park (1991-2003) and U.S. Cellular Field (2003-2016). The current field is built across where the old Comiskey Park (1910-1990) existed. A plaque is embedded in the ground of what is now a parking lot in the place where home plate used to be.
The Sox are one of the first professional baseball teams to be created, at that time known as the White Stockings. Baseball allowed the Irish immigrants, who were looked down upon by other races due to their perceived "unintelligence ", to be seen as equal in the general population. By having a major ballpark to be built in an area of an opressed group allows for better representation of said group.
35th Street Red Hots (500 W 35th) is what you could call a traditional Chicago "Joint". A rather simple building that severs Chicago hot dogs: A Vienna Beef hot dog with yellow mustard, neon green relish, chopped onion, a tomato wedge, a pickle spear, sport peppers, celery salt in a poppyseed bun. The picture on the right is of some rather newly built houses with a sign advertising them written partially in Chinese. Because Chinatown does not have any room to expand, the growing population has started to move to Pilsen and Bridgeport.
We were lucky enough to catch a #35 CTA bus, a bus that goes east and west down 35th street, at the corner of 35th St. and Union Ave to take us to the Art Center.
The picture on the left is of Morrie O Malley's (3501 S Union Ave), another typical Chicago joint. Opened in 1988, this joint has a strong correlation with the Sox. During game days, the place allows parking for a fee as well as tickets for a price. The picture on the right is of 3501 S Lowe Ave. where the old Deering Police department was located.
The Deering Police station has been abandoned for a few years. While there were talks about making it CPD's Polygraph unit base of operation, but nothing materialized. Further south on Lowe street is where former Mayor Richard M. Daley lived in a rather modest house.
Johnny O's Hotdogs (3465 S Morgan St.). This location open in 1970 after Johnny O. had two push carts outside of Cominsky Park and two other brick and mortar restaurants. The corner of the place has a "dive" bar, a rather old, beat-up bar that's been apart of the community for years.
Bridgeport has a rather large CPD population, due to being close to CPD headquarters in Bronzeville. In the window of the bar is of slain police Commander Paul Bauer who was killed in front of the Tompson Center while responding to a robbery call. Due to the sudden death of a high-ranking officer, some buildings in the area had small pictures in their widow to memorize him.
Antique Taco (1000 W 35th St) is an example of gentrification in the area. A rather new building, this restaurant holds farmer's markets on the weekends, allowing fresh produce to be accessible to the area.
The picture on the left is of one of the Zhou Brothers' abstract sculptures located not far from their art gallery. Because this gallery and Bridgeport Art Center is not far from each other, you could call this area the art district of Bridgeport. To the right is of a streetlight banner declaring the area part of Chicago's Central Manufacturing District.
Chicago's Central Manufacturing District was one of the first planned areas for mass manufacturing in the United States. Because it was close to the rail yards, the area was ideal for production. Further south would be the Back of the Yards neighborhood, which contains the majority of the factory buildings from a gone era.
The Zhou Brother's Art Gallery ( 1029 W. 35th st.) was founded in 2004 by ShanZuo and DaHunag Zhou as a place for budding artists to work and display their art. When we went, the place was open but empty. We were allowed to see the art on the first two floors. The first floor contained art done by the Zhou Brothers while the second floor had some exhibition of budding artists. We left after awhile when we didn't see anyone else around on either floor, save a maintenance man and an artist.
The Zhou Brother's Woodcarving "Secret Island" on display at the art gallery.
The elevator in the center was manned by a maintenance worker who in the picture was taking a local artist to her studio space. The type of elevator that he is operating is a factory-grade elevator, a leftover of what used to be in the gallery. The stairwell going up had detailed railings, allowing me to guess that the building was built in the 1920's or so when even something trivial would have craftsmanship.
Tripp Lite's Headquarters (1111 W 35th St.), an electronics manufacturer, is right next to the Zhou Brothers Gallery. In the front of their headquarters is more public art, such as this painter statue that's located in a small green area.
Phil's Pizza (1102 W 35th St.) is another Chicago "joint" that does Chicago-style pizza. Keeping with the theme of an art district, the side of the place is painted with a mural of Italy.
Bubbly Creek can be seen from the back of the Art Center. This section of the Chicago River bubbles due to the animal and bi-product waste that was dumped there from the Union Stock Yards in the 1910's or so is slowly decaying, and the oxidization of the decay causes the bubbles, even to this day.
The Bridgeport Art Center (1200 W 35th St.). The building was orginally the Spiegel Catalog Warehouse built in 1911. The art gallery opened in 2001 as a space to give artists areas to work. On the outside of the building are large sculptures such as the elephant pictured.
When we got to the Center, we decided to explore the building and see what is contained within this massive building. Due to coming at an odd time (mid-morning on a Friday) most of the galleries were not displaying any art. We only got in due to a group leaving. We ended up on the 4th floor, where Project Onward is located. Project Onward is a Non-Forprofit art studio started in 2004 that allows people with developmental and mental disabilities to create art that is then sold, with the artist getting 50% of the proceeds. We took some pictures of the studio. Most of the floors and areas that we could go in the building were empty, and somehow we did not go to the Maritime Museum in the basement.
Project Onward's mission hanged on the wall in the area. Also in the studio is one of the pigs that were made for a public art exhibition that the city had after the success of the 1999 CowParade; where local Chicago artists painted a fiberglass cow to be displayed around the city.
One of the artist's studios and his work. Deffinetally talented.
When we were done with the art center, we deiced to walk North on Racine Ave until we got to 31st St.
On the left is a small corner store that we ran into on the corner of 32nd Pl. and Racine Ave. A rather cramped place, these small stores that are not on commercial roads were typical in the past due to the need for close accessibility to simple foodstuffs. On the right is the Wilson Community Center Feild House.
The Fieldhouse was built in 1929 as one of the last public bathhouses in Chicago; this was when indoor plumbing was rare among the middle and poor class. in the 1960's the bathhouse was converted into a field house due to indoor plumbing becoming more common-place.
Holy Cross Lutheran Church (3116 S Racine Ave.) has been around since 1886; it goes without saying that being able to exist that long means that this place is. a community fixture When we went there, the doors were locked, so we weren't able to see the inside of the church.
Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church ( 3111 S Aberdeen St) was built in 1908 according to the cornerstone. The only information I could get about it is that it is currently being run by the Monastery of the Holy Cross, founded in 1988 by three missionary priests that served in Hati and Brazil.
There are other Catholic Churches in the area due to the large Irish population that was present when the area was founded. Irish immigrants were persecuted by others due to their Catholic background due to the wrongly perceived notion that Catholics only accepted the Pope as the only ruling authority.
Once we hit 31st St. our goal was to head back to school while making stops along this main road.
The Ling Shen Ching Tze Buddhist Temple (1035 W. 31st St.) was originally the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church built in 1892 and designed by John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham. Its current residents moved into the building in 1992.
The outside of the temple has a large incense burner. On the inside of the temple lies a large alter depicting figures of Vajrayana Buddhism.
We came to the temple around noon and got caught up in their noon prayer ritual. The monk brought out some cooked rice, said some prayers, offered the rice to the altar and lit more incense outside. These prayers were in a language that I could not recognize, but definitely an eastern dialect. It lasted about 15 minutes or so.
Maria's Packed Goods and Community Bar (960 W 31st St.) has been in operation since 1939 as Kaplan's Liquors. In 1986, it reopened as its current name, which is derived by the then-bartender Maria Maraszewski. It is currently being run by her sons, who made the bar more "trendy". Across the street is Bridgeport Coffee Hosue, another "trendy" place, showing that the area has some signs of gentrification.
The 9th District Police Department's current building (3120 S Halsted St.). Opened in 2008, this new building is LEED Certified Gold that has a "green" roof, a wind turbine waste heat recovery system, and smart energy management system. This is obviously bigger than the former station, showing that the area needed more police \.
Freddies (701 W 31st St.) is where I bought a slice of pizza (it's still lent). Outside of Freddies is one of the Horses of Honor. This public art exhibit that ran from 2011 to 2012 that had local artist paint fiberglass horses in memory of fallen CPD officers.
References
“About.” Maria's Packaged Goods & Community Bar, www.community-bar.com/about/.
“About Us.” Monastery of the Holy Cross, chicagomonk.org/about-us/.
“About.” ZHOU B ART CENTER, www.zhoubartcenter.com/about.html.
“ABOUT.” ZHOU BROTHERS, www.zhoubrothers.com/about.html.
“Bridgeport Neighborhood Chicago.” City Sightseeing Tours, 18 Nov. 2017, citysightseeingtours.com/chicago/bridgeport-neighborhood-chicago/.
Bridgeport, www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/165.html.
“Chicago's Central Manufacturing District: The Past and Future of Urban Manufacturing.” Center for Neighborhood Technology, 10 Mar. 2017, www.cnt.org/publications/chicago%E2%80%99s-central-manufacturing-district-the-past-and-future-of-urban-manufacturing.
District, Chicago Park. “Wilson Community Center Gymnasium.” Chicago Park District, www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/wilson-community-center-park.
“Explore.” Bridgeport Art Center Chicago, bridgeportart.com/explore/.
“Guaranteed Rate Field History and Dimensions.” MLB.com, www.mlb.com/whitesox/ballpark/information/history-and-dimensions.
“History and Heritage.” Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church, holycrosschicago.org/about-holy-cross/history-and-heritage/.
“History.” Johnny O's, www.johnnyoshotdogs.com/history.html.
“Horses of Honor Public Art | Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.” Horses of Honor, www.horsesofhonor.com/.
“Horses of Honor Public Art | Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.” Horses of Honor, www.horsesofhonor.com/.
Komenda, Ed. “Spring Is Coming: Morrie O'Malley's Opens in Bridgeport.” DNAinfo Chicago, DNAinfo Chicago, 8 Mar. 2016, www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160308/bridgeport/spring-is-coming-morrie-omalleys-opens-bridgeport.
Komenda, Ed. “What's Going On With The Old Deering District Police Station?” DNAinfo Chicago, DNAinfo Chicago, 23 June 2016, www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160623/bridgeport/whats-going-on-with-old-deering-district-police-station.
“Ling Shen Ching Tze Buddhist Temple.” Open House Chicago, openhousechicago.org/sites/site/ling-shen-ching-tze-buddhist-temple/.
“9th District Police Station.” PBC Chicago, www.pbcchicago.com/projects/9th-district-police-station/.
“Original ‘Chicago Style’ Hot Dog.” Vienna Beef, www.viennabeef.com/history-of-the-chicago-hot-dog.
“Our History.” Fabulous Freddies Italian Eatery, freddieson31st.com/freddies/history/.
“Our Story.” Antique Taco, www.antiquetaco.com/ourstory/.
Projectonward, www.projectonward.org/about.
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