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Chicago Neighborhoods > Englewood

Englewood

The railroad boom of the mid-1800s contributed to Englewood’s birth, but the resettling of refugees to the city’s outskirts Great Fire of 1871 was the impetus for its growth. Englewood has seen waves of new housing construction in recent years, along with the arrival of its first new shopping center in decades and the newly-opened campus of Kennedy-King College. Students at the college’s Washburne Culinary Institute get real-life training at Sikia, an upscale African-influenced restaurant and welcome addition to the local dining scene.

 


Englewood: Kennedy-King College and the ‘Devil in the White City’

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

 

Englewood has been many things since its beginnings as a bog-side railroad village in the 1850s: haven for refugees who lost their homes in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, destination for immigrants of all persuasions, successful retail hub, focus of open-housing advocates and foes, unsuccessful retail hub.

This is a neighborhood that has had its ups and downs, one of those long-ago "downs" featured in a best-seller.

The devil in "The Devil in the White City" -- Erik Larson's truth-based tale of Chicago's first serial killer and the 1893 World's Fair held not far from here in Jackson Park -- was one Dr. Henry H. Holmes. His mansion of terror stood at 63rd and Wallace Streets, in Englewood.

The mansion burned more than a century ago; a post office is on the site now.

Let's move quickly to one of the "ups" -- and it's one of today.

 

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CTA Public Transportation:

El: Green Line to Halsted or Ashland/63rd. Bus: 8, 63, 67. For more travel information, visit www.transitchicago.com

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Englewood continued...

 

Two blocks from that post office, on the corner of 63rd and Halsted Streets, all candlelight and white tablecloths, is Sikia Restaurant. From the restaurant's south-facing windows can be seen another positive -- the still-new campus of Kennedy-King College

The restaurant, and the sparkling community college campus of which it is a part, are enough to make one think anything is possible in Englewood.

 

"A lot of people, when you say 'Englewood,' they say 'oh,' " says Danielle Clemons, a former Kennedy-King student who manages the restaurant, essentially a working lab for the school's Washburne Culinary Institute. "Those people haven't been in this area in years. It's changed."

There has been change. Much new housing lines 63rd Street between the college and the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east. A small shopping center, anchored by a Walgreens, opened across from the campus in 2007 -- same year as the school -- and serves both the community and students. It is Englewood's first retail construction in decades.

A coordinated activism by business and civic leaders under the Teamwork Englewood umbrella -- a new concept for a community that, historically, has been factionalized -- was launched in 2003. There are plans and projections for parks, housing, retail and entertainment . . .
The future for Englewood depends on forces that can't be predicted. Today's reality is Kennedy-King College -- and part of that reality is Sikia.

Opened in 2008, the mood is refined African and the dinner menu celebrates the world: pan-roasted salmon Chermoula, seasonings courtesy of North Africa; jerk chicken from the Caribbean; shrimp and grits from the South Carolina low country; West African goat stew; Senegalese peanut soup -- all prepared and served by students.

There's brunch on Sundays, jazz on Friday nights, and monthly student jam sessions.

With Sikia, the college, plus some new retail and new housing, today's Englewood offers visitors a chance to see a neighborhood in the midst of a comeback.

And for visitors who believe in ghosts, it offers a chance to mail a postcard from a very interesting post office . . .


For more information about Englewood, please contact Teamwork Englewood at 773.602.4507.

 
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