Homan Square

North Lawndale is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago in Illinois, United States, located on the city's West Side. The community area includes the K-Town Historic District, the Homan Square interrogation facility (part of the former Sears, Roebuck and Company Complex), and the city's largest concentration of greystones. North Lawndale was annexed to Chicago from Cicero Township in 1869. Following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, industrial workers moved to the area, including employees of a new McCormick Reaper Company plant. By the end of the 19th century, the neighborhood was heavily populated with immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly Czech residents, who established cultural institutions and churches in the area. During the early 20th century, many Czech residents relocated to suburban areas, and Jews, many formerly from the Maxwell Street area, became the majority by approximately 1918. By the mid-1950s, much of the Jewish population had relocated northward due to white flight as Black residents from Chicago’s South Side and the American South became the largest demographic group in North Lawndale. ln 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. stayed in an apartment in North Lawndale as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement. Starting in the 1960s, the area experienced population loss and economic decline associated with housing discrimination, municipal disinves

Square data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).