Old German community - Near North Side? (Chicago, Evanston: houses, neighborhoods)

[scarletneon]

I received an email in regards to my Great Great Great Grandmother (mouthful!) and this tidbit was in there:

On April 6, 1889 she married Gr Grandpa Michael in Chicago. She could read and write however according to the census could not speak English. The lived in the German community on the near North-side of Chicago. (pardon the typos, I didn't write it)

Whereabouts would this be located? i.e. where was the German community in the 1880s and 90s?

I will be back in town in a couple of weeks and would like to find at least a rough idea of the location where she may have lived (I'm guessing it's all high rises now ...). She is evidently buried at Calvary cemetery in Evanston, so I at the very least would like to visit there. (All of this because I clearly can't visit Stuttgart right now, which is where the family originates.)

Thanks in advance

[chicagobear]

Maybe near the Germania Club on Clark Street just south of North Avenue (and right near Schiller and Goethe Streets). There's also the Goethe statue on Diversey in Lincoln Park.

http://designslinger.com/2009/08/27/...m-chicago.aspx

[Chi-town Native]

The entire North side (aka Nord Seit) was swarming with Germans at that time, although people often claim Irish were here in huge numbers, the Germans had far, far more people coming to Chicago.

[Alacran]

Anywhere on the northside

[Visvaldis]

Some years ago, in a book "Lost Chicago", I read about several popular German beer gardens along Clybourn. At the beginning of WW1 the beer gardens were less frequented and closed because Germans were not popular. After the war the beer gardens re-opened, but didn't get enough business, so they closed permanently.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Visvaldis

Some years ago, in a book "Lost Chicago", I read about several popular German beer gardens along Clybourn. At the beginning of WW1 the beer gardens were less frequented and closed because Germans were not popular. After the war the beer gardens re-opened, but didn't get enough business, so they closed permanently.

In 1919, they had this little event called Prohibition and ALL beer halls closed down ... or were supposed to.

[ToriaT]

It could be anywhere on the north side. I am of German descent and my great great grandfather lived on Cortland st. in the late 1800s around Armitage and Western so evidently there was a German community there as he was from Germany. If you have the names you can look them up in the ladder day saints LDS website that contains a lot of historical info including death certificates and census. that is how I found out about my family.

[Tex?Il?]

Probably Old Town. That very much was one of Chicagos earliest German neighborhoods. And definitely near north side.

There are definitely some Bavarian-influenced houses in the Old Town Triangle. St. Michaels, a church that was damaged, but not destroyed is a German Catholic church.

And of course all the streets around there: Goethe, etc. (there is the Goethe institute there).

[Chicago60614]

Back around 1900, over 25% of the residents in the city were either born in Germany or had parents born there. It was an extremely German city.

[It'sAutomatic]

Germans have lived all over Chicago, but to the best of my knowledge, Old Town was the epicenter of German life in Chicago in its early years. There is the Germania Club and St. Michaels church and perhaps some other landmarks in the area. I read somewhere that North Avenue was essentially Chicago's German downtown for a period; however, apparently the north side of the street has been completely razed, and I imagine it was done to add more lanes for car traffic. Wells Street is still a decent business district. The whole neighborhood is really amazing to walk through, especially north of North Avenue, where a historic district has kept the 100+ year-old buildings and the feel of the neighborhood intact. There are a few blatantly German-inspired buildings around:


Wicker Park is another old German neighborhood, and has another historic district that is not to be missed!