Back of the Yards continued...
Like the yards themselves -- now an industrial park -- the neighborhood has become a very different place.
There is a vibrancy here, to be sure. The stretch of 47th Street between Damen and Ashland Avenues is an especially active commercial district that well serves its largely Hispanic community. There are shops: This is one of the areas in the city where, though the surroundings are humble, Western-wear stores sell high-end Stetsons and alligator boots. And there are restaurants: La Cecina, one of those restaurants, is justly respected for its namesake specialty, thin slices of steak grilled and served with guacamole, pico de gallo and freshly made, hot corn tortillas.
But the fascination for visitors resides in that history. There are traces.
Foremost is the Union Stock Yard Gate, on Exchange Avenue west of Halsted, built of limestone for the yards' opening in 1865. The cattle pens are long gone; only the gate remains. That impressive Independence Hall-like edifice at the Exchange-Halsted corner -- frozen like a pork belly -- was the Live Stock National Bank.
South of the bank, demolished in 1999, was the International Amphitheatre, once home to an annual livestock show and rodeo, NBA basketball, concerts -- Elvis, the Beatles, Sinatra and many more -- and five national political conventions. The last, the 1968 Democratic convention that nominated Hubert Humphrey, was marked by demonstrations outside the hall and, most memorably, in Grant Park.
Farther south and west, the simple frame homes and cottages that were home to the packinghouse workers are still around, most in decent shape, some not.
And there are the churches. Two shouldn't be missed.
St. Joseph's Catholic Church, at Hermitage and 48th Streets, was built for the neighborhood's Polish community and remains active. Dedicated in 1914 and a restoration completed in 2000, its masses -- and church bulletins -- are in Polish, Spanish and English; its altar and stained glass are very fine.
Holy Cross Catholic Church (1915), nearby at Wood and 45th Streets, was the Lithuanian church; today, its Sunday masses are in Spanish -- no Lithuanian -- and parishioners and visitors can buy freshly made tamales from stands near its steps. The interior, like the interior at St. Joseph's, is a fine example of the Baroque style brought over from Eastern Europe.
Among the others: the former Ukrainian church (1919) at Paulina and 50th Streets with its multiple rusting onion domes, now the Apostolic House of Prayer; across 50th Street a onetime Catholic church with "SS Cyrilli and Methodii" on its cornerstone, now New Life Seventh-Day Adventist Church. (Both are best viewed from the outside.)
The neighborhood is also home to Sherman Park, opened in 1905, named for John B. Sherman, who not only founded the Union Stock Yards but was also father-in-law of Daniel Burnham, the visionary architect and city planner. At 60 acres, it is a relatively large and certainly a lovely green space, designed by the Olmsted Brothers; Burnham's firm designed the field house.
(The Olmsted-Burnham combination also was responsible for Cornell Square and Davis Square, both in the area and important in what would become the city's "neighborhood park" tradition.)
And another park, a newer one, a green speck on the corner of 49th and Laflin Streets, was dedicated in 1998: It is called Packingtown Park, after an earlier name for Back of the Yards -- named 27 years after the stockyards were no more.
History. The cattle and hogs are gone, but the history lives on.
For more information about Back of the Yards, please contact the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council at 773.523.4416.
