A history of Chicago Heights,
since 1893
Postcards, papers and photographs of Chicago Heights from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The first recorded settlement by non-native Americans of the area that would become Chicago Heights occurred in 1833 when Absalom Wells built a cabin on the ridge above Thorn Creek. By the 1840s, a small rural community known as Thorn Grove had been formed, centered around a Presbyterian church.
In the 1890s, a group of Chicago developers led by Charles Wacker formed the Chicago Heights Land Association to create an outer-ring industrial suburb of Chicago. They convinced many businesses to construct factories in the new development, including Inland Steel, the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, and the Ludowici Roofing Tile Company, among many others.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Chicago Heights’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
5 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewChicago Heights, Ill. from Lawren…, c. 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Chicago Heights
See all 44 →
Chicago Heights, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Chicago Heights, Ill. from Lawrence Captive Airship (c. 1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (11) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.