1890-1900

Black and white image of Homan Square homes from the early 1900s

 

Black and white photo of children playing in Homan Square in the early 1900s

1890s The Bohemian Club—Česká beseda is founded in North Lawndale and is frequented by Chicago's Czech elite, as well as the visiting elite from Czechoslovakia. The club is used as a place to share Czech culture, drama, music, and literature and is visited by numerous well-known people. It also serves as host to Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the founder and first President of Czechoslovakia.

Rendering of the Sears Roebuck & Co facility from the early 1900s

1905–06 Sears, Roebuck and Co.—the mail-order giant that helped build America—develops its world headquarters and catalog facility on nearly 42 acres in Chicago’s Homan Square, part of the North Lawndale neighborhood then populated by Slovak and Jewish immigrants. The complex houses what was then the largest business building and the original Sears Tower, then the tallest building in Chicago at 14 stories tall.