A Great Neighborhood...

North Lawndale is one of the more culturally complex and architecturally eccentric neighborhoods in Chicago. Since Chicago is renowned for its varied neighborhoods... Hyde Park, Lakeview, Back of the Yards, Kenwood-Oakland, Greek Town, Chinatown, Paseo Boricua (Humboldt Park), Buck Town, and so many others... to describe North Lawndale in these terms is really quite significant. It is a poor neighborhood in demographic terms; but, oh, it is ever so rich in cultural terms. Few places in Chicago, or indeed even in the country, can offer the narrative presented by North Lawndale. It is both famous and infamous; it has been studied, prodded and poked by the academies; it was infamously dubbed America's Millstone in a Pulitzer Prize winning way by the Chicago Tribune; it played a not so small role in the creation of the state of Israel; it taught the Titans of Industry how to get more production out of their workers; it helped create mass consumer markets; it hosted a King, and was almost burned to the ground in the wake of his assassination; it witnessed a Black Power movement; and now it is learning to celebrate its architectural heritage through the Historic Chicago Greystone Initiative.