Skip to main content

Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection

 Collection
Identifier: spe-nhrc-lccc

Scope and Contents

Originally gathered by the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association, the manuscripts, printed material and photographs in this collection focus upon the community areas that span North and South Lawndale and includes documentation of Bohemian immigrants who settled in the area around 1900. There is also information about neighborhood schools, businesses, residents, clubs and the controversial name changing of Crawford Avenue to Pulaski Road.

Dates

  • Creation: circa 1850-1981

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Please consult staff to determine ability to reuse materials from collection.

Biographical / Historical

The Lawndale-Crawford community area is comprised of North and South Lawndale community areas on Chicago’s West Side. Historically Lawndale and Crawford were suburbs of Chicago until the area was annexed into the city in 1889.

North Lawndale is number 29 of the 77 official communities that make up Chicago. The community lies five miles west of the Loop at the city’s border with Cicero on the west, a couple of blocks south of the Eisenhower Expressway on the north and is bounded by railroad lines on the south and east sides and includes Douglass Park. The area was annexed into Chicago in stages, the eastern sections in 1869 and the other sections in 1889.

South Lawndale is number 30 of the 77 official communities that make up Chicago. Situated five miles southwest of the Loop, the area is bounded by the Stevenson Expressway on the south, Cermak Road on the north, Western Avenue on the east and Cicero Avenue on the west. The neighborhood historically included a mix of two-flat apartments and industry.

North and South Lawndale attracted residents following the Great Fire of 1871. By the mid-20th century, North Lawndale teemed with Chicago's Jewish community. South Lawndale’s early settlers included Germans and Czechoslovakians who moved westward on 22nd Street (later Cermak Road). The rest of the area, west of Crawford Avenue (later Pulaski Road) was annexed to the city in 1889. A number of industries were established along the area’s railroads, including the McCormick plant (later the International Harvester Company) and the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne Works in Cicero, just northwest of the area. Successive groups of Poles, African Americans and Latinx communities have followed to take advantage of employment opportunities in nearby industry.

The members of the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association gathered the bulk of the materials. Formed in 1934 to commemorate the community area’s early settlers and to stimulate an interest in neighborhood history, the Association had a close relationship with the Chicago Public Library, Toman Branch who also collected the history and culture of Czechoslovakia to serve the community. The Library’s Czech collection was named in honor of Czech President, Thomas G. Masaryk.

Extent

40.25 Linear Feet (in 34 boxes including 755 photographs, 29 oversize folders, 95 glass plates images)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Originally gathered by the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association, the manuscripts, printed material and photographs in this collection focus upon the community areas that span North and South Lawndale and includes documentation of Bohemian immigrants who settled in the area around 1900. There is also information about neighborhood schools, businesses, residents, clubs and the controversial name changing of Crawford Avenue to Pulaski Road.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 12 Series by topic:

Series 1: Biographical Data, circa 1850-1979

Series 2: Business Establishments, 1875-1978, undated

Series 3: Religious Institutions, circa 1870-1977

Series 4: Clubs and Organizations, 1878-1978

Series 5: Historical Sketches and News Clippings, 1873-1977, undated

Series 6: Municipal Agencies and Community Organizations, Photographs, circa 1882-1935

Series 7: Parks, Photographs, 1875-1977

Series 8: Residences, Photographs, 1863-1977, undated

Series 9: Schools, 1884-1981

Series 10: Streets, circa 1880-1977, undated

Series 11: Transportation, 1890-1977, undated

Series 12: Wartime Activities, 1917, circa 1941

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection consists of an initial accession and three supplements.

The members of the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association gathered the bulk of the materials. The collection was transferred from Chicago Public Library, Toman Branch in 1981 as part of a Dr. Scholl Foundation grant. Additional material continues to be added through transfer or donation. Photographs numbered 2.1 through 2.32 were received at the same time as those numbered with a prefix of “1.” It is unclear why the numbering prefix changed. Photographs numbered 4.1 through 4.46 were on loan when the original collection was cataloged and were therefore missed in the series cataloged under prefix "1."

Supplement 1 was added in January 1989 and consists of items transferred from the Chicago Public Library, Toman Branch. The bulk of this material is comprised of land title abstracts dated 1873-1905, concerning property in the Lawndale-Crawford area (Box 5, Folders 29-33). Two folders (Box 5, Folders 27-28) have contents concerning Thomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937), Czechoslovak president who lived for a short time with a Lawndale-Crawford family in 1918-1919 while on faculty at the University of Chicago.

Supplement 2 was added in October 1989 and consists of two yearbooks and a student scrapbook relating to Harrison Technical High School, 1920-1924 and 1931 (Box 6, Folders 1-3). The scrapbook and 1924 yearbook were the property of HTHS student Dorothy Alter; the 1931 yearbook belonged to her brother Morris. Additional items in Supplement 2 were part of an anonymous donation in May 1988.

Supplement 3 was added in June 1992 and consists of materials related to the PTA of the Robert Burns School (Box 6, Folders 7-14). These materials were transferred from Chicago Public Library, Toman Branch in July 1991. Supplement 4 was added in January 2019 and includes the contents in Box 6, Folders 16-17 and Photograph 1.690.

Related Materials

Chicago Public Library Archives, Toman Branch

Girl Scouts of America #427 Records

Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection

Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association Records

North Lawndale Community Collection

O’Quinn Family Papers

Faith Rich Papers

South Lawndale Community Collection

John Toman Scrapbooks

Separated Materials

Six oversize Sokol programs from Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1932-1938 were sent to the American Sokol Organization, 6424 W. Cermak Road, Berwyn, Illinois.

Title
Guide to the Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Original author unknown, 1981. Updated and ingested into ArchivesSpace by Michelle McCoy, 2022
Date
1981
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Unit at Harold Washington Library Center Repository

Contact:
Harold Washington Library Center, 9th Floor
Chicago Public Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago IL 60605 United States
(312) 747-4875