Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection

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.