East Side
Early Real Estate Developers

     In 1873 two real estate developers purchased and subdivided land and the community began to grow in earnest.  Douglas Taylor developed the north end of the community when he began to sell lots in Taylor's Addition to South Chicago.  His development was in a triangular piece of property bordered by the Calumet River, Lake Michigan, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad tracks which parallel current day Indianapolis Avenue.  Charles Colehour developed the are north of the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad tracks.  The boundaries of Colehour's Iron-worker's Addition to South Chicago were the railroad tracks, the Indiana state line, the Calumet River and 110th Street.  These areas are the location of much of the oldest housing stock on the East Side.  There are a few homes which date from the 1870's, many of them are from the 1890's or early 1900's.  The homes in this area of the community are mostly Chicago Cottages and two flats but there are a variety of other styles.  There are several lots in Taylor's development which had two residences built on them, one in the front and one at the back of the lot to maximize property use in an area which boomed as the steel mills in the area boomed and workers poured into the area seeking the jobs which were available.  There is a Queen Anne row house apartment built at 9624 Ewing Avenue in 1895 which is interesting and unusual for the area.   In the Colehour Addition a brick Italianate residence built in the 1870s at 10261 S. Avenue H  survives.  There are a few other examples of pre 1900s houses in the Taylor and Colehour areas and large numbers of houses constructed from 1900 to 1930.  These parts of the East Side are the oldest and were formerly the most densely populated areas in the community. 

Click on the links at the left to tour residential architecture of 
Chicago's East Side.