East Side Industry Introduction

     East Side industrial development started in 1871 when the Silicon Company purchasing 52 acres of land on both sides of the Calumet River.  This was a good site to choose because of the good land transportation and the river.  In the 1890s, the industrial area of the East Side expanded with the addition of Repubulic Steel.  It continued to expand in the 1920s, with the construction of new plants and railroad tracks.  The population of the East Side also expanded, with a population of 17,000 by 1930.  Then in 1937, one of the most infamous events in American labor history , the Memorial Day Massacre, occurred on the East Side at Republic Steel. 
 
 

Click on the links at the left to tour
Chicago's East Side Community.