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Local Landmarks & Heritage

  • Cragin Park
  • Site of the former Cragin Brothers & Company plant
  • Former Cragin train station site (now Grand-Cicero Metra)
  • Milwaukee District/West Line rail corridor

Neighborhood History

Cragin takes its name directly from Cragin Brothers & Company, the tin plate and sheet iron manufacturer that moved its plant to this stretch of prairie in 1882. The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad built a station here to serve the new factory, and within two years the surrounding settlement had grown to 200 residents, complete with a general store, two schoolhouses, and a Congregational church.

That industrial base kept growing. Cragin Brothers eventually added a rivet company, relocating machinery and workers from Connecticut, and by the early 20th century the area had become part of Chicago's "Bungalow Belt." Cragin Park, built along the old rail corridor, still anchors community life today, and the Grand-Cicero Metra station now serves the corridor where the original Cragin depot once stood.

MY-NHD's Cragin collection is named for the company that built it and the workers who kept the plant running, generation after generation.

MY-NHD

Cragin - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee

Cragin - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee

Regular price $29.95 CAD
Regular price Sale price $29.95 CAD
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Cragin is named for Cragin Brothers & Company, a maker of tin plate and sheet iron that moved its plant here in 1882. A railroad station followed, and the settlement later became part of Chicago’s Bungalow Belt, with Cragin Park at its center.

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