Local Landmarks & Heritage
Local Landmarks & Heritage
- Nichols Tower at Homan Square (former Sears headquarters, 1906)
- K-Town Historic District (NRHP 2010)
- Douglas Park
- Greystone residential buildings
Neighborhood History
Neighborhood History
North Lawndale was annexed to Chicago from Cicero Township in 1869, and the following year the real estate firm Millard & Decker coined the name "Lawndale" specifically to evoke a pastoral, suburban feel far from the noise of the city center. That vision didn't last: the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 sent the McCormick Reaper Works relocating to the neighborhood, and by 1906 Sears, Roebuck and Company had built its national headquarters and catalog complex at Homan Avenue, drawing an industrial workforce that made North Lawndale, by the 1930s, home to the largest concentration of Jews in Chicago.
The old Sears headquarters tower, vacated in 1987, was restored and reopened in 2015 as the John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Tower, the centerpiece of the Homan Square redevelopment, while the K-Town Historic District — named for its cluster of K-named streets — was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 for its concentration of greystone buildings, the largest of any Chicago neighborhood.
Named for a suburban ideal it never quite became, built up by a reaper company and a catalog empire — North Lawndale's greystones have outlasted every industry that built them. MY-NHD's collection keeps that architectural inheritance in view.
MY-NHD
North Lawndale - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee
North Lawndale - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee
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North Lawndale joined Chicago in 1869, and its name was coined in 1870 to evoke a pastoral suburb. The McCormick Reaper Works and the Sears headquarters at Homan Avenue brought industry and jobs, and its K-Town district is on the National Register.
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