• St. Turibius Church
• Grand Trunk Railroad corridor
• Strohacker (Howard) Park
• John Hancock High School

West Elsdon was a marshy remnant of an ancient lake before the Grand Trunk Railroad tracks defined its eastern boundary in 1880, drawing the German and Irish farmers who first settled the land. Polish-Americans and other Central Europeans arrived in the 1930s to build homes, though much of the area remained rural until World War II brought renewed growth and brick houses replaced the earlier farmland.

The West Elsdon Civic Association became one of the first organized opponents of the Chicago Housing Authority in the neighborhood's history, actively organizing against public housing proposals from the 1940s through the 1970s. St. Turibius Roman Catholic Church, established to serve the growing Polish-American community, remains one of the neighborhood's anchor institutions today.

For anyone who has walked these streets built from reclaimed marshland, MY-NHD's West Elsdon tee is a way to carry that history with you.