Mount Greenwood, Chicago

Mount Greenwood
Community area
Community Area 74 - Mount Greenwood
Location within the city of Chicago
Coordinates: 41°42.0′N 87°42.6′W / 41.7000°N 87.7100°WCoordinates: 41°42.0′N 87°42.6′W / 41.7000°N 87.7100°W
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Cook
City	Chicago
Neighborhoods	list Mount Greenwood Mount Greenwood Heights Talley's Corner
Area
• Total	2.73 sq mi (7.07 km^2)
Population (2010)
• Total	19,093
• Density	7,000/sq mi (2,700/km^2)
Demographics (2010)[1]
• White	85.96%
• Black	5.17%
• Hispanic	7.24%
• Asian	0.66%
• Other	0.97%
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Codes	part of 60655
Median income[2]	$80,505
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

Mount Greenwood is one of Chicago's 77 community areas. It is a predominantly Irish-Catholic neighborhood on the South Side of the city. It borders the neighborhoods of Beverly and Morgan Park to the east, the suburb of Evergreen Park to the north, the suburb of Oak Lawn to the west, and the suburbs of Merrionette Park and Alsip to the south. Because of the presence of the cemeteries along the eastern edge of the neighborhood, the area was fictitiously said to have been known as "Seven Holy Tombs" before it was known as Mount Greenwood by author and playwright, John R. Powers in his fictionalized trilogy about growing up there. Mount Greenwood is about 14 miles (23 km) southwest of the Loop.

The origins of Mount Greenwood began in 1879 when the surveyor George Washington Waite (b.1839) platted an eighty-acre land grant that he had received from the federal government. Mount Greenwood Cemetery was established in that year on what had between 1854 and 1869 been the farm of Benjamin Kaylor.^[3] The cemetery was developed by businessmen from Blue Island who needed a place to relocate the remains of individuals who had previously been buried in that community's municipal cemetery, which the village board had deemed a public nuisance after its growth had become unmanageable. The cemetery is the final resting-place of Robert Haslam (1840-1912), who as a twenty-year-old immigrant from England became one of the most celebrated riders of the Pony Express mail service that operated from 1860-1861.^[4] Although completely surrounded by the City of Chicago, Mount Greenwood Cemetery is not part of Chicago. It is in unincorporated Cook County, Illinois.^[5]

Mount Greenwood is home to many Chicago firefighters, police officers and union workers of Irish heritage. On November 6, 2016 a police officer shot and killed 25-year-old Joshua Beal on 111th St in Mount Greenwood after a dispute erupted between Beal and the officer. When Black Lives Matter activists came to the neighborhood to meet privately with Beal's family, some members of the Mount Greenwood community protested their presence in the neighborhood.^[6]

Schools and libraries

By the 1980s, Mount Greenwood was home to the last surviving farm in the city, which was developed as the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences at the southeast corner of 111th and Pulaski.^[7]

Mount Greenwood is home to one Catholic elementary school (St.Christina), three Catholic high schools (Brother Rice High School, Marist High School, and Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School) and a Catholic university (Saint Xavier University). Public grade schools in the area are Mt. Greenwood Elementary School and George F. Cassell Elementary School. Both are filled with neighborhood children.

Mount Greenwood, like many other Chicago neighborhoods, has its own branch of the Chicago Public Library. The library in this area looks identical to the Hegewisch Branch of the Chicago Public Library. The library has a significant Irish heritage collection.

Parks

The booming Mount Greenwood community was among the neighborhoods identified for park development in the Chicago Park District's Ten Year Plan to provide increased recreational opportunities in post-World War II Chicago. In 1946, the Mount Greenwood Civic Council urged the acquisition of vacant Board of Education land along 111th Street. The park district purchased the 24-acre (97,000 m²) site in 1949, and slowly began improving the property. The park district constructed a fieldhouse in 1966, and added a swimming pool in 1973. The 1990s brought further improvements. A soft surface playground featured an airport/train station-themed play area. A refrigerated ice skating rink provides winter recreation.

Several features of Mount Greenwood Park honor noted local citizens. A parking area is dedicated to Frederick G. Abrams, Sr. a Chicago Alderman and Treasurer of the Village of Mount Greenwood from 1918 to 1927. A baseball diamond bears the name Rooney Field, in honor of Rooney Richardson (--1982), who took an active role in community affairs.

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1930	3,310		—
1940	4,390		32.6%
1950	12,331		180.9%
1960	21,941		77.9%
1970	23,205		5.8%
1980	20,084		−13.4%
1990	19,179		−4.5%
2000	18,820		−1.9%
2010	19,093		1.5%
[8]

Notable residents

• John R. Powers, wrote a fictionalized trilogy of his experience growing up in the neighborhood
• Dave Scheidt, professional comic book writer grew up in the neighborhood.
• Jordan Lynch, American football quarterback for the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League grew up in the neighborhood.

External links

• Official City of Chicago Mount Greenwood Community Map
• http://www.southwestobserver.com is the neighborhood web site for Mount Greenwood, Beverly and Morgan Park.
• Daily Southtown photo coverage of Mount Greenwood
• Encyclopedia of Chicago entry on Mount Greenwood

References

1. Paral, Rob. "Chicago Demographics Data". Retrieved 21 September 2012.
2. Paral, Rob. "Chicago Census Data". Retrieved 21 September 2012.
3. Andreas, Alfred T. (1884). History of Cook County, Illinois - From the Earliest Period to the Present Time - In One Volume. Chicago: A T Andreas Publisher. p. 639.
4. Christopher Corbett, Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express, Broadway Books, New York, 2003.
5. "Boundaries - City". City of Chicago Data Portal. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
6. Moore, Evan F. (November 6, 2016). "After Mt. Greenwood Police Shooting, Black Lives Matter Told To 'Go Home'". dnainfo. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
7. Caset, Banas (August 16, 1985). "New Agricultural High School Sprouts On Chicago's Last Farm". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
8. Paral, Rob. "Chicago Community Areas Historical Data". Retrieved 3 September 2012.