Ravenswood

Ravenswood's History

Ravenswood neighbors and neighborhoods with history and a future

In 1837, just 25 years after the Fort Dearborh Massacre, a Swiss immigrant named Conrad Sulzer came to Chicago with his family and bought 100 acres of land to farm. They were Ravenswood's first European settlers. The Sulzers came along a trail blazed by French trappers (now Clark Street) to a forested land once home of the Potawatami and other Native American tribes. Yet by 1874, Ravenswood was called one of Chicago's most prosperous suburbs. Wallace Abbott, founder of Abbott Labs, built his mansion here in 1891. Carl Sanburg, creator of the image of Chicago as the "City of Big Shoulders", lived in Ravenswood on Hermitage Avenue. The silent film industry prospered in Ravenswood with stars like Wallace Beery, Ben Turpin and Gloria Swanson at the Selig Studios and the Essanay Studios. The Harlem Globetrotters were organized by Abe Saperstein when he was athletic director at Welles Park in 1928.

Ravenswood was first settled by Scandinavians, Germans and Irish. It soon hosted succeeding waves of immigrants and refugees from eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and around the world. Today, Ravenswood continues its multi-cultural heritage as home to a diverse population hailing from many countries and speaking more than 50 languages.

Ravenswood is home to Chicago's American Indian Center, the Lincoln Square "Touch of Europe" mall, the internationally known Old Town School of Folk Music, the famous beardless "Chicago Lincoln" statue and the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library.