Hyde Park Township is a former

civil township A civil township is a widely used unit of local government in the United States that is subordinate to a county, most often in the northern and midwestern parts of the country. The term town is used in New England, New York, and Wisconsin to ref ...

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, United States that existed as a separate municipality from 1861 until 1889 when it was annexed into the city of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Its borders are Pershing Road (formerly 39th Street) on the north, State Street on the west,

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

and the

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

state line on the east, and 138th Street and the

Calumet River The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, ...

on the south. This region comprised much of what is now known as the

South Side of Chicago The South Side is an area of Chicago, Illinois, U.S. It lies south of the city's Loop area in the downtown. Geographically, it is the largest of the three sides of the city that radiate from downtown, with the other two being the north and ...

. During Chicago's initial explosive growth, it developed from an adjacent swampy area to a full-fledged residential, commercial and resort community. However, due to infrastructure limitations, legislative incentives and the lure of better municipal services it, along with numerous adjoining townships, agreed to be annexed into the city of Chicago, creating the largest city in the United States at that time.

History

Early years

The township was founded by

Paul Cornell Paul Douglas Cornell (born 18 July 1967) is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as ''Doctor Who'' fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield. As well as ''Docto ...

, who paid for a topographical survey of the lakefront south of the city in 1852.Pacyga, Dominic A., Chicago Journal, "Hyde Park - from the 1830s to the beginning of Urban Renewal," pp. 5-7, November 25, 1981. In 1853, following the advice of

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Stephen Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

, he bought of speculative property between 51st Street and 55th Street and set about developing the first Chicago railroad suburb.Sawyers, June Skinner, ''Chicago Portraits'', "Paul Cornell", pp. 56-7, Loyola University Press, 1991, . This area was south of the mouth of the

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons fo ...

and south of downtown Chicago. In the 1850s, Chicago was still a walkable urban area well contained within a radius of the center. He selected the name Hyde Park to associate the area with the elite neighborhood of Hyde Park in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

as well as the famous royal park in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. By 1855 he began acquiring large land tracts, which he would subdivide into lots for sale in the 1870s. In 1837, the City of Chicago incorporated, and by the 1870s the surrounding townships had followed suit. After 1850,

was divided into basic governmental entities, which were designated as townships as a result of the new

Illinois Constitution The Constitution of the State of Illinois is the governing document of the state of Illinois. There have been four Illinois Constitutions; the fourth and current version was adopted in 1970. The current constitution is referred to as the "Constit ...

. Illinois's permissive incorporation law empowered any community of 300 resident citizens to petition the Illinois legislature for incorporation as a municipality under a municipal charter with more extensive powers to provide services and tax local residents. Hyde Park Township was created by the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...

in 1861 within Cook County. This empowered the township to better govern the provision of services to its increasingly suburban residents.

Annexation and current status

Following the June 29, 1889 elections, several suburban townships voted to be annexed to the city, which offered better services, such as improved water supply, sewerage, and fire and police protection. Hyde Park Township, however, had installed new waterworks in 1883 just north of 87th Street. Nonetheless, the majority of voters in 1889 supported annexation perhaps because of the city's water system for fire prevention or because of the belief that township government had become too unwieldy. After the 1889 annexation Chicago was able to leverage efficiencies as the largest United States city in area and second largest in population. The township has no current governmental structure or functions, other than being used by th
Cook County Assessor's office
for taxation valuation and record keeping purposes. The Hyde Park Historical Society also offers

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

awards with eligibility based on the historical boundaries. Hyde Park was the site of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and is also the location of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, which was founded two years after Hyde Park was annexed into Chicago, in 1891.

Location

Hyde Park included the entirety of the following community areas (see map, below right): Hyde Park (41), Kenwood (39), Woodlawn (42), South Shore (43),

South Chicago South Chicago, formerly known as Ainsworth, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. This chevron-shaped community is one of Chicago's 16 lakefront neighborhoods near the southern rim of Lake Michigan 10 miles south of downtown. ...

(46), East Side (52),

Hegewisch Hegewisch (pronounced "heg-wish" by the locals) is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's far south side. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Riverdale and South Deering to the west, the East Side to the ...

(55), Avalon Park (45), Calumet Heights (48),

South Deering South Deering, located on Chicago's far South Side, is the largest of the 77 official community areas of that city. Primarily an industrial area, a small residential neighborhood exists in the northeast corner and Lake Calumet takes up a larg ...

(51), Burnside (47), Pullman (50), and Riverdale (54) as well as the southern part of

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

(36) and the eastern parts of Grand Boulevard (38), Washington Park(40), Greater Grand Crossing (69), Chatham (44), Roseland (49), and West Pullman (53).

Demographics

When first created the township had only 350 residents. The creation of the

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a central ...

in 1865 changed the evolutionary path of Hyde Park and the neighboring Lake Township, which became the industrial center while Hyde Park became the middle class enclave. The population of the township grew from 3,600 in 1870 to 15,700 ten years later.Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride: The Stockyards, Packingtown, and Environs in the Nineteenth Century (University of Illinois Press; 1st Pbk. Ed edition, 2002), p. 148 The

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 1 ...

saw the population swell. By 1889 the population had reached 85,000.

Notes

References

*Keating, Ann Durkin. Building Chicago: Suburban Developers and the Creation of a Divided Metropolis. 1988. *Miller, Donald L. ''City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America'' pp. 282–284; 292. {{Authority control Townships in Cook County, Illinois History of Chicago Populated places established in 1861 Former municipalities in Illinois Former townships in Illinois Former populated places in Illinois 1861 establishments in Illinois