At the turn of the century, the Taylor Street neighborhood, also known as Little Italy, was an immigrant ghetto in which the famed Jane Addams and her Hull House served the community for years. Although the Hull House complex has since been razed, one building remains as a museum and a cultural center.
Taylor Street was a thriving, solidly Italian neighborhood until Mayor Richard J. Daley decided in the early 1960's that he needed a place to build the Chicago Campus of the University of Illinois. In recent years, the University has expanded at an astounding rate and has been transformed from a commuter college to a University with dormitories. The area has retained some of its ethnic Italian heritage, and the strip of Italian restaurants, delis and shops on Taylor Street and Vernon Park bear witness to this neighborhood's resilience.
The housing in Tri-Taylor and University Village is a wonderful combination of vintage single family homes, two and three flats and new construction condominiums, single family homes and town homes. The area is especially popular among University students and medical personnel who want to live close to the cluster of large hospitals in the area.
Back to Neighborhood index
