Loading ...I always wondered what happened to the thriving Chicago and what brought it down to a opposite of what it was once a thriving working class community or I remembered visiting in the 60s after being pulled away from Wisc and extended family as far as Chicago but by 70 s navigating through the town to Wisconsin I could see a change already to potential unsafe areas that popped up I happened through.
I came across a story of the fire that ravaged through a multi story Catholic school that children were trapped two and three story’s high where there were no fire alarms, no fire doors, stairways and walkways made of wood, where along with the from no fire doors smoke nuns couldn’t get the children out. The whole building actually that started from below and delayed fire response way too long due to lack of initial alarm.
Even one of the band Journey was a survivor in that fire. There wasn’t a street that didn’t lose a child or more than one.
After the fire the memory’s were too hard on the whole town. The Italians moved first and new people moved in causing resentment , combined with racial unrest and demographic change, community was going away as more and more moved away and the place went down hill since.
With the new people and unemployment the church shut down and and reopened later as a food bank and resource center. I guess other business left too for similar reasons all because people in office didn’t have enough sense to protect all though children.
1958
Im sure it was more than that like maybe outsourcing but maybe partly because the workforce left.