The Chicago 77: History, Fun Facts About City's Communities

Daddy was a cop
On the east side of Chicago
Back in the U S A
Back in the bad old days

Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died Lyrics | MetroLyrics

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Curiously, there is no "East Side" of Chicago.

Although, there is an East Side neighborhood.

It got its name because residents there named the post office "East Side"--because it was located east of the Calumet River, according to a new book "The Chicago 77" by Mary Zangs. It is also the eastern most portion of the city, thanks to a small protrusion in Calumet Park along Lake Michigan.

Chicago is a city of 77 communities, with hundreds of neighborhoods. Debates about where neighborhoods begin and end are as old as the city itself.

Chicago is known as a "city of neighborhoods." Those neighborhoods come and go, expand and shrink for a variety of demographic and economic reasons. (Real estate investors will expand trendy neighborhoods, to make gentrified areas more attractive, for example.)

The community boundaries haven't changed, Zangs writes. In the 1920s, sociologists at the University of Chicago created the boundaries for seventy-five community areas. The O'Hare community was added in 1956 and Edgewater was separated from Uptown in 1980, Zangs writes.

Those were the only changes.

From Hegewisch to Edison Park, the boundaries have remained.

After a 45-year career as a registered nurse, Zangs retired and took on the book project. One of her daughters helped with the community maps in the book.

"The Chicago 77" is a great resource, including detailed maps, facts, history and quotes from a resident of each community. Every community includes a listing of neighborhoods within its boundaries.

• For example, did you know that Jefferson Park is named for Thomas Jefferson? THE Thomas Jefferson, that is. The guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence.
• Edison Park is named after prolific American inventor Thomas Edison. (The community leaders asked permission first.)
• Many Chicago-philes may know that Bridgeport was the home of five Chicago mayors, who ran the city at various times between 1933 and 2011. The two Daleys account 43 of those years. There were only 10 years during that time when a Bridgeport man did not occupy the mayor's office.
• However, many may not realize that George Filbert started Filbert's Old Time Root Beer during the prohibition in 1926. It was made in Bridgeport for 85 years.
• Humboldt Park isn't even in Humboldt Park.

"The Chicago 77" is available on Amazon and local bookstores for about $16.