There’s no denying Chicago Heights has seen better days.
Downtown storefronts are empty. Middle-class families are choosing to live nearby in more bustling communities such as Flossmoor. Government corruption has taken its toll.
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But local librarian Barbara Paul and historian Dominic Candeloro reflect on a more prosperous day in their new book “Chicago Heights: At the Crossroads of the Nation.”
The 150-page book is the first comprehensive history of Chicago Heights since the 1930s, Paul said.
“The current image of Chicago Heights is kind of a negative one. But throughout 90 percent of its history, Chicago Heights was the most progressive community in the south suburbs,” said Candeloro, a retired teacher and executive director of the American Italian Historical Association.
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The book charts the city’s growth since the 1830s from ethnic enclave to Main Street mecca to stagnant suburb.
“It was a labor of love,” Paul said of the book, for which she’s been collecting information for 30 years.
As the book explains, Chicago Heights sprang up at a crossroads: the intersection of the Sauk Trail and Chicago Road. Later, Lincoln and Dixie Highways met near the city.
A local stop on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad contributed to growth, and by the 1920s Chicago Heights was home to about 20,000 people.
The city’s heyday ran from the post-World War I era through the 1960s, the authors said. Then, the city was home to a thriving symphony, drama group and community center. Small businesses prospered and large companies, area steel factories in particular, employed thousands of people.
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Lifelong Chicago Heights resident Elizabeth Booth, 82, remembers that time fondly. Residents had a wealth of retail options: Sears, J.C. Penney, Carson’s and Montgomery Ward all had shops there, she said.
Booth also recalls stately downtown hotels, such as the Victoria Hotel, which provided venues for special occasions.
As the 1970s dawned, however, it seemed the city’s best days were behind it. Shops and factories were closing and moving. Political corruption set in when Mayor Chuck Panici took over. In the early 1990s, Panici was convicted in a scandal that tied him to mob boss Albert Tocco.
Today, Chicago Heights is struggling. The economic downturn prompted about 5,000 residents to move. The city’s population is estimated at 32,000 people.
Paul, the town’s librarian for nearly 40 years, said the book was completed at an important time in the city’s history. The authors believe their town can be resurrected.
“I don’t see any slam dunk movement into becoming Wilmette, but I don’t see us going over the cliff either,” Candeloro said..
Source: https://t-tees.com
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