Rogers Park, Chicago
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Template:Community area Rogers Park or East Rogers Park is the northernmost neighborhood community of Chicago, Illinois, USA, bordering the City of Evanston and Howard Street to the north, Ridge Boulevard to the west, Lake Michigan to the east, and Devon Avenue to the south. Rogers Park is the location of the lakeshore campus of Loyola University Chicago and its famous Madonna Della Strada, chapel church of Chicago's Jesuit community.
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Native American roots
The Rogers Park area was developed on what once was the convergence of two Native American trails, now known as Rogers Avenue and Ridge Boulevard, pre-dating modern metropolitan Chicago. The Potawatomi and various other regional tribes often settled in Rogers Park from season to season.
Rogers Park was named after a pioneer settler and developer Phillip Rogers. Rogers often traded and worked with the local tribes. Envisioning a future settlement, Rogers eventually purchased the land from the tribes for later development.
Becoming part of Chicago
From 1830 and 1850, waves of immigrants from Luxembourg and Germany came to Rogers Park, where farming was the main industry. The average price of land at the time was $1.25 an acre, and the dominant crops were hay and pickles. On April 29, 1878, Rogers Park was incorporated as a village of Illinois governed by six trustees. In 1893, the village was annexed to the City of Chicago. Successive generations brought about vast cultural changes to the village. Elite Chicagoans began to move to new planned communities in the suburbs by the 1930s, which ushered in the migration of Germans, English and Irish and Jewish families to Rogers Park. With the settlement of these migrants, their cultural traditions flourished.
Cultural diversity
Rogers Park continued to see massive changes in its demographics into the twenty first century. The 2000 census data showed it to be one of the most diverse American communities in the country, with a robust mix of ethnic backgrounds, languages, age diversity, and a wide range of family incomes. More recently, Rogers Park (east of the Red Line tracks) has seen a burgeoning of gay and lesbian residents. It is expected that Rogers Park will anchor one of the largest gay and lesbian populations in Illinois, rivaling neighboring communities of Andersonville, Edgewater and Lakeview.
Schools
- Boone Elementary School
- Chicago Waldorf School
- Consolidated Hebrew High School
- Field Elementary School
- Hanna Sacks Girls High School
- Hayt Elementary School
- Keshat Day School
- Kilmer Elementary School
- Loyola University Chicago
- Rogers Elementary
- Senn High School
- St. Gertrude School
- St. Margaret Mary School
- St. Scholastica High School for Girls
- Swift Elementary Speciality School
- Sullivan High School
- Wheaton College
Madonnadellastrada.jpg
External links
- Photographs of Rogers Park by Jordan Bettis (http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us/a/Rogers_Park/)
- Rogers Park Historical Society (http://www.rpwrhs.org/rpwrhs/)
- Rogers Park Community Council (http://www.rogerspark.org)
- Forum49: Promoting citizen participation in Chicago's 49th Ward (http://www.forum49.org)