Facebook
X
Pinterest
Copy Link
The other day WBEZ sent me an email with a headline estimating 290,000 people in Illinois would fly for the holidays this year. Apparently it’s a record number. It’s also very fitting for my subject area today, O’Hare.
Of Chicago’s official 77 community areas O’Hare is number 76. It was the most recent community area of land to be annexed into the city. Edgewater, area 77, was already part of the city when it broke off from the area of Uptown. Although O’Hare was annexed specifically for the airport the area still has a solid residential community of single family and mixed-use homes.
The area of O’Hare was originally settled in the mid-1840s by a few families, a church, and a cemetery. In the 1880s a post office and railroad station opened in the northeastern section, which became known as Orchard Place. However, having a train station did not drive many people to move to the area.
It wasn’t until World War II when the community finally “made the map” and the proximity to trains helped too. Douglas built an aircraft plant on 1,347 acres of land in Orchard Place. While residents of the community raised many concerns as soon as the factory was announced the land was rezoned for industrial use in June of 1942 and construction started soon after. It took 10 months for the world’s largest all timber manufacturing plant to be built and put into operation. Between July 1943 and when it closed in October 1945 the plant produced 655 cargo planes.
Although Douglas no longer needed the plant following the war efforts no time was wasted to keep the facility in use. Civic leaders recognized right away that not only did the plant have potential to become a bustling airport, the area had room for an airport to double in size. Not only that, but the site was well located among current plans for the development of major expressways.
After considering five sites it seemed to be a no brainer to make Douglas Airport the main airport for the city of Chicago. The War Assets Administration ended up giving the 1,080 acre site to the city for free, under conditions that allow the U.S. Army to utilize 200 acres for storage. With much of the desired land in hand, the city began acquiring the adjacent residential and community land to expand the site’s footprint to 3,280 acres.
For a short time, the new airport was called Chicago Orchard (Douglas) Airport, but in 1947 it was renamed to O’Hare in honor of Lt. Cmdr. Edward “Butch” O’Hare. The original name is the reason the airport’s code is ORD, from Orchard.
Although the city owned the airport since 1946 it took another 10 years for it to be annexed. That procedure allowed for city services to run at the site. In 1960 the Kennedy expressway was extended from the Loop to the airport. By 1962 O’Hare Airport was the busiest in the world, a title it held until 1998. Today it remains in the top 4.
While the airport may be bustling, the neighborhood of O’Hare is a relatively quiet community. Surrounded by suburbs it retains a suburban feel. Much of the housing is single family homes and low rise condos. Since the airport attracts all kinds of travelers the neighborhood enjoys a mixture of local dining and entertainment options as well as high-end chains within the neighborhood and in neighboring Rosemont. Those who enjoy outdoor life have plenty to do as well as a vast amount of the land consists of forest preserves.
Since the majority of housing in O’Hare was built before 1978 there are some value add opportunities for investors and the proximity to the airport also provides short term rental opportunities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_areas_in_Chicago
http://www.connectingthewindycity.com/2012/06/chicago-look-back-at-june-9-1942.html
https://www.luc.edu/eminent-domain/siteessays/bensenvilleil/orchardfieldtooharefield/
https://www.neighborhoods.com/neighborhood-guides/il/chicago/northwest/ohare
