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If you take a drive through Riverdale the area may seem like the city’s castaway. It’s a true food desert, there is very little transportation, no dining options, no hotels, some streets are falling apart even though they are already practically too narrow for one car, and some aren’t paved at all. Each section of Riverdale is very distinctive, from the industrial area in the north, the neighborhoods; Eden Green, Golden Gate, and Altgeld Gardens, to the sliver of residential and industrial land south of the Little Calumet River. From the outside looking in one might never guess that this area is home to some of the richest Black American History, dating back to 1835 when George Dolton settled near Thorton Road (today’s Indiana Avenue) and the river.
He started a ferry business to help people cross that section of the river and it became known as Riverdale Crossing. A few years before he settled there the Underground Railroad had been taking shape and growing to the point that it got its moniker, that was in 1831. While it’s hard to pin down all of the details of the history of the Underground Railroad, due to it mostly being oral history and much of it wasn’t made public until long after it was over and safe to speak about, some of a timeline has been traced to the Riverdale area.
Between 1835 and 1839 Dolton and a small community of abolitionists moved in and they worked together to help thousands of former slaves travel through Chicago to Detroit where they could escape into Canada and be free. One of the people who helped him with this was Levi Osterhoudt, who had a tavern/road house at 133rd and Thorton. In 1842 Dolton and Osterhoudt replaced the ferry with a toll bridge. Other neighbors who helped were Cornelius Kuyper and John Ton. Ton either rented or purchased (it’s unclear) a farm from Dolton in 1849 and in 2022 an Illinois State Historical marker was erected on the site honoring the men.
A fascinating story recounting how they helped was recounted in this Tribune Article
“Kuyper’s actions were recorded by local historian George Brennan in 1923 and are included in McClellan’s report.
A store owner and constable, Kuyper defied his legal obligation to slave catchers. On one occasion, a Kentucky slave owner accompanied by a deputy sheriff and a crew from Chicago came seeking three escaped male slaves the owner valued at $3,000 each. Kuyper led the band of men across the countryside, as far as the Indiana state line and to 87th Street in Chicago. After hours of searching in the rain, the three men were nowhere to be found, Brennan wrote.
Back at his home in Roseland, an apologetic Kuyper fed the men before they journeyed back to Chicago. The slave owner “[thanked] him exceedingly for his kindness, zeal and hospitality” as he said goodbye, Brennan wrote.
Once gone, Kuyper headed to his cellar and shoveled potatoes off a trap door. Out climbed a man. Then, he shook an enormous bail of hay in the barn, and out rolled two more men from the golden straw. He led them inside, and the three men ate in the same kitchen in which their former master had thanked Kuyper moments before.
After the speedy meal, the men hid in his wagon, and Kuyper covered them with corn. They could hardly breathe, Brennan wrote, but stealth was crucial, so Kuyper covered the corn with old sacks. They set off for Riverdale to the Ton farm, the next stop on the railroad, historians said.
Ton then took the freedom seekers across a bridge three blocks from his home and traveled along the “Chicago Road” toward Detroit to drop them at Hohman Bridge in Hammond, where another man would take the escaped slaves to the next stop in the Indiana Dunes.
It was reported later to Kuyper and Ton that the men made it safely to Canada, Brennan wrote.
The high-stakes adventure was routine for the men, historians said.”
The Underground Railroad operated until about 1865, the end of the Civil War.
Meanwhile, in 1837, another neighbor David Perriam settled his land which was called Wildwood. Wildwood was purchased by James Bowen in the 1870s, after he lost his home to the Great Chicago Fire. He built a summer home there where he hosted the Chicago elite. He was also instrumental in the construction of the Cal-Sag canal.
Industry came to Riverdale in the late 1870s with Riverdale Distilling being the first in 1877. The period between the Civil War and WWII was the time of the American Industrial Revolution. Being surrounded by Pullman, Riverdale couldn’t help but be afflicted. The rise of industry continued in the area with the Calumet Paint Company in 1888, which later was sold to Sherwin Williams. The Pullman strikes in 1894 led to new hiring practices and more industry to come to the area. A slight respite for the land occured in the 1920s when Beaubien Woods, a 135 acre preserve with hiking, fishing, wetlands, and woodlands, was added to the Cook County Forest Preserve. However, by the 1940s, through WWII more people worked in Riverdale than lived there.
Following the war’s end in 1945 the Chicago Housing Authority built Altgeld Gardens as low cost housing for returning soldiers, most of whom were black. The Philip Murray Homes followed in 1954. Next came the Golden Gate subdivision, Eden Green, and the Concordia Apartments these were among the first black owned and operated housing developments constructed in the country. Although that is an awesome accomplishment which helped the population grow to over 15,000 segregation was a strong subject at the time. Tensions began to rise between the white community of Pullman and the black community of Riverdale. By the early ‘70s gang violence was on the rise. This often happened in areas of discrimination.
Even in areas of violence there are often amazing people giving back to the community. Hazel Johnson moved to the area with her husband in 1962 and became known as “Mama Johnson” for her help in organizing field trips and block parties. Sadly her husband died of lung cancer in 1969 only a few weeks after his diagnosis. She soon learned of other neighbors experiencing cancer, skin, and respiratory illnesses, including her own children. In researching the environment of Altgeld and nearby areas of the Southeast Side and Northwest Indiana she found it was “housing more than 50 landfills, a chemical incinerator, a water and sewage treatment facility, steel mills, paint factories, scrap yards and abandoned industrial dump sites. Altgeld Gardens itself was built over a former industrial waste dump.” (from the PCR website). Hazel founded the People for Community Recovery (PCR) which led to the Environmental Justice Movement. This movement started in the mid-1980s, only a few years after the City of Chicago finally connected city water and sewage to the area.
Despite its harsh history Riverdale has been a home to heroes from the start and they continue to work hard to make their home and the world a better place. The Urban Growers Collective has a two acre bee sanctuary in Altgeld Gardens. CYC has the Dorothy Gautreaux Child Development Center, named after a civil rights activist who was key in winning class action lawsuits against the CHA for unjust housing practices and segregation. PCR continues to be active, fighting for environmental justice, affordable housing, and equitable economic development. The former Ton farm is now home to Chicago’s Finest Marina, where owner Ronald Gaines helps educate people on the historical significance of the land.
The red line extension is planned to end at Altgeld Gardens, which will finally make public transportation a feasible option. However, being the last stop for a project that hasn’t broken ground yet, there is a lot of time before that will come to fruition. House flippers are rehabbing some homes in the area, which helps, but it needs more than that. This community needs support from the greater community of Chicago. Developers with a strong interest in history and environmental preservation could help the community continue the efforts that have been started.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverdale,_Chicago
https://www.chicagoganghistory.com/neighborhood/riverdale/
https://www.urbangrowerscollective.org/our-farms
https://www.chicagoyouthcenters.org/riverdale-altgeld-gardens-dorothy-gautreaux
https://www.metroplanning.org/news/10430/Reconnecting-Riverdale-Community-to-the-Riverfront
https://southsideweekly.com/best-south-side-riverdale-west-pullman-2018/
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-gutted-epa-could-mean-chicagos-toxic-doughnut
https://openlands.org/paddle-illinois/african-american-heritage-water-trail/
