Our Old Town: The History of a Neighborhood

A century and a half ago, German immigrants planted cabbages and celery in a dried up swamp west of Clark Street near the Chicago River, and Old Town was born. From 1845 to 2001, it has gone from a cabbage patch to a place to buy grain and west your whistle, to a manufacturing center, to a transportation hub, to an artists' community, and finally to a genuine neighborhood. This is its story.