Between 1850 and 1889 the area south of 39th Street, west of State Street, east of Crawford Avenue, and north of 87th Street constituted Lake Township, an independent political unit separate from Chicago. More than 10,000 new residents moved to the area, home of the Union Stock Yard, between 1870 and 1880. The incorporated government could not adequately provide services to this burgeoning population, and the area was annexed to Chicago in 1889.

Ann Durkin Keating