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Located in a small neighborhood park.
History Dearborn Park lies near the northern end of the sizable South Loop housing development. Among the new park sites was property just south of the old Dearborn Street Railroad Station and occupies the space where the station train sheds once stood. Improvements began in late 1980, and the new neighborhood soon had a shaded one-and-a-quarter-acre park equipped with an obstacle fitness course. The park, the housing complex, and nearby Dearborn Street all pay homage to General Henry Dearborn (1751-1829), Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of War from 1801 to 1809. Construction of this Romanesque Revival-style station symbolized the burgeoning railroad industry in America and Chicago's role as the hub of that industry. As the railroads declined in importance, passenger traffic diminished and operations ceased at this terminal in 1971. After years of neglect, the station began a new life in the mid-1980s as a commercial center, enhancing the surrounding revitalizing community. It is one of the oldest railroad stations in the U.S. and the last remaining of Chicago's early downtown stations. THE CUSTOM HOUSE LEVEE DISTRICT THE ORIGINS OF "PRINTER'S ROW" From even the early days, Chicago thrived on its reputation for being a “wide-open town”. As far back as the 1850’s, the city gained a notoriety for its promotion of vice in every shape and form. It embraced the arrivals of prostitutes, gamblers, grifters and an outright criminal element. A commercialized form of vice flourished during the Civil War era and according to author Richard Linberg, an estimated 1,300 prostitutes roamed the darkened, evening streets of Chicago. Randolph Street, he wrote, “was awash in bordellos, wine rooms and cheap dance halls in plain view of the courthouse”. The area became known as “Gambler’s Row”, mostly because a man gambled with his very life when braving the streets of this seedy and dangerous district. The Dearborn Station became essential to operations in the area as it made a perfect recruiting spot for prostitutes during the gaslight era. Naive young women who stepped off the train were often greeted by one of the army of “pimps” who waited in the station. From that point, they were introduced to immoral acts and lured into the “scarlet patch” originally known as the Cheyenne District and later the Custom House. By the time of the Columbian Exposition in 1893, Chicago had become known as the “Paris of America” for its many illicit attractions. Reformist WT Stead, in his book IF CHRIST CAME TO CHICAGO, counted 37 bordellos, 46 saloons, 11 pawnbrokers, an opium den and numerous gambling parlors in the Custom House district while writing his expose on Chicago vice. The official stance on such districts was to leave them alone, as long as the operators, thieves and undesirables stayed in the district and kept to themselves. However, this was rarely the case. Granted a wide berth by city officers, the dealers in vice exploited the situation with prostitutes being arrested in the theater district and posing as sales girls in reputable stores. By 1903, conditions had become intolerable and reformers would no longer stand for it. A wave of criminal indictments, pushed through by church groups and the mayor himself, sent the vice operators reeling. Most of them moved to the South Side Levee District, where they were welcomed with open arms. The Custom House Place Levee had vanished completely by 1910. After that, the deserted area was slowly taken over by commercial printing houses and bookbinderies, creating the name the district bears today, “Printer‘s Row”. Eventually, the printing houses joined the bordellos and they too faded away. The area finally gained its dignity around 1979 when it converted into the condominium and rental community that exists today. The railroad freight yards have also disappeared, although Dearborn station remains. It has been converted into a small shopping small, serving the residents of this quiet street. The Custom House Levee is now only a memory.....
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ynzc cbfg ubhfvat.