A tiny enclave within west suburban Cicero in 1865, the Austin neighborhood separated in 1899 and became one of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods.
A tiny enclave within west suburban Cicero in 1865, the Austin neighborhood separated in 1899 and became one of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods.
Six miles west of downtown Chicago, Henry W. Austin, a real estate developer, built the 470-acre area that was bound from Chicago Avenue to Madison Street, and Laramie to Austin Boulevard, along the Eisenhower Expressway.
The neighborhood was predominantly white until the late 1960s, but infrastructure sorely lacked in the community and city officials weren’t too speedy with their response, causing many jobs to leave for the suburbs and other states, according to the Greater Austin Development Association.
Then the riots started on the West Side in 1965, and in 1968 after Martin Luther King’s assassination, causing whites to flee the community, and further decline in employment opportunities and infrastructure.
Austin now boasts a population of 117,500 with 90 percent predominantly Black, and a median income of $33,600.
In the last decade, residents have seen revitalization in economic development.
Take a ride to Lamon and North avenues and you will be greeted with the Washington Square strip shopping mall, which opened last year.
The mall, complete with an Old Navy, A.J. Wright, Skechers, Radio Shack, Children’s Place, City Sports, Food 4 Less and GNC, to name a few, offers residents affordable items in their neighborhood instead of traveling to a neighboring suburban mall for the same items.
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