Streetwise Chicago: A History of Chicago Street Names

by Don Hayner

Book Overview

Welcome to the fascinating world of Chicago street names! Did you know that Ainslie Street was named after a real estate developer whose widow, in 1848, left for California to pan for gold with a new husband? Or did you know that Crandon Avenue was named for a prohibitionist congressional candidate who lost to his opponent in 1882 by a vote of 11,686 to 663?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0829405968
• ISBN13: 9780829405965
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Wild Onion Books
• Length: 153 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

out of print and hard to find

my brother in law has been looking for this out of print book for a long time. It arrived promptly and in good shape

Great resource-- Needs to be back in print!!

This is a fantastic book, detailing all known stories behind all the street names in Chicago. It is both an excellent reference and a fascinating read. Some have criticized it's lack of information on the FORMER names of the streets listed. First, hundreds of streets were renamed in the 1910's merely to eliminate duplicates. Second, many streets were formerly named differently in several places. To burden this book with sorting it all out would diminish it's usefulness and readability. I really hope that this book is reprinted so that others can enjoy it!

Fascinating - An Indispensable Resource

I refer to this book more than any other in my collection of Chicago books. Every time I find something new or something that I had forgotten. There is no other book like it. Note to previous reviewers: it is unfair to criticize this book for missing some name changes. It states quite clearly, "This list of street name changes is not complete; it's a selected sample from about 1900 to the present time." And it's wrong to give a book only one star based on an appendix.

Extremely interesting

This will be a fascinating book to anyone living in, or near Chicago, and who like me, is interested in the history that is all around us. There is so much of this history in the street names - people, places, stories, changing geography etc. I recommend this to any curious person.