Greater Grand Crossing

Greater Grand Crossing is the community area number 69 out of the 77 recognized Chicago neighborhoods. The neighborhood lies to the Southside of Chicago and spans a total land area of 3.56 square miles (9.22 km²). The neighborhood gets its name from a train collision in 1853 at the intersection of two rival railway tracks, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and the Illinois Central Railroad.

Greater Grand Crossing is a Chicago neighborhood that caters to the middle class. The average household income in the Greater Grand Crossing area is $29,647 compared to the Chicago average of $58,247. The neighborhood’s residents benefit from its affordable housing stock and easy access to transportation.

The neighborhood offers plenty of recreational spots to the residents. The Grand Crossing Park has two gymnasiums, a fitness center, a woodshop, and multi-purpose rooms available for rent to the locals. There are also baseball and football fields, basketball and tennis courts, pools, and playgrounds for children. 

The assortment of eateries also adds to the charm of the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood. Additionally, the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood is home to some amazing theaters and art galleries that serve as getaways for the working community. 

The neighborhood is excellent for people searching for feasible transportation options. It is at 9.9 miles (15.9 km) from the Downtown Chicago Loop. 

Map

The Greater Grand Crossing is bordered by the Grand Crossing Park, South Park Manor Historic District, and Winneconne Parkway. The neighborhood is part of 60619, 60620, 60621, and 60637 zip codes.

Population

The Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood has a total population of 31,471 people. ​​95.7% of residents are African American, with the remainder being Hispanic, multiracial or white.

Before welcoming the European immigrants from the UK, Germany, Sweden, and Italy, the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood was an open swampland and prairie. Like the surrounding communities, the neighborhood had become a primarily middle-class African American community by the 1950s.

The conditions remain the same after seven decades. According to the American Community Surveys’ 2015 to 2019 estimates, African Americans constitute the major share of Greater Grand Crossing’s population at 95.7%. Other prominent ethnicities in the neighborhood are Hispanics and Latinos (1.7%) and white people (1.0%). There is a negligible Asian population in Greater Grand Crossing; however, people from other non-Hispanic cultures have a 1.6% share in the neighborhood’s population.

Real Estate

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s recent estimates shows that the Greater Grand Crossing has 12,756 houses, with an average family size of 2.4 persons. More than 3/4th (77.3%) of the neighborhood’s houses are occupied, while 22.7% are vacant. Most of the Greater Grand Crossing houses are renter-occupied (68.7%), while owners inhabit only 31.3%.

The majority of the Greater Grand Crossing homes (28.9%) are single-family, detached, following two units constituting 25.2% of the neighborhood’s homes. Three to four-unit houses (14.9%) are another popular housing option in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

Like other Chicago neighborhoods, parts of Greater Grand Crossing transitioned from open space and farmland to bungalow neighborhoods at the turn of the twentieth century. The 75th Street business corridor, sometimes known as “Renaissance Row,” runs from S. Cottage Grove Ave. to S. Michigan Ave. and is located in the neighborhood’s core. This community has some of the South Sides most renowned locally owned stores, creative community organizations, historic park areas, and rows of bungalow-lined streets.

The Grand Crossing Park is an important amenity within the neighborhood. The management organizes Park Kids Afterschool Program, seasonal sports, senior club, Cubs Care, Inner City Sports, and officiating workshops to the Greater Grand Crossing residents. Children can also participate in the Chicago Park District’s popular six-week day camp over the summer. In addition to such programs, Grand Crossing Park offers a plethora of entertaining special events for the entire locality throughout the year, including holiday-themed events.

The Stony Island Arts Bank is another beautifully constructed facility in the neighborhood. It features the Johnson Publishing Archive, the University of Chicago Glass Lantern Slides, and House Music legend Frankie Knuckles’ vinyl collection, among other cultural artifacts. Since its reopening in October 2015, the rotating exhibitions and architectural tours have attracted a constant stream of visitors.

The Gary Comer Youngsters Center has been providing various recreational activities and academic support to youth in the area and throughout the South Side since 2006. Located across the street on S. Chicago Ave., this institution provides a hands-on resource to support the horticulture and culinary programs, in addition to the state-of-the-art facilities.

The Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood’s average real estate listing price is $163,000; this property value went down by 1.2% since 2021. This amount is considerably less than the Chicago average selling price of $335K. 

Schools

The literacy levels in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood are average. Around 27.7% of the people have a high school diploma, 7.4% have an Associate’s degree, and 10.6% hold a Bachelor’s degree. Masters and professional degree holders make up  6.9% of the Greater Grand Crossing population. Most people living in the neighborhood (33.9%) attended some college but didn’t have a degree. 

The Greater Grand Crossing has some top-ranked educational institutions for the residents. Some of the renowned ones are listed below:

1- Gary Comer College Prep

Student population: 1,151 students in grades 6 to 12

Teacher-student ratio: 17-to-1

2- Betty Shabazz Internal Charter School

Student population: 578 students in K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 21-to-1

3- Martha M. Ruggles Elementary School

Student population: 402 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 18-to-1

4- Harvard Park Elementary School

Student population: 350 students in grades PK, K-5

Teacher-student ratio: 11-to-1

5- Brownell Elementary School

Student population: 186 students in grades PK, K-7

Teacher-student ratio: 19-to-1

The neighborhood also has some amazing private educational institutions, listed below as follows: 

1- University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

Student population: 2,051 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 8-to-1

2- British International School of Chicago, South Loop

Student population: 604 students

Teacher-student ratio: 8-to-1

3- St. Ignatius College Prep

Student population: 1,480 students

Teacher-student ratio: 16-to-1

Crime Ratings

The Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood is part of the Chicago Police Department’s District 003. The area is one of the safest Chicago community areas. In the last week of February 2022, from the 21st to the 27th, no murder cases were reported to the police. The local police received only three robbery complaints and eleven burglary reports. The Greater Grand Crossing residents reported ten theft and sixteen motor vehicle theft cases to the police department.

History

In the mid-nineteenth century, Greater Grand Crossing flourished around the area’s rival train crossings. In 1889, the region was annexed by Chicago and recognized as a part of the Hyde Park Township.

The neighborhood was named by an industrial accident when Roswell B. Mason, the future mayor of Chicago, secretly constructed intersecting tracks for the Illinois Central Railroad across the rail lines of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at what is now 75th Street and South Chicago Avenue. The neighborhood started developing after this train accident that killed 18 individuals and injured 40 others. After the 1853 tragedy, the intersection remained unsafe for many years, but industry grew up around it since all trains were compelled to come to a complete stop there.

Paul Cornell, a Chicago real estate developer, believed that the area surrounding the crossing, primarily prairie and swampland, would be suitable for suburban development because rail access to Chicago was guaranteed. In 1855, Cornell began purchasing enormous swaths of land. Throughout the early 1870s, he partitioned the land and sold lots. He named the subdivision Cornell at first, but after learning about Cornell’s existing village, he changed it to Grand Crossing.

The first settlers were of Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry, and they established railroad towns in the southeast corner of Greater Grand Crossing, just south of Oakwoods Cemetery. In the 1890s, laborers, farmers, and craft workers of German ancestry followed, constructing frame houses in the Brookline area of the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

The 1893 World’s Columbian Expedition boosted the region’s development and popularity. Between 1895 and 1912, single-family frame and brick homes, two-flats, and condos gained popularity in the region to support the constant population growth. Infrastructure improvements were also made. The Calumet electric street railway was extended to Cottage Grove and 93rd Avenues (now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive), and the dangerous train junction that had given rise to the suburb was raised in 1912. 

Though there had been some manufacturing in the neighborhood since the mid-nineteenth century, the area had primarily become residential by 1920. People of Swedish and Italian ancestry joined Irish and German ancestry by the 1930s. However, as the population of African Americans in the neighborhood grew, these ethnic groups, along with native whites, began to leave. The black population of Greater Grand Crossing expanded from 6% to 86 percent over the 1950s decade.

Since the 1930s, there has been minimal new building in Greater Grand Crossing, except for Parkway Gardens, and the neighborhood has experienced severe population decline since the 1960s. Greater Grand Crossing is at a crossroads in its history, with new developments rising all around it. Complementing these achievements with well-planned, targeted improvements has the potential to not only reduce the threat of decline but also greatly improve Greater Grand Crossing’s stability.