Hegewisch

Located in the city’s extreme south side, Hegewisch is the number 55 of the 77 community areas in Chicago. The neighborhood gets its name from Adolf Hegewisch, the former head of the United States Rolling Stock Company. He built up the town along a railway line in 1883, hoping to construct “an ideal workingman’s village” six years before Chicago annexed the district.

Hegewisch occupies a total land area of 4.78 square miles (12.38 km2). It is an upper-class community; the average household in Hegewisch has an annual income of $57,151 which is in line with the Chicago median of $58,247.

The neighborhood offers plenty of residential amenities to the locals. Various eateries are located in the region, and the neighborhood offers multiple shopping options to the residents. Additionally, various recreational sites surround the Hegewisch community, including the Hegewisch (Marsh) Park, the Washington Park, the Wesolek Park and the famous Mann (James) Park. Other natural amenities in the Hegewisch neighborhood include the Wolf Lake and the Powderhorn Prairie Marsh Nature Preserve.

Another great feature about the Hegewisch neighborhood is its proximity to Chicago’s central business district. The neighborhood is 20.9 miles (33.6 km) away from the Downtown loop – traveling via car takes 25 minutes to reach the business hub. The South Shore Line, an intercity electric commuter rail line, stops at Hegewisch station. The train travels westbound as far as Millennium Station in the Chicago Loop and eastbound as far as South Bend Regional Airport in South Bend, Indiana. Bus routes administered by the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace Suburban Bus also serve the region.

Map

The Hegewisch community is surrounded by some renowned Chicago neighborhoods, including Riverdale and South Deering (to the west), the East Side (to the north), the village of Burnham (to the south) and the city of Hammond, Indiana (to the east). 

Hegewisch’s northern boundary is 128th St. Its eastern border is the state line between Illinois and Indiana. The 138th Street (Brainard Avenue) lies to the neighborhood’s southern boundary, while the western boundary is the W Burley Avenue, Torrence Avenue, and the Bishop Ford Freeway.

The Hegewisch neighborhood is part of the 60633 zip code.

Population

The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s 2021 release shows that Hegewisch has a total population of 10,027 individuals. 81.2% of this population comprises Native Americans, while 18.8% are foreign.

Hegewisch was originally a Polish American community. However, the area experienced ethnic diversity in the 1960s when Greek, Jordanian and Mexican immigrants started settling here. 

Currently, Hispanics and Latinos are the densest racial sector in the Hegewisch neighborhood occupying a 60.5% population share. The second-largest ethnic group in the society is the whites, who make up 35.1% of the population. Among the small races, Blacks cover 4.2% of the neighborhood’s population and people from other non-Hispanic races comprise 0.2% of the inhabitant structure.

Real Estate

There are around 3,677 households in the Hegewisch neighborhood, and each household shelters around 2.7 persons. The majority of the housing units in the area (88.5%) are occupied, and 11.5% are vacant. Owners dwell in 73.4% of the occupied housing units, while renters inhabit 26.6% of the Hegewisch residences.

Single-family, detached units are the most popular housing type in the Hegewisch neighborhood, constituting 72.2% of the infrastructure. Two unit houses are another common option making up 13.9% of the domestic real estate. Three to four-unit houses have a 3.9% share in Hegewisch’s real estate market.

The neighborhood is a prime residential location in Chicago because of the abundant landmarks and historical buildings. It boasts building such as the Sand Ridge Nature Center, Pullman State Historic Site, Van O’ Homestead and the Cedar Lake Historical Association Museum.

Hegewisch is also home to Chicago’s sole trailer park, the Harbor Point Estates. The trailer park is built on a former landfill site and is located east of Avenue F. It has 190 prefabricated homes and 50 recreational vehicles as of 2014. Multiple redevelopment attempts have been made in the region, including a 2008 attempt to transform the trailer park into a 900+ unit subdivision and a 2014 attempt to expand the park.

Other than that, the Mann (James) Park is a famous spot among the Hegewisch residents. This 18.86-acre parkland features two gymnasiums, an indoor swimming pool, a harvest garden and a woodshop for the residents. Seasonal sports, woodshop, fitness classes, aquatics, and activities for the special needs population are available to park visitors. Children attend the popular six-week day camp run by the Chicago Park District during the summer. In addition to activities, Mann Park organizes entertaining special events for the entire family throughout the year and various holiday-themed events.

The current real estate listing price in the Hegewisch neighborhood is $195K. This amount experienced a 23.8% hike in February 2022 compared to 2021 but is still substantially less than the Chicago average of $335K.

Schools

The educational attainment rate in the Hegewisch neighborhood also shows good figures. Around 36.8% of the neighborhood’s residents have a high school diploma, while 22.8% attended some college but didn’t get a degree.

Coming to tertiary education, 7.9% of Hegewisch residents have an Associate’s degree, and 10.0% have earned a Bachelor’s degree. Graduate and professional degree holders occupy 6.2% of the literary structure. 

Hegewisch has some amazing educational institutions for the residents, some of which are listed below:

1- Virgil Grissom Elementary School

Student population: 321 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 17-to-1

2- Jane Addams Elementary School

Student population: 277 students in grades K-5

Teacher-student ratio: 17-to-1

3- Thomas Hoyne Fine Arts Elementary School

Student population: 231 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 15-to-1

4- Southeast Area Elementary School

Student population: 618 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 16-to-1

5- George Washington Elementary School

Student population: 727 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 17-to-1

6- Berger-Vandenberg Elementary School

Student population: 304 students in grades K-6

Teacher-student ratio: 19-to-1

The neighborhood also has some top-class private schools, including:

7- Calumet Christian School

Student population: 139 students in K-12

Teacher-student ratio: 10-to-1

8- Council Oak Montessori School

Student population: 60 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 9-to-1

9- St. Barnabas Elementary School

Student population: 511 students in grades PK, K-8

Teacher-student ratio: 15-to-1

Crime Ratings

Hegewisch lies in District 004 of the Chicago Police Department. The crime ratings in the area during March 7th and March 13th, 2022, were commendable low. No murder and criminal sexual assault cases were recorded in the neighbourhood during the period. Five robbery and seven theft cases were reported to the local police. However, the locals lodged nine complaints about burglary and eighteen FIRs for motor vehicle theft.

History

The area was Potawatomi territory before the arrival of American immigrants. Hegewisch, along with most of Chicago’s South Side, was formed as part of Hyde Park Township in 1867. The last Potawatomi fled the area ten years later.

When Adolph Hegewisch planned up the town along a rail line in 1883, he relocated his company about 10 miles east to the new town’s border. He announced plans to develop two large canals to induce additional factories to locate nearby. The first canal would have shortened the Calumet River, and the second would have grown from it to connect Wolf Lake to Lake Michigan. These ambitions were never realized due to a lack of funds, and the town of Hegewisch fell far short of its estimated 10,000 citizens by 1885—only 500 names were included in the town registry four years later.

Hegewisch, along with the remainder of Hyde Park Township, was annexed to Chicago in 1889. Adolph died a few years later, and the Pressed Steel Car Company absorbed the Rolling Stock Company before World War I. During this period, Joseph H. Brown and other entrepreneurs built steel mills in and around Hegewisch. Workers from Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Ireland were newcomers.

Attempts to organize employees for better pay, hours, and working conditions impacted the Hegewisch neighborhood in 1935. The Steel Workers Organization Committee was established by the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) (SWOC). Carnegie-Illinois, a significant subsidiary of U.S. Steel based in Hegewisch, signed a deal with the SWOC in 1937 that regulated working hours, boosted compensation, and offered vacation time. The other “Little Steel” plants in the vicinity did not follow suit, prompting a May strike against Republic Steel and other plants. On Memorial Day, Republic recruited off-duty police officers to open fire on nonviolent demonstrators, killing ten and wounding hundreds. The aggression managed to break the union until the United Steelworkers emerged in the 1940s. This incident became known as the Memorial Day Massacre, and a memorial commemorating the victims may be found at 117th Street and Avenue O.

Over the next half-century, the steel plants in and around Hegewisch were the community’s foundation. During World War II, the Pressed Steel Car Company transitioned from manufacturing railroad cars to producing Howitzer tanks and other vehicles. Steel manufacture in America, including Hegewisch, declined after the Vietnam War. The population dropped due to layoffs following the closing of Wisconsin Steel in 1980. However, the remaining people channeled their emotions into community advocacy, successfully opposing plans for a Calumet airport and the classification of landfills in the area. 

Residents of Hegewisch launched a revitalization project in the 1980s, which included effective lobbying for a Metra stop, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, and a $300,000 block grant to restore infrastructure. Since the 1960s, Hegewisch has compensated for some of its demographic losses by relocating a substantial number of Mexican Americans. The Bishop Ford Expressway (I-94) and various railway lines are nearby. Various industries (particularly DMC, a major Midwest distributor of Ford vehicles since 1998) and neighboring Indiana casinos offered employment to the Hegewisch residents.