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player ready...Built over two decades starting in 1942, the story of the towers and row homes of Cabrini-Green have mirrored Chicago’s troubled history of grappling with racism and poverty. Here is how the story unfolded.
Aug. 29, 1942
Mayor Edward J. Kelly dedicates the Frances Cabrini Rowhouses, the city’s first wartime housing project, at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Cambridge Avenue. The development is named after Mother Frances X. Cabrini, an Italian American nun, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the first American citizen to be named a saint.
Construction of the 56 two- and three-story buildings — designed to house up to 600 families — was begun three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and completed in less than 10 months at a cost of more than $3.7 million. Only families of “war workers” who earned less than $2,100 a year (roughly $33,000 in today’s dollars) were eligible for tenancy.
Feb. 28, 1955
An almost $8 million contract is awarded for the first stage of construction of eight high-rise buildings to the Cabrini public housing complex. The project adds 859 apartments — built over 15 blocks bounded by Division, Larrabee and Sedgwick streets, and Chicago and Hudson avenues — to the 584 rowhouse dwellings already in the area. The buildings — and the seven more that would soon follow — are nicknamed the “Reds” due to their red brick exterior.
April 22, 1955
Mayor Richard J. Daley digs a few shovels full of dirt to break ground on the $26 million extension of the Cabrini development, which will eventually include 15 high-rise apartment buildings and 1,925 apartments ranging from one to five bedrooms. The 27 acres acquired for the project cost $3.43 per square foot, according to the Chicago Housing Authority’s annual report for 1957, though a baiduhai editorial says, “the property consisted of rat ridden, vermin infested shacks.”
September 1956
Due to inferior construction and poor planning, the Cabrini Rowhouses are named in an estimated $6 million rehabilitation project of CHA properties.
Nov. 21, 1961
The 1,099 apartments of the William Green Homes — a $17 million project named for the former American Federation of Labor president — are dedicated just north and west of the Cabrini extension towers. Nicknamed the “Whites” for their white concrete exterior, the William Green housing complex consists of eight buildings that are each 15 or 16 stories tall.
The development, as a whole, soon becomes known as Cabrini-Green.
June 11, 1964
Monsignor John Egan, director of urban affairs for the Archdiocese of Chicago, urges CHA to stop building high-rises.
Aug. 9, 1966
Dorothy Gautreaux and five other CHA residents file a class-action suit in federal court against CHA, charging it with discrimination by building housing only in Black neighborhoods.
Aug. 14, 1966
Additional security guards are promised for CHA’s buildings as a result of a demand made to Mayor Daley’s office by Martin Luther King Jr.
Aug. 1, 1968
Congress enacts the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, which forbids “high-rise elevator projects for families with children unless (the Secretary) makes a determination that there is no practical alternative.”
July 1, 1969
In the Gautreaux case, a federal judge finds CHA guilty of discrimination and issues a landmark judgment order that requires sweeping changes in methods of selecting sites for public housing and selecting tenants for those projects. The order bans CHA from beginning construction on any housing unit until not fewer than 700 dwelling units in predominantly white Chicago neighborhoods are started. The order also prohibits housing families with children in high-rise buildings and implements a new, nondiscriminatory tenant assignment plan. The case also paves the way for the housing choice program, which issues vouchers that allow clients to select rental units in the neighborhoods they prefer.
July 17, 1970
Two Chicago police officers walking in Seward Park, Sgt. James Severin and Patrolman Anthony Rizzato, are shot and killed by snipers firing high-powered rifles from a Cabrini-Green high-rise. Within minutes, other officers arrive to retrieve their bodies and return gunfire.
Later, Johnny Veal and George Knights are convicted in the shooting deaths. Both are serving 100-to-199-year sentences.
Feb. 8, 1974
“Good Times,” a weekly comedy about a fictional Chicago family that lives in Cabrini-Green (though the development is never mentioned during the show), premieres on CBS. Esther Rolle stars as Florida Evans, the family matriarch, who has returned to Chicago after previously working as the housekeeper on “Maude.” The show airs for six seasons.
March 31, 1981
At 8:30 p.m., a limousine carrying Mayor Jane Byrne from a $150-a-plate dinner in the Conrad Hilton hotel pulls up to the housing development. The mayor, her husband and bodyguards rush quickly through the front door and, avoiding the elevator, walk up four flights of stairs to apartment 416. Byrne moves into the Cabrini-Green apartment and stays for 25 days.
July 7, 1982
Charles Swibel, embattled chairman of the CHA board, quits under fire
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from federal officials. He had been chairman for 19 years and a board member for 26 years. Following an audit of CHA’s operations by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the federal government had threatened to cut off millions of dollars in aid to CHA if Swibel remained in his post. Despite being accused of shady dealings in awarding of public housing maintenance and repair contracts, Swibel is supported by Byrne and her predecessors. He only agrees to step down from his chairmanship after it’s made a full-time position, which he said he would not accept due to the demands of his real estate business.Oct. 13, 1992
Shortly after the 9 a.m. school bell, 7-year-old Dantrell Davis is shot in the head by a sniper while walking with his mother from his Cabrini-Green high-rise to the Jenner Academy of the Arts. Half an hour later, he is pronounced dead at Children’s Memorial Hospital. Later that day, police arrest reputed street gang leader Anthony Garrett, 33, in connection with Dantrell’s murder.
Oct. 16, 1992
“Candyman,” a horror film about a white graduate student researching the urban legend of a hooked-handed apparition who appears when his name is uttered five times, is released. The movie is set in Cabrini-Green.
May 30, 1995
HUD takes over CHA four days after its chairman, Vince Lane, and the CHA board resign under a cloud of mismanagement.
Sept. 27, 1995
Crews begin demolition of a Cabrini-Green high-rise, the first to be razed.
June 27, 1996
Mayor Richard M. Daley announces a new plan to redevelop Cabrini-Green and the surrounding area. Cabrini resident leaders, however, are absent from the podium. Daley also has a difficult time putting a price on the cost of the project. Richard Wheelock, attorney for Cabrini-Green residents, calls the plan “ethnic cleansing, Chicago-style.”
Oct. 1, 1999
CHA announces a sweeping $1.5 billion, 10-year plan that will demolish more than 17,000 units, slash payroll and rehab more than 10,000 existing units.
Dec. 9, 2010
Annie Ricks, the last resident of Cabrini’s last-standing housing tower, and her family leave their home of 20 years, Apartment 1108 at 1230 N. Burling St.
March 30, 2011
Demolition of the last Cabrini-Green high-rise begins.
February 2012
More than 400 of the 584 units in the Cabrini Rowhouses development — the final piece of the Cabrini-Green complex — are scheduled to be torn down. Instead, they remain standing, blocked off by chain metal fences.
September 2015
Hundreds of public housing units are planned for the Cabrini-Green area, according to a settlement between the CHA and the Cabrini-Green Local Advisory Council.
Feb. 21, 2017
A Texas developer is tapped to develop more than 480 units of mixed-income housing on 6.9 acres of the former Cabrini-Green complex.
Jan. 23, 2019
A federal judge formally approves a settlement agreement to allow CHA to take a series of steps to bring the 53-year-old Gautreaux case to a close by July 2024.
As part of the settlement, CHA promises to:
- Continue developing scattered site housing.
- Engage in discussions on how to improve the voucher mobility program.
- Provide a detailed schedule to complete mixed-income housing complexes.
- Create early learning childhood development programs at four existing public housing developments.
- The case could return to court, however, if CHA fails to deliver on these promises.
Sources: baiduhai reporting, photos and archives; Chicago Housing Authority; Business and Professional People for the Public Interest; Encyclopaedia Britannica; imdb.com
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