Evictions on Kenmore and Winthrop 1970-1975
Evictions on Kenmore and Winthrop in the Edgewater neighborhood 1970-1975
by Bob Jewell
In 1970, I was a 13 year old teenager working at Dick’s Food Mart on the corner of Berwyn and Kenmore, across the street from the Epworth Methodist Church. My sister, 10 years older than me, had just married and moved out to the 4 Lakes Villages in Lisle, Illinois. My brother was 4 years younger than me. My parents and sister had lived at 5344 N Kenmore from 1947 with my sister leaving in 1970. My parents and brother eventually moved out to a house near Foster Ave and Western Ave in 1978. In November of 1977 I joined the Army and was no longer in Illinois.
My sister’s recollections and experiences of the area contrast sharply with those of myself and my brother.
Speaking with my sister recently, I asked her if she had any recall of any evictions, or having seen any evicted people prior to leaving Chicago for 4 Lakes Villages in Lisle. She told me that she had not seen anyone evicted prior to 1970, and explained that in her time frame, the neighborhood was not the same as my brother and I had experienced. She finds the stories my brother and I relate about growing up in Edgewater to be interesting because what we experienced was not what she experienced.
Speaking with my brother recently, we talked about people who had been evicted. This was a sight that was commonplace enough for us to know exactly what we were looking at. In car travels with our parents, we could identify an eviction if we drove past one.
An eviction was easy to see. It is like someone has moved all their things out in front of their building, but without any order to it, and no moving trucks in sight, and no people standing guard or keeping a watchful eye on these items. Most of the stuff you would see was not in the greatest of condition.
We recalled an eviction that took place right out in front of our apartment. My brother has said he did not think anyone in our apartment building had ever been evicted. However, across the street from us there was an exception. People’s stuff…Their belongings. Console TV’s, clothes, toys for kids, underwear, pots and pans, everything you could imagine being in your own apartment, was stacked up in a pile on the grassy area separating the curb of the street and edge of the sidewalk, right across the street from our apartment.
The people who owned this stuff were nowhere to be found. But other people would drive down the street, get out of their cars and rummage through the stuff and take what they wanted to take. Almost in the way people drive through subdivisions in the spring and summer looking for garage sales. We watched a car stop on Kenmore, which is a one way street, and load up the trunk with an old TV from the pile.
As kids, we kind of looked at this stuff as just that. Stuff. This stuff seemed interesting just sitting outside and free for the taking. From our parents we knew that the owners of this stuff had failed to pay rent and then eventually, they were kicked out of the apartment. There were usually a Cook County deputy and “people” who went into the apartment to empty it of everything it contained. We don’t recall the Chicago Police being involved. My brother’s recall is our mom told us not to take anything from any eviction pile as it belonged to someone.
I have some recall of seeing two other evictions. One was closer to Kenmore and Berwyn, across from what used to be the Christian Science church. Another on Winthrop, close to Balmoral. The setting was always similar. There may have been one eviction where the owner of the stuff piled up on the street was present and keeping watch over it.
I have some recall of seeing two other evictions. One was closer to Kenmore and Berwyn, across from what used to be the Christian Science church. Another on Winthrop, close to Balmoral. The setting was always similar. There may have been one eviction where the owner of the stuff piled up on the street was present and keeping watch over it.
We did not give much thought as kids as to how these evicted people were going to get all their things picked up from the street and moved into some other place. We were happy that we did not seem likely to have to be evicted for any reason, although to reflect a bit on my parents, when the apartment building they had lived in since 1947 was sold, they were forced to move. They did not have a desire to leave, but were told they had to go.