BELMONT CRAGIN

Belmont Cragin located on the Northwest Side of the City of Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. It is designated Community Area 19, and is located 8 miles NW of the Loop. Belmont Cragin is a community built on commerce and industry. The first business was a saloon opened by George Merrill sometime after 1835, when he settled with his family at the intersection of Armitage and Grand Avenues. Operating the saloon out of his home, Merrill catered to truck farmers carrying produce over the plank road to the city. The corner, named Whiskey Point, prompted many colorful and romanticized legends but attracted few permanent residents.In 1862 Michael Moran established a hotel at Whiskey Point, but the area remained rural until 20 years later, when Cragin Brothers & Company moved their tin plate and sheet iron processing plant near Whiskey Point. The plant and warehouses covered 11 acres, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad built a station at Leclaire Avenue to accommodate all the employees. Cragin also purchased a rivet company and moved machinery and workers from Connecticut to the location. Job opportunities and rail service brought settlers and a new-housing boom to the town, now named Cragin. Within the first two years the population rose to 200, and the community boasted a general store, two schoolhouses, and a Congregational church.Railroads drew more factories and workers to the area, which was annexed into Chicago as part of Jefferson Township in 1889. The Belt Railway Company extended its service in 1883, and plants developed in the new neighborhoods of Hanson Park and Galewood. In the same year the Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company launched a branch for its wire products, and the Western Brick and Tile Company found Galewood's superior clay soil conducive to business. By 1891 Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Company Iron Works, the Pitts Agricultural Works Warehouse, and the Rice and Bullen Malting Company brought more people into Cragin.