Bronzeville Obelisks

Bronzeville Obelisks..
Six feet, 4,000 pound marker..
Installed: Nov, 2009.. at what is considered the gateway of the Bronzeville neighborhood, near the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology..

The obelisks are the brainchild of the late Senator Margaret Smith and Esther Barnett of the Bronzeville Merchants Association.
Ten such obelisks are supposed to be installed, of which two have already been installed.. These obelisks are a joint effort by the Bronzeville Merchants Association, the State of Illinois, and the City of Chicago. These mark Bronzeville's rich cultural heritage and making the neighborhood a tourist destination.


In 1770, a Black Man, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable began trading goods with Native Americans. By 1840, Blcaks setteled in Chicago's, Black Metropolis", now known as Bronzeville.









State Street was the shopping district of black-owned businesses such as drug stores, barber shops, flower shops, tailor shops, meat markets, millinery shops, fruit stands, theaters and restaurants. A "city within a city"..



This area known as the "stroll" was home to Motto's Perkin Theater, a precursor to many clubs like the Royal Gardens. Walter T. Bailey, the first black architect, designed the Jordan Building, a novel storefront structure with residential space above..



Black owned and operated businesses including Provident Hospital, and were also elected to public offices. Black architects designed and built residential and commercial structures. Musicians, artists and writers gave voice to Bronzeville culture. James "Jimmy" Gentry, a Chicago bee and Chicago Defender newsman developed the bronze-beauty pageant which gave rise to the name "Bronzeville". the Great Migration caused Bronzeville black population to rise to over hundred thousand by 1920..



Bronzeville spawned many political leaders including the honorable Harold Washington, the first elected Black mayor of Chicago. Ada S. McKinley Community Services is named after Mrs. McKinley, an educator who started settlement house to help Black soldiers and their families. Later she developed programs and services to help young women with their domestic skills...

Check out more..
# Bronzeville Street Map..
# Victory Monument..
# Monument to the Great Northern Migration..
# Bronzeville Benches..
# The Recognition Panels ...
# Bronzeville Walk of Fame..
# Mural "Bronzeville" ...
# Mural "The Wall of Daydreaming and Man's Inhumanity to Man"..
# Chicago's Historic Boulevards...
# 47th Street Blues District..

And also..
# Black Metropolis Distict-I ..
# Black Metropolis District-II..
# Black Metropolis Distict- III [Nine structures and beyond]..