History of Lakeview East Chicago

When Clark Street was an Indian path known as Green Bay Trail and scattered bands of Miami, Ottawa, and Winnebago tribes camped along the north branch of the Chicago River, the first settler came to live in what is now Lakeview East. This same settler, Conrad Sulzer, who arrived in 1837, was later to become the first accessor at the first election of Lake View Township in 1857.

Legend has it Lakeview East got it's name from "Hotel Lake View," built on the lake shore in 1853 by James H. Rees and E. E. Hundley. The owners were standing on the hotel's portico trying to decide upon the right name when Walter L. Newberry, delighted with the unbroken view of the lake from the building, proposed the name.

Soon after this, a cholera epidemic hit Chicago and many residents fled to the countryside near the hotel to escape the disease. Hotel Lake View was soon crowded to capacity. Many of the refugees were so fascinated by the country air and view of the lake that they remained to purchase nearby homesteads.

Because no roads were laid out reaching the area a plank road from Fullerton north to just a little beyond Graceland (Irving Park Road) was built. Perhaps the granddaddy of our surburban highways, this plank road built by Rees, Hundley, S.S. Hayes, and others gave impetus to the development of the nearby settlements. It was called "Lake View Plank Road," now Broadway.

In the 1880's industry arrived in what had previously been a truck farming region, known as the celery capitol of the world. By 1887 the town of Lake View was incorporated into the city and in 1889 it would be annexed to Chicago's real estate boom, where 43 percent of Lakeview East's present residences were constructed. A large shopping area at Clark Street and Diversey Pkwy emerged to service the quickly growing populations, beginning what is now the Lakeview East business district on Broadway and Clark Streets.