1914: Chicago’s Devon Avenue originally Church Road

You are looking at a photograph taken about 1914, looking east on what was Devon Avenue (6400 North) originally Church Road..

The person taking the picture was standing just east of Western Avenue (2400 west) at about Bell Avenue (2232 West).Just barely visible way in the distance and just above the tree line at Church Road and Ridge Avenue was the beautiful  St. Henry’s church steeple.

The people in this picture were all members of my immediate family. From left to right:

Lucy Rich (1904-1926), who was my great aunt. Sadly she died at age 22. Lucy was about 10 years old in this picture.

            Evelyn Erschen Fleig (1911-1987) who was my mother. she was about 3 years old in this picture

Augusta “Gussie” Erschen (1888-1982) who was my grandmother. she was about 26 years old in this picture

John “Jack” Erschen (1909-1992) Evelyn’s brother and my uncle. He was about 5 years old in this picture. and later had a wonderful career in vaudeville and later playing the Hammond organ

Elsie Rich (1902-1976) who was my grandmother’s sister. she was about 12 years old in this picture. she would later become Mrs. Michael LaRocca

They may well have been coming from near St. Henry’s church at Ridge and Devon and were all walking home to a truck farm on the southwest corner of Devon and Rockwell (2600 west) where they and my great grandfather Fred Rich (1855-1934) lived and worked. Although the person taking the photograph is not known for sure, I believe it was my great-grandfather.

Now we fast-forward to the 1940s and 1950s when we see the old red streetcar just approaching Western Avenue as it just past the Devon bank and the Thillens check-cashing office

Last but not least we look at the same easterly view in more recent times. What a contrast compared to the 1914 picture.

It is believed that Devon was named by John Lewis Cochran, (1857-1923) the developer of Edgewater named after Cochran’s home town. Devon, Pennsylvania, which in turn was probably named for Devonshire, England,  named for a French family by the name Devonne..

Devon Avenue (6400 North, the numbered grid of Chicago’s city streets.) is the one of Chicago’s northernmost east-west major thoroughfares along with Touhy (7200 North) and Howard (7600 north) before reaching Evanston.

Devon Avenue, as part of the North Town neighborhood is also referred as West Ridge and West Roger’s Park. It Began with sparse residential development. German and Luxembourgian farmers arrived in the 1830s and 40s and was known for its greenhouses and truck farms. in 1893 Rogers Park and its neighbor West Ridge voted to annex to Chicago. Laborers from the brickyards began moving into this neighborhood following the expansion of Western Avenue northward about 1899.

It was not until the population boom after World War I that major development in the area would begin. Serious residential and commercial development began in the early 1920s.

Henry L. Schoolcraft (1868-1936) setup his real estate business on the northeast corner of Devon and Western in 1923.

 Developer Henry B. Rance (1865-1929) opened his real estate office in a frame shack at the corner of Devon and Western Avenues, in anticipation of this development.. , His first real estate firm, the Prudential Realty Company opened in 1920. He built the Prudential Building still standing today at 2345 W. Devon by 1927.

Development along Devon continued through the Depression years of the 1930s.

Beginning after World War II, Devon avenue became  a vibrant Orthodox Jewish community , many of them Eastern European and German Jews, with their kosher butcher shops, bakeries, delicatessens, and synagogues. There is still a small but thriving Jewish community there today, having moved west of California Avenue (2800 west) on towards Kedzie Avenue (3600 west)

 Also after World War II, Devon became a major shopping street with  stores like Hillmans foods, Abrams, Crawford department store, Neisner’s, Woolworth’s, Hobbymodels and way more. There was Walgreens, A.S. Beck shoe store, General camera, Schlossers bakery and many more.

Some of us might remember Red Goose shoes and having our feet x-rayed. The public library near Washtenaw and the post office at Talman.

 There was the Devon theater , and farther west the Cine theater, with its beautiful art adeco facade.

And still farther west the  Thillens stadium, miniature golf, a riding stable, Hollywood Kiddieland, and the Milk Pail.

Beginning in the mid 1970’s, The Indian and Pakistani communities became the predominant presence along Devon, with its sari shops, discount household electronics stores, South Asian video and music stores, its Indian supermarkets and its wide variety of Indian restaurants.

They coexist alongside residents and businesses of Assyrian, Russian, Korean, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Bhutan descent, as well as many other countries outside South Asia, including Croatia and Syria.

Incredibly, it is estimated there are as many as 30 different languages spoken in and around Devon Avenue. Some street segments were honorary names such as of Gandhi Marg, Mohammed Ali Jinnah Way, and Golda Meier Blvd.

Thanks for reading! Barry Fleig

If you ever lived near or shopped on Devon Avenue, please leave your memories in the comments section below. We just might have been neighbors!

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