New Photo Book by Logan Square Preservation President Shares Layers of Neighborhood History

Andrew Schneider, president of Logan Square Preservation, gave a fascinating and entertaining lecture Nov. 15 about his book “Images in America (Logan Square)” at the Logan Square Public Library (3030 W. Fullerton Ave.). “Images in America (Logan Square)” is co-authored by Schneider, Ward Miller, Jacob Kaplan, who also spoke, and Daniel Pogorzelski, with an introduction by Professor Edward Kantowicz.

LSP is a nonprofit community organization that has been educating Logan Square residents about its history and architecture since 1980. LSP spearheads many local preservations and beautification projects, conserving the neighborhood’s singular culture and appeal, especially as it grows and evolves.

As we learned from the lecture, which discussed the neighborhood’s coail history and built envirnments, Logan Square has a rich background of diversity, expanding from a rural Jefferson Township to a thriving community built by farmers, tradesmen and refugees from around the world. A real blast from the past, one can compare the vibrant neighborhood that we know and love with vintage photos of its humble beginnings. Large swaths of the area, mostly marshland, were connected by dirt roads.

Compiling this mountain of photos, correspondence, and memorabilia has been a six-year journey, Schneider told the crowd.

“At first I thought that we wouldn’t have enough material for a book,” Schneider said. “Near the end, it became an issue of pairing down… what to leave out.”

There were plenty of great factoids about the neighborhood from the event, such as how Kimball Avenue was named after the prominent Kimbell family (the misspelling of their name is an issue to this day), churches that were lifted up and relocated as their parishioners moved, and the Logan Squares—a baseball team that once beat both the Cubs and the White Sox in 1906. 

“Images in America” is just a taste of such photos and stories, a labor of love that can be added to the many books about Chicago. This book goes out of stock pretty quickly, so check with your local bookstore for availability (City Lit has it now for $22). And for those who want to get involved.

For more information on LSP, visit their website or message them on Facebook.

Featured image: The cover of the new book, which can be found at local shops now. Photo: Erik Island