Calumet Heights, Chicago
Encyclopedia
Calumet Heights, located on the South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...

 of the city, is one of the 77 well defined community areas
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...

 of Chicago, Illinois. Calumet Heights is bounded by 87th Street on the north, South Chicago Avenue on the east, and railroad lines on the west and south (along 95th Street). It includes the neighborhoods of Calumet Heights and Pill Hill
Pill Hill, Chicago
Pill Hill is a neighborhood in the Calumet Heights community area on the South Side of Chicago.-Geography:According to The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago, the neighborhood is the more affluent portion of the Stony Island Heights neighborhood that occupies the eastern two-thirds of Calumet Heights...

. Beginning at about 91st Street and Constance Avenue is the geographical feature for which it was named, a stony hill that was once an island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

 when glacial Lake Chicago
Lake Chicago
This article is about the prehistoric lake, For other geographic features with this name, see ChicagoLake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes....

 covered the area thousands of years ago. Early pioneers gave this hill the name Stony Island
Stony Island Avenue
Stony Island Avenue is a major thoroughfare on South Side of the city of Chicago, designated 1600 East in Chicago's street numbering system. It runs from 56th Street south to the Calumet River. Stony Island Avenue continues sporadically south of the Calumet in the southern suburbs, running...

 because at a distance it looked like an island in set a trackless prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

 sea. (See also the nearby Blue Island).

Calumet Heights was swampy and relatively unoccupied throughout the nineteenth century. A railroad was built in 1881 along the western border of Calumet Heights leading to the development of the neighborhood.

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