State Street (Chicago)
Encyclopedia
State Street is a large south-north street in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and its south suburbs. It begins on the Near North Side
Near North Side, Chicago
The Near North Side is one of 77 well-defined community areas of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is located north and east of the Chicago River, just north of the central business district . To its east is Lake Michigan and its northern boundary is the 19th-century city limit of Chicago,...

 at North Avenue
Illinois Route 64
Illinois Route 64 is an east–west road in north-central Illinois. Its western terminus is at the Iowa state line, connecting with U.S. Route 52 and Iowa Highway 64 via the Savanna-Sabula Bridge at the Mississippi River west of Savanna...

. For much of its course, it lies between Wabash Avenue on the east and Dearborn Street/Lafayette Avenue on the west. In Chicago, it runs through the heart of Downtown Chicago and ends at the southern city limits, intersecting 127th Street along the bank of the Little Calumet River. It resumes north of 137th Street in Riverdale
Riverdale, Illinois
Riverdale is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 15,055 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Riverdale is located at ....

 and runs intermittently through Chicago's south suburbs until terminating at New Monee Road in Crete, Illinois
Crete, Illinois
Crete is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,346 at the 2000 census. Originally named Wood's Corner, it was founded in 1836 by Vermonters Dyantha and Willard Wood.-Geography:Crete is located at ....

. Its intersection with Madison Street
Madison Street (Chicago)
Madison Street is a major east-west street in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to human intervention, the Chicago River emptied into Lake Michigan at the present day intersection of Madison Street and Michigan Avenue....

 (41.88206°N 87.6278°W) marks the base point for Chicago's address system
Streets and highways of Chicago
Roads and freeways in Chicago summarizes the main thoroughfares and the numbering system used in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.-Street layout:...

.

History

The northern portion of the Vincennes Trace or Vincennes Trail, an Indian trail which ran some 250 miles to Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...

, was called Hubbard's Trace or Hubbard's Trail since it connected Chicago with Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard was an American fur trader, insurance underwriter and land speculator. Hubbard first arrived in Chicago on October 1, 1818 as a voyageur...

's more southerly trading outposts. It took on the name State Road after some state-funded improvements. Vincennes Avenue, one of Chicago's rare diagonal streets, is a vestige of the Vincennes Trace, and further south the trail eventually became Illinois Route 1
Illinois Route 1
Illinois Route 1 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. Running parallel to the Indiana border, it is also the longest state road, starting on the south side of Chicago as Halsted Street at the intersection with 95th Street, south to a free ferry crossing to Kentucky at Cave-In-Rock on...

. In its early days, State Road was unpaved and known for having mud so deep it could allegedly suck down a horse and buggy. In the late 1860s, Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer
Potter Palmer was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago.-Retailing career:...

 embarked on efforts to raise the profile and prestige of State Street. He enticed Marshall Field
Marshall Field
Marshall Field was founder of Marshall Field and Company, the Chicago-based department stores.-Life and career:...

 and Levi Leiter
Levi Leiter
Levi Ziegler Leiter was a Chicago businessman. He co-founded what became the Marshall Field & Company retail empire.-Biography:...

 to move their prosperous and growing department store, Field, Leiter & Co., to the corner of State and Washington Streets in 1868, and he built his own Palmer House
Palmer House
The Palmer House Hilton is a famous and historic hotel in downtown Chicago.-History:There have been three Palmer House Hotels at the corner of State and Monroe Streets in Chicago....

 hotel nearby in 1870. The historic Chicago Theatre
Chicago Theatre
The Chicago Theatre, originally known as the Balaban and Katz Chicago Theatre, is a landmark theater located on North State Street in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1921, the Chicago Theatre was the flagship for the Balaban and Katz group of theaters run by A. J. Balaban, his brother...

 is also located on State Street. It was lit by Commercial Light Company
Commercial Light Company
Commercial Light Company is an Illinois electrical contractor and engineering company, which has performed the electrical work for many Chicago buildings...

 in 1958, making it – according to the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

– the brightest thoroughfare in the world.

State Street shopping

State Street became a shopping destination during the 1900s and is referred to in the song "Chicago
Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)
"Chicago" is a popular song. It was written by Fred Fisher and was published in 1922. The song has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known version is by Frank Sinatra....

," sung by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 where Frank refers it to "State Street, that great street." In 1979, Mayor Jane Byrne
Jane Byrne
Jane Margaret Byrne was the first and to date only female Mayor of Chicago. She served from April 16, 1979 to April 29, 1983. Chicago is the largest city in the United States to have had a female mayor as of 2011.-Early political career:...

 converted the downtown portion into a pedestrian mall
Pedestrian mall
Pedestrian malls in the United States are also known as pedestrian streets and are the most common form of pedestrian zone in large cities in the United States. It is a street lined with storefronts and closed off to most automobile traffic...

 with only bus traffic allowed. Mayor Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...

 oversaw the State Street Revitalization Project and on November 15, 1996, the street was reopened to traffic.

During the second half 20th century, State Street was eclipsed by Michigan Avenue's
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...

 Magnificent Mile
Magnificent Mile
The Magnificent Mile, sometimes referred to as The Mag Mile, is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, that runs along a portion of Michigan Avenue extending from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side community area. The district is located adjacent to downtown; it is also one block...

 as a shopping district. Various projects to restore State Street's glory have been met with some success, and the State Street corridor is gaining residential as well as more traditional commercial development. New York & Company
New York & Company
New York & Company, Inc. is a nationwide specialty retailer of women's fashion and accessories.Lerner Shops was founded in 1918 by Samuel A. Lerner and Harold M Lane in NYC. Also born to Samuel in 1918 was Alan Jay Lerner. New York & Company, Inc., its current name under new ownership, is an...

, Old Navy
Old Navy
Old Navy is an American clothing brand as well as a chain of stores owned by Gap, Inc., with corporate operations in San Francisco and San Bruno, California. It is one of the first major corporations to house headquarters in the new Mission Bay district of San Francisco.Gap, Inc. was run by...

, Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters
Urban Outfitters, Inc. is a publicly traded American company that owns and operates five retail brands: Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain, and BHLDN....

, Borders Books, and The Children's Place
The Children's Place
The Children’s Place is an American specialty retailer of children’s apparel and accessories founded in 1969. They became publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange in 1997 under the ticker symbol PLCE...

 have recently opened up flagships on State Street. Today, the only two main department store chains that remain are Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...

 (the former Marshall Field's
Marshall Field's
Marshall Field & Company was a department store in Chicago, Illinois that grew to become a major chain before being acquired by Macy's Inc...

 flagship store) and Sears on State. The department store chain Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott
Carson Pirie Scott & Co., known informally as Carson's, is an upscale chain of department stores that have been in business for over 150 years. Their product price points are targeted to the moderate-to-upscale shopper...

 closed their flagship store on State Street on February 21, 2007 after over 100 years of business in that location. The Block 37 opened in 2009, bringing with it a large group of upscale retailers to State Street, including Anthropologie
Anthropologie
Anthropologie is a chain of retail stores that sells women's apparel and accessories, home furnishings, imitation found objects and an array of gifts and decorative items.Headquartered in Philadelphia, the company is owned by Urban Outfitters, Inc...

, Puma AG
PUMA AG
Puma SE, officially branded as PUMA, is a major German multinational company that produces high-end athletic shoes, lifestyle footwear and other sportswear. Formed in 1924 as Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik by Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, relationships between the two brothers deteriorated until the two...

, and Zara
Zara (clothing)
Zara is a Spanish clothing and accessories retailer based in Arteixo, Galicia, and founded in 1975 by Amancio Ortega and Rosalía Mera. It is the flagship chain store of the Inditex group; the fashion group also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Oysho, Uterqüe, Stradivarius and...

.

Transport

The Red Line
Red Line (Chicago Transit Authority)
The northern terminus of the Red Line is Howard Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago , on the City Limits farthest north. The Red Line extends southeasterly on an elevated embankment structure about a half-mile west of the lakefront to Touhy Avenue then turns south along Glenwood...

 subway of the Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....

 runs under State Street in the downtown loop area on its path from the Howard Street station to the 95th/Dan Ryan station, and back. Additionally, the section south from the Chicago Skyway
Chicago Skyway
The Chicago Skyway, also known as Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge System, is a toll road in Chicago, Illinois, United States, carrying Interstate 90 from the Indiana Toll Road to the Dan Ryan Expressway on Chicago's South Side leading into the Chicago Loop....

 to the 95th/Dan Ryan Terminal, runs 1/2 block west of State within the Dan Ryan
Dan Ryan Expressway
The Dan Ryan is an expressway in the city of Chicago that runs from the Circle Interchange with I-290 near downtown Chicago through the South Side of the city. It is designated as both Interstate 94 and Interstate 90 south to 66th Street, a distance of...

's median. The Red Line provides service, north side to south side via state street subway 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Landmarks

State Street is known for many landmarks.
  • Chicago Archbishop's Mansion
  • The Original Playboy Mansion
  • Fisher Studio Houses
    Fisher Studio Houses
    The Fisher Studio Houses is a Art Moderne style house in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1936 by Andrew Rebori and Edgar Miller for Frank Fisher, Jr. It was designated a Chicago Landmark on July 31, 1996.-References:...

  • Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago
    Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago
    Holy Name Cathedral, formally the Cathedral of the Holy Name, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States. It is also the parish church of the Archbishop of Chicago...

  • Tree Studio Building and Annexes
    Tree Studio Building and Annexes
    The Tree Studio Building and Annexes was an artist colony established in Chicago, Illinois in 1894 by Judge Lambert Tree and his wife, Anne Tree....

  • Marina City
    Marina City
    Marina City is a mixed-use residential/commercial building complex occupying an entire city block on State Street in Chicago, Illinois. It lies on the north bank of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, directly across from the Loop district...

  • ABC 7
    WLS-TV
    WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...

     News Studio
  • Page Brothers Building
    Page Brothers Building
    The Page Brothers Building, 177-91 North State Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States, features the city's last remaining cast iron front on the north facade facing Lake Street...

  • Chicago Theater
  • Marshall Field and Company Building
    Marshall Field and Company Building
    Marshall Field and Company Building or Macy's at State Street is the former flagship location of the former Marshall Field's department store and the current location of the Chicago flagship of Macy's...

  • Block 37
    108 North State Street
    108 North State Street is a site currently under development as an urban center located in the Loop community area of downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. The 3 building structure is being developed by Joseph Freed and Associates LLC, as a project inherited from the Mills Corporation. Retail...

  • Reliance Building
    Reliance Building
    The Reliance Building is a skyscraper located at 32 North State Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. The first floor and basement were designed by John Root of the Burnham and Root architectural firm in 1890, with the rest of the building completed by Charles B. Atwood in 1895...

  • Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building
    Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building
    The Sullivan Center, formerly known as the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building or Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store, is a commercial building at 1 South State Street at the corner of East Madison Street in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Louis Sullivan for the retail firm...

  • A. M. Rothschild & Company Store (DePaul Center)
  • Harold Washington Library
    Harold Washington Library
    The Harold Washington Library Center is the central library for the Chicago Public Library System. It is named for former Mayor Harold Washington. It is located just south of the Loop 'L', at 400 S. State Street in Chicago. It is a full service library and ADA compliant. As with all libraries in...

  • Leiter II Building
  • University Center
  • Raymond Hilliard Homes
  • Harold L. Ickes Homes
  • Dearborn Homes
  • Illinois Institute of Technology
    Illinois Institute of Technology
    Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly called Illinois Tech or IIT, is a private Ph.D.-granting university located in Chicago, Illinois, with programs in engineering, science, psychology, architecture, business, communications, industrial technology, information technology, design, and law...

  • McCormick Tribune Campus Center
    McCormick Tribune Campus Center
    The McCormick Tribune Campus Center is a building on the main campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.-Description:...

  • S.R. Crown Hall
    S.R. Crown Hall
    S. R. Crown Hall, designed by the German-born Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois.-History:...

  • State Street Village
    State Street Village
    State Street Village is the newest residence hall for the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois. Designed by Helmut Jahn of Murphy-Jahn Associates, the dormitory is IIT's newest, completed in 2003....

  • Chicago Bee Building
    Chicago Bee Building
    The Chicago Bee was founded by the African American entrepreneur Anthony Overton in 1926 in what was one of Chicago's African American newspaper buildings. This building was Overton's affirmation of his confidence in the viability of the State Street Commercial district...

  • Overton Hygienic Building
    Overton Hygienic Building
    The Overton Hygienic Building is a Chicago Landmark and part of the Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District in the Douglas community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is located at 3619-3627 State Street....

  • Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ Building

Memorial

The bridge where State Street crosses the Chicago River
Chicago River
The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of the same name, including its center . Though not especially long, the river is notable for being the reason why Chicago became an important location, as the link between the Great Lakes and...

 is named the Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge in honor of the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 defenders of Bataan
Battle of Bataan
The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast...

 and Corregidor
Battle of Corregidor
The Battle for Corregidor was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Philippines. The fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942 ended all organized opposition by the U.S...

 including those in the Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.The march was characterized by...

.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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