Bronzeville: The Present

Inside of the red square is the original area of Bronzeville--boxed in by North and State, 3rd and 12th. Walnut Street, which was essentially the heart of the community, runs parallel to State St. just south of Carver Park, the green shape that kind of resembles a shoe. If you casually drive through the neighborhood, one of the first things you notice is that the north-south I-94 freeway literally cuts right into the once-thriving neighborhood. And if you drive down North Street, the you can actually witness the deliberateness of routing a highway through this area. In this particular section of the city, it looks as if it split the area clean in half.

As for the houses, businesses, storefronts and public properties that lay at the west end of Bronzeville, the occupants were in a sense evicted in the late 50s for the highway construction. Subsequently, the buildings were unapologetically razed, even in some unnecessary areas where the road didn't end up touching. Since most people rented their properties instead of owning them, it was hard for them to keep their respective residences.

Today, this area may not retain the same sense of community identity, but that doesn't mean that a future revitalization plan won't attempt to reclaim the former feelings.

Here are two photos of the furthest northeast corner of what was once Bronzeville, at the intersection of North and 3rd (which is now renamed Martin Luther King Jr. St.) looking into the neighborhood. This side of town is dotted with businesses and corporate chains. America's Black Holocaust Museum is a block away, and further down MLK is an array of warehouses.

This is at the northwest corner of the neighborhood, at North and 12th, again peering into the community. At this edge were two opposing gas stations, some empty fields and some homes.

Since I'm trying to both see what Bronzeville looks like today and get a sense of things geographically, I continued on and took shots of the far southwest corner of 3rd and State. This area definitely has more of a downtown vibe to it, and the avenues are populated with bars. This corner felt the least familiar and seemed detached from the rest of the Bronzeville area.

Finally, here is the northwest corner of the former community. Again, this spot was influenced by its proximity to downtown. Also, it was bookended by the freeway which was visible just beyond the building to the right. The main establishments were an Aurora health center and a middle school, though empty lots were down just a little further.

--reported by Lawrence