Armour Square is bounded by 18th Street to the north, Pershing Road to the south, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west and the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east.
Armour Square has historically been a predominantly white, working-class neighborhood with a particularly significant population of both Italian-Americans and Croatian-Americans.[3] With its location being immediately south of Chinatown, today the neighborhood also has a large Asian population as well.[4] A 2014 survey found that 46.6% of the neighborhood speaks Chinese at home.[5] The 3406 census tract in the south of Armour Square is 99% black or African American.[6]
Historical images of Armour Square can be found in Explore Chicago Collections,[7] a digital repository made available by Chicago Collections archives, libraries and other cultural institutions in the city.[8]
In 1900, Charles Comiskey moved his St. Paul Saints to Chicago, where they became the team now known as the Chicago White Sox. They began play at the South Side Park on 39th Street in Armour Square, and have remained in the neighborhood ever since. No other major professional sports franchise has played in the same neighborhood longer than the White Sox.[11] In 1910, Comiskey Park opened just 4 blocks north of South Side Park on a site that was formerly a junkyard.[12] The Park remained the home of the Sox until 1990, when it was the oldest park in Major League Baseball.[13] The new Comiskey Park, currently known as Guaranteed Rate Field, opened in 1991 across 35th Street from the old ballpark.[14] Comiskey Park was then demolished in 1991 and converted into a parking lot. A plaque embedded in the asphalt marks the spot where home plate was on the original field.[15]
Chicago's Chinatown is located in the Armour Square community area centered on and around Cermak and Wentworth Avenues, and is an example of an American Chinatown, or ethnic-Chinese neighborhood.
The Chinatown in the Armour Square community area is not to be confused with the West Argyle Street Historic District, sometimes called "New Chinatown", which is on the North Side of Chicago in and around Argyle Street and hosts Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and other Southeast Asian homes and businesses.
Chicago Public Schools serves residents of the community area;[18]K-8 schools serving Armour Square include Haines and James Ward.[19] Ward Elementary opened as Garibaldi Street Primary School in 1874, and became the Ward School in 1875, before receiving its current name in 1908.[20] Residents are zoned to Phillips Academy High School.[21]
