Chinatown, Chicago

The Pui Tak Center (Chinese: 培德中心; pinyin: Péidé Zhōngxīn; Jyutping: pui4 dak1 zung1 sam1; Cantonese Yale: Pùihdāk Jūngsām; lit. 'cultivating virtue center'), formerly known as the On Leong Merchants Association Building, is a building located in Chicago's Chinatown. Designed by architects Christian S. Michaelsen and Sigurd A. Rognstad, the building was built for the On Leong Merchants Association and opened in 1928. The Association used it as an immigrant assistance center, and the building was informally referred to as Chinatown's "city hall". In 1988, the FBI and Chicago Police raided the building as part of a racketeering investigation. The US federal government seized the building that same year. The building was purchased by the Chinese Christian Union Church (CCUC) for $1.4 million and renamed the Pui Tak Center in 1993. That same year, the On Leong Merchants Association Building was designated a Chicago landmark by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. The CCUC spent $1 million raised from community donations to renovate and update the building's neglected interior. The Pui Tak Center now hosts various religious, community, and educational programs, such as English-as-a-Second-Language courses (ESL). In 2007, the Pui Tak Center won a $100,000 grant from the Partners in Preservation, a program sponsored by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In preparation for the restoration work, the structural and architectural engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates completed an evaluation of the building's eastern and southern facades, focusing on its terra cotta portions. Restoration work began in spring 2009 and is scheduled for completion in early 2010. Fully restoring the building's exterior terra cotta pieces and clay roof tiles is the first step in a long-range $2 million repair plan.

Cermak–Chinatown is an 'L' station on the CTA's Red Line. The station is located in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood and contains many elements of Chinese culture in its architecture. The resort has two tile murals with "Welcome to Chinatown" also written in Chinese. Passengers using the stairs or escalator are welcomed by a couple of lion statues, called "foo dogs," meant to protect against evil spirits at the entrance. The bins on the platform are painted in red and green, the Chinese color for prosperity and longevity, with Welcome written in Chinese on the next one. Like the other eight stations of the Dan Ryan Branch, Cermak–Chinatown was built by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, looking identical to 95th/Dan Ryan. Customers outside the station can also see Chinese character masks of Chinese opera and theater productions on the walls. Cermak–Chinatown is open 24/7 as part of the service on the Red Line. In 2014, an annual total of 1,567,588 passengers boarded this station.

Chinatown Square (traditional Chinese: 華埠廣場; simplified Chinese: 华埠广场; pinyin: Huàbùguǎngchǎng) is a two-story outdoor mall located in Chinatown, Chicago, a mile (1.6 km) from the center of Chicago just north of the main Wentworth Avenue District (the main Chinatown Street). Chinatown Square, on 45 acres (180,000 m2) of reclaimed land from a former railroad yard, houses mostly restaurants, retail space, boutiques, banks, clinics, beauty shops, and a handful of offices. This outdoor mall is the largest Chinese mall in the US east of San Francisco and west of New York City. In the middle of the mall, there are statues of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac from Xiamen, China. Other landmarks in the mall include twin pagodas. The mall opened in 1993 as a result of the efforts of Chinese activists who wanted more land from the city of Chicago. In the 1960s, Chinatown's land was reduced due to the construction of the Dan Ryan Expressway (I-90/I-94) and the Stevenson Expressway (I-55). This created a problem of overcrowding and reduced the possibility of further expansion. On the present location of Chinatown Square, there was a large railroad yard in the 1980s. The conversion of this rail yard led to the creation of Chinatown Square, allowing for much needed commercial and residential expansion. New parks were created at the same time along the Chicago River. Chinatown Square was developed by the Chinese American Development Corporation.

The Chinese American Museum of Chicago (CAMOC) seeks to advance the appreciation of Chinese American culture through exhibitions, education, and research and to preserve the past, present, and future of Chinese Americans primarily in the American Midwest. The museum opened in 2005 in Chicago's Chinatown neighborhood. Although it suffered a damaging fire in 2008, it reopened its renovated quarters, the Raymond B. & Jean T. Lee Center, in 2010. CAMOC is governed by the Board of Directors of the Chinatown Museum Foundation (CMF), a 501(C)(3) non-profit corporation located in Chicago, Illinois.

St. Therese Chinese Catholic School is a private, Roman Catholic PK - 8 school located in the Chinatown neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The school was named after St. Therese, the patroness saint of missions. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools. St. Therese was also the first Chinese Catholic school in the Midwest.

South Chicago Township was a township in Cook County, Illinois that was part of the City of Chicago. It comprised that part of pre-1889 Chicago south and east of the Chicago River. When Lake and Hyde Park townships to its south were annexed to Chicago they were maintained as townships and not incorporated into South Chicago Township, which was bound to the south by modern-day Pershing Road. Chicago residents voted to eliminate the townships in the city in 1902, including South Chicago Township; nevertheless, they remain in use for the purposes of property assessment.

23rd Street Grounds, also known as State Street Grounds and 23rd Street Park, and sometimes spelled out as Twenty-third Street Grounds, was a ballpark in Chicago, in what is now the Chinatown district. In this ballpark, the Chicago White Stockings played baseball from 1874 to 1877, the first two years in the National Association and the latter two in the National League. The 1871 Great Chicago Fire had put the original White Stockings club out of business, and its best players scattered to other National Association clubs. For 1872, the Chicago Base Ball Association was formed, with the intention of eventually fielding a new Chicago ball club, which it finally did in 1874. Until then, they staged some games figuring to get good attendance and some revenue. In early May, the organization built a new grounds "on 23rd Street near State Street", with the inaugural game coming on May 29, Baltimore defeating Cleveland 5–2. The land was owned by Charles Follansbee.23rd Street hosted a total of eight National Association games during 1872–1873, along with other contests. The Cleveland and Troy clubs played two and four home games there, respectively, in 1872, when they were struggling economically (both eventually went out of business). The Boston Red Stockings played one in August of 1873 when they were flourishing. Their opponent was the Philadelphia club, and the two clubs played there again a few days later, swapping "home" and "visitor" roles.

Hilliard Towers Apartments, formerly known as the Raymond Hilliard Homes CHA housing project, is a residential high-rise development in the near South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Bertrand Goldberg and is bounded by Clark Street, State Street, Cullerton Street, and Cermak Road. In 1999, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Raymond M. Hilliard Center Historic District. The development was named for Raymond Marcellus Hilliard, who was the director of the Cook County Department of Welfare from 1954 until his death in 1966.

The Everleigh Club was a high-class brothel which operated in Chicago, Illinois from February 1900 until October 1911. It was owned and operated by Ada and Minna Everleigh.

Harold L. Ickes Homes was a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was bordered between Cermak Road to the north, 24th Place to the south, State Street to the east, and Federal Street to the west, making it part of the State Street Corridor that included other CHA properties: Robert Taylor Homes, Dearborn Homes, Stateway Gardens and Hilliard Homes.

The Levee District was the red-light district of Chicago from the 1880s until 1912, when police raids shut it down. The district, like many frontier town red-light districts, got its name from its proximity to wharves in the city. The Levee district encompassed four blocks in Chicago's South Loop area, between 18th and 22nd streets. It was home to many brothels, saloons, dance halls, and the famed Everleigh Club. Prostitution boomed in the Levee District, and it was not until the Chicago Vice Commission submitted a report on the city's vice districts that it was shut down.

The Alton Junction, more commonly known as the 21st Street Crossing, is a historically significant rail location in Chicago, Illinois. The junction can be found just east of Canal Street and north of Cermak Road near Chicago's Chinatown. It is located just south of a massive vertical lift bridge that spans the South Branch of the Chicago River and "guards" the entrance to Chicago's Union Station. While a significant amount of rail traffic still traverses this interlock every day, it has been greatly reduced from using 26 diamonds to control over 150 trains using the crossing. The north-south line is the former Pennsylvania Railroad (Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago) mainline, which is now owned and operated by Amtrak as the southern gateway to the Union Station complex. The Norfolk Southern's Chicago Line and the former BNSF Southern Transcon terminate at the southern entrance to the interlocking, but both NS and Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains have trackage rights over the bridge to access the BNSF east-west main line. All of Amtrak's East Coast bound and Michigan trains use this track. The east-west line now belongs to the Canadian National Railway. It at one time was owned by Illinois Central and was the carrier's route out of its Central Station to Iowa. Alton Junction was controlled by a manned interlocking tower until 2005 when Amtrak transferred control to its new Chicago Terminal control center. Known as 21st Street tower, its operators handled movements through the busy plant using a US&S Model 14 electro-pneumatic interlocking machine. In its final years 21st St took remote control of the closed NYC Clark St tower on the joint NYC/CRI&P tracks at 16th St