Ford City Mall

The Dodge Chicago Aircraft Engine Plant was a World War II defense plant that built the majority of the B-29 bomber aircraft engines used in World War II. The plant design was initiated by automotive plant designer Albert Kahn and his company. The plant is seen as an influential design landmark of American industrial manufacturing facilities. The main building of the Dodge Chicago plant covered eighty-two acres and occupied over 30 city blocks, and at the time was the largest building in the world. Although Kahn died prior to the completion of the project, he was influential in the innovative design that efficiently used precious wartime materials used in its construction. Kahn had extensive tunnels dug to facilitate foot and supply traffic. These tunnels span the width and breadth of the plant in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wooden block floors were placed for ergonomic reasons, which was typical for industrial plants of the day. These floors were cemented over when the facility was converted into Ford City Mall, and only recently had to be removed from TRI (candy maker Tootsie Roll Industries) as posing a potential health hazard. The Belt Line Railroad shunted lines into the plant, and to this day evidence of the rails remain. Construction of the plant was started in 1942, and it was in full operation by early 1944. The B-29 Superfortress bomber was used in the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. It was the largest American aircraft to see service in World War II. Each B-29 Superfortress used four of the massive Wright R-3350 - Cyclone 18-cylinder 2,200 horsepower (1,600 kW) engines built at the Dodge Chicago Plant. There were nearly 4000 of these aircraft produced when the B-29 was retired from service in the 1960s. Many firsts in industry took place there. Chemist Lencke produced Z-max lubricant. 75% of the employees were women, 1 to 2 percent of whom were African Americans. The Dodge Chicago plant marked an all-time high water mark of cooperation and success between the efforts of the American government, industry, and labor. It also set an early standard for providing an environment of racial and ethnic cooperation and tolerance. After the war, a lease for the plant was awarded to the Tucker Car Corporation, and it later used by several automobile manufacturers including Ford Motor Company. Tootsie Roll Industries moved into a vacated portion of the plant in 1967. To this day, TRI uses these tunnels for archives and storage as well as locker rooms, as Ford City uses them for a strip of boutiques. The plant was constructed just east of South Cicero Avenue and was a half-mile long from 72nd Street to 76th Street, and nearly a half-mile wide, reaching South Kostner Avenue in Chicago's West Lawn community. To this day, the northern two-thirds of its buildings still house the Tootsie Roll factory, and a section that was demolished for a parking lot which separates Tootsie Roll from the Ford City Mall.

Richard J. Daley College is a public, two-year community college in Chicago, one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago. The college was founded as William J. Bogan Junior College in 1960 and utilized classrooms in the evenings provided by William J. Bogan High School in the Ashburn neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 1970, the college moved to an interim campus, made of prefab buildings, in the West Lawn neighborhood at 7500 S. Pulaski Road, until the present campus was completed in 1981. In 1976, a week after the death of Richard J. Daley, the college was renamed in honor of the late mayor.

William J. Bogan Computer Technical High School (also known simply as Bogan High School) is a public 4–year high school located in the Ashburn neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Operated by Chicago Public Schools district, Bogan opened in 1959. The school is named for Chicago Public Schools Superintendent William J. Bogan. In 1999, the school began offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program; and becoming an International Baccalaureate World School in 2004.

Fox College is a Private for-profit college with its main campus in Tinley Park, Illinois. It originally was founded in 1932, and most students come from the Chicago area. Fox College awards associate degrees.

The Belt Railway Company of Chicago (reporting mark BRC), headquartered in Bedford Park, Illinois, is the largest switching terminal railroad in the United States. It is co-owned by six Class I railroads — BNSF, Canadian National, CPKC (the BRC's north–south main line's northern terminus is, like the Indiana Harbor Belt, the Milwaukee District West Line in Chicago's Cragin neighborhood), CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific — each of which uses the switching and interchange facilities of the BRC. Owner lines and other railroads bring their trains to the Belt Railway to be separated, classified, and re-blocked into new trains for departure. The BRC also provides rail terminal services to approximately 100 local manufacturing industries. The company employs about 440 people, including its own police force.

Queen of Peace High School was a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory high school for girls in Burbank, Illinois, United States. It was established in 1962 by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters and was located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. It closed on June 30, 2017, due to an extended enrollment decline and financial shortfalls.

West Lawn, one of Chicago's 77 official community areas, is located on the southwest side of the city. It is considered to be a "melting pot" of sorts, due to its constant change of races moving in and out of the area, as well as the diversity that exists there. It has a small town atmosphere in the big city. West Lawn is home to many Polish-Americans, Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and other people of Latin American and Eastern European origin.

United Airlines Flight 553 was a scheduled flight from Washington National Airport to Omaha, Nebraska, via Chicago Midway International Airport. On December 8, 1972, the Boeing 737-222 serving the flight, City of Lincoln, registration N9031U,: 2  crashed during an aborted landing and go around while approaching Midway Airport.: 1 The plane crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying five houses; there was an intense ground fire. 43 of the 61 aboard the aircraft and two on the ground were killed. Among the passengers killed were Illinois congressman George W. Collins, CBS News correspondent Michele Clark and Dorothy Hunt, the wife of Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt. This crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 737, which had entered airline service nearly five years earlier in February 1968.

St. Laurence High School is a co-educational, STEM-based high school founded in 1961. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, the school is conducted by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and is named for the Irish Saint Laurence O'Toole. The school is located in the southwest Chicago suburb of Burbank, Illinois, adjacent to the property of the former Queen of Peace High School, a private, all-female Catholic high school that closed in 2017. St. Laurence became co-ed beginning with the 2017-18 school year after Queen of Peace closed.

The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture (Lithuanian: Balzeko lietuvių kultūros muziejus) is located at 6500 S. Pulaski Rd. in Chicago's West Lawn neighborhood, not far from Chicago Midway International Airport. Founded in 1966, the Balzekas Museum is dedicated to the preservation and perpetuation of Lithuanian culture and is the largest museum in the United States devoted to the subjects of Lithuania, the Lithuanian language, history, culture and politics, and to the Lithuanian-American experience. The museum hosts events, programs, and workshops, such as traditional Lithuanian Užgavėnės (Mardi-Gras) mask making, vėlykaičiai or margučiai Easter egg decorating, and straw Christmas ornament making. The museum is a popular destination for tourists and schools, seeking to learn about Lithuanian history, culture, and immigration. Promoting the study and appreciation of America's diverse ethnic cultural heritage and seeking to foster greater understanding among all people, the museum works cooperatively with numerous ethnic groups; cultural, arts and educational organizations; museums; fraternal orders; religious entities; and governmental institutions. The Balzekas Museum is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. It was founded by Lithuanian-American businessman Stanley Balzekas, Jr., who continues to serve as the president of the museum. Chicago's Lithuanian community has more Lithuanians and people of Lithuanian descent than anywhere in the world outside of Lithuania itself. The museum's bulletin, called the Lithuanian Museum Review, is published quarterly.

Hometown is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,343 at the 2020 census.

Ashburn, one of Chicago's 77 community areas, is located on the south side of the city. Greater Ashburn covers nearly five square miles. The approximate boundaries of Ashburn are 72nd Street (north), Western Avenue (east), 87th Street (south) and Cicero Avenue (west).