Growing Under Glass: The Rise and Fall of the Ridgeville Greenhouses

After the Civil War, in sparsely-settled Ridgeville from Irving Park to Evanston, small farmers made a modest living growing vegetables for sale in Chicago markets. In 1880, improved technology and transportation paved the way for agricultural growth to match the city’s population explosion. Enterprising farmers soon built large heated greenhouses all along the Ridge.

The hothouse environment allowed for year-round cultivation of lucrative vegetable crops and even more lucrative flowers. By 1900, more than a hundred greenhouses, enclosing millions of square feet of growing area, dotted the landscape. Chicago became the flower supplier for the entire midwest.

After World War I, Chicago’s almost-insatiable need for housing led to more change. Many of the greenhouses disappeared, replaced by the classic bungalows, two-flats and large courtyard apartment buildings that dominate our community today. A few survived longer, but were eventually torn down.

Dona Vitale, neighborhood historian and long-time RPWRHS board member will tell the story of three families who lived through the rise, and then decline, of greenhouse farming, an era in our history that changed the landscape of West Ridge forever.

This Living History program is free and open to all. Register now to let us know you plan to attend.