Uptown Chicago Commission papers, 1945-1986

Processed with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education, Title II-C Program.

Box 58 is closed to researchers.

Copyright may be retained by the creators of items, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law, unless otherwise noted.

Most of the collection was a gift of the Uptown Chicago Commission in 1986 (accession#: 1987.0312; M1976.0054)

Uptown Chicago Commission records, Chicago History Museum, plus a detailed description, date, and box/folder number of a specific item.

Correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes, financial records, press releases, and topical files of the Uptown Chicago Commission (UCC), a representative community organization, founded in 1955, in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago (Ill.) to serve as a forum for communication and as a catalyst for action for Uptown residents, community organizations, institutions, and businesses. Also present in the collection are reports, proposals, and memoranda from the local Model Cities Program, a cooperative program of federal, state, and local government that assisted neighborhood planning to organize block clubs, foster economic development plans, and promote projects to improve housing, education, transportation, and health and medical facilities in the community.

The Uptown Chicago Commission (UCC), a representative community organization, was founded in Chicago in 1955 to serve as a forum for communication and a catalyst for neighborhood action for Uptown residents, civic and community organizations, institutions and businesses. Formation of the commission began when Robert C. Lewis of the Bank of Chicago convened a meeting to establish an organization and apply for a charter. Robert J. O'Rourke, who later became president of the commission, alderman of the 48th ward and state's attorney, took the responsibility of ensuring a charter was properly drawn up. The UCC thus became a functioning legal entity for the area from Irving Park to Bryn Mawr and the Lake to Clark Street, and its first permanent office was established in February of 1956.

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Joan Arai papers (1987.0312), the Sidney R. Yates papers, the Visual materials of the Uptown Chicago Commission (1987.0312), and the Uptown Chicago Commission photographs of buildings (1991.0311), as well as publications of the Uptown Chicago Commission, cataloged separately.

• Names
  • Arai, Joan F.
  • Uptown Chicago Commission--Archives
  • Chicago Model Cities Program
  • Conservation Community Council (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Edgewater Community Council (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Harry S. Truman College (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Lake View Citizens Council (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Lakeview/Uptown Model Cities Community Council (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Rogers Park Community Council (Chicago, Ill.)
  • United States. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Subject
  • Appalachians (People)--Illinois--Chicago
  • City planning--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Community development, Urban--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Community organization--Illinois--Chicago--20th century.
  • Drug abuse--Treatment--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Halfway houses--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Mental health facilities--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Public health--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Public housing--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
  • Urban renewal--Illinois--Chicago--20th century
• Geographic Coverage
  • Uptown (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Edgewater (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Rogers Park (Chicago, Ill.)
  • Chicago (Ill.)--Politics and government--20th century
  • Chicago (Ill.)--Social conditions--20th century

The collection is arranged in seven series.

Series 1. Financial records, 1955-1985 (box 1-4)

The materials contained in this series (listed in the order they appear) are: accounting ledgers, bank statements and canceled checks, invoices and orders for printings and mailings, financial records regarding the expense of publishing the UCC's newsletter (Uptown Action), Department of Economic Development grant vouchers and related records, financial records for the City of Chicago Department of Housing Common Corridor Study, records showing the support of the McCormick Foundation and Wilding, Inc., correspondence and other materials regarding fundraising, rent records, and other misc. financial records.

Series 2. UCC projects, 1946-1985 (box 4-23)

Materials located in this series fall into two main types: information files and projects. The files are organized by broad subject areas: information on white southerners being placed with information on newcomers to Uptown, information on building code enforcement being placed with information on off-street parking, information on senior citizens and the handicapped filed next to information on nursing homes and half-way houses, etc.

Series 3. Administrative, 1945-1986 (box 23-31)

The third series contains historical information about the commission as well as traditional administrative records. Also included in the series are folders regarding the UCC's various committees, organized alphabetically by committee titles.

Series 4. General correspondence, news releases, and related materials, 1955-1977 (box 32-38)

This series contains materials filed by commission members chronologically in large binders as well as alphabetically in a series of folders.

Series 5. Community organizations, 1948-1986 (box 38-49)

Materials found in this series provide information about the various other community organizations that the UCC interacted with in the course of conducting its work.

Series 6. Model Cities, 1955-1985 (box 49-57)

This series contains work of the UCC with the Chicago branch of the Model Cities Program, a five-year urban renewal scheme in which federal, state and local urban aid programs provided planning funds to blighted inner-city neighborhoods working to improve their physical, social and economic conditions.

Series 7. Other materials, 1955-1977 (box 58-61)

Box 58 contains restricted materials, consisting mainly of employee files and various resumes. Box 59 contains newspaper clipping scrapbooks corresponding to the years covered by the collection as a whole. Boxes 60-61 are oversize. Some oversize materials include maps and plans used in the urban renewal work of UCC.