Auburn Gresham

Auburn Gresham, often referred to simply as “Gresham,” is located between the Dan Ryan Expressway and the Dan Ryan Woods on Chicago’s South Side. This neighborhood was originally part of an independent township called Lake annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889. Auburn Gresham grew considerably in the years following the 1893 World’s Fair, welcoming predominantly European workers attracted by the area’s accessibility to transit lines. St. Sabina Church, with intricate tracery in its Gothic windows, was completed in 1933 as Auburn Gresham’s largely Catholic population nearly tripled between World War I and the Great Depression. The neighborhood kept growing throughout the 1960s as it shifted from majority white to African American, as it remains today. New investment in the neighborhood has centered on 79th Street, with the recent opening of the Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub, planned affordable housing projects and the forthcoming Auburn Park Metra Station.