Blast From The Past

A reader pointed us to a 1962 article about the Town Hall police station (then the 19th District) and what sort of community the coppers faced in 1962.  Some excerpts:

• "Do you picture it as a rough neighborhood that keeps the men up there jumping all the time? Or maybe you know it as that district where "a lot of 'hillbillies' are running down the area," or a place with a hot honky-tonk strip on Wilson Ave.  Or do you think of the district as made up of a weird mixture of different people?"
• "There are no known gangs of juve­nile delinquents, made up of members of this group, operating in the district."
• "And the honky-tonk strip on Wilson? Is that what you think of when you think of Town Hall? Walk down Wilson Ave. to Broadway today, and take another look. This may have been a trouble section for years in the past; but today, close tavern surveillance, constant patrol, and close police-community cooperation have brought about a drastic change. The Wilson Ave.-Broadway area today is conspicuous by the absence of drunks, pan­handlers and streetwalkers. Since 1959, there have been requests for 188 revoca­tions of liquor licenses for various viola­tions. The Uptown Chamber of Commerce and the Uptown Chicago Commission have, on many occasions, commended Commander Fahey and the personnel of the Town Hall district for their diligence in maintaining order here and helping to make it a good commercial section once more."
• "But if you should count on driving to work - think twice. Parking, unfortu­nately, remains a rare commodity at Town Hall, and there doesn't seem to be much immediate relief in sight."

All this and more can be found at the ChicagoCop site.