Looking back at Chicago's Uptown in the mid-1970's 

I was there, in the 1970's and 80's. I remember the old Uptown, the Burger King on Wilson and Sheridan, and the drug store kitty-corner from it. The Sheridan Plaza where I lived up on the 12th floor! The Salvation Army on Sunnyside and Boradway now replaced by a Target Store and going to Stewart School...I remember summers at Montrose and Foster Beach, Crooked Hill and movies at the Riviera and at the Uptown. Eating at the Pancake House and shopping at Goldblatts! A slice of pizza from Ginos on Broadway and buying records at Topper records next door to it... My neighborhood! MY UPTOWN, It may be physically gone now, but not in my heart. i can close my eyes and walk those streets in my memory! I miss it all these years later!

I grew up there from 90-98. I will never forget it. Pivotal memories / times in my life. Uptown forever. Winona & Broadway

I'm from Australia...but adore Chicago, it's culture and history; thanks for the vid'. It's my favorite city in the world ; I've visited Chicago five times.

WOW!!! My Grand-parents lived here in Uptown in the mid-late 1920's (Lawrence Hotel). Back then, my Grandmother used to tell me that it used to be so much fun, because most of the people living at the Hotel (plus other apt. bldgs) were young, and they used to go out on weekend nights to the various clubs and dance halls and get all dressed-up and go dancing !! The other day I saw a picture of them when they were married in 1926, and MAN! Were they a GORGEOUS COUPLE !! Absolutely beautiful !! At the Hotel that they lived at, music was playing in various rooms, and everyone used to dance and have the greatest time. "At that time, you didn't sleep during the weekends because there was so much partying going on" (Grandma). She said that there were fire escape stairs on the outside of the bldg, and so many people snuck in friends / lovers. In 1928 my Grandfather got a great position downtown Chicago, and they moved to East Rogers Park in 1929, on Chase St, in a totally modern apt. bldng with not only an elevator, but it had a few garage spaces !! She used to say that the 1920's really WERE the funnest time to live. We took her over 45 years ago (Grandfather passed away in the early 1960's), to the Lawrence Hotel, where she used to live. Cried like a baby, thinking of all the good times they used to have, and then to see how much deterioration was in the Uptown area. She told us back then that she was a "flapper", and Grandpa was a "shiek"!! BTW: I am of British / Italian descent !!

Born on Kenmore St, lived all over Uptown, have many great and sad memories living there

Wow that's the uptown I remember just amazing like a trip back into time tanks for sharing.

Despite the high rent, rising food prices, violence and poverty, I've been a Chicagoan for 41yrs, having visited places such as Mississippi, Wisconsin, Philadelphia, and Louisiana, I always come back home to Illinois and I love My city, I really do 🫡🫡🫡❤ the food, architecture, monuments, history, landscapes, sports teams, music, AND people, there's no place like SWEET HOME CHICAGO !

My neighborhood as a kid. 1954-71. Gunnison/Sheridan.

GREAT video! I hope it stays up for the rest of time.

Incredible pictures.

I arrived in Uptown in the mid 90s. By that time there were no abandoned buildings except the old Buena Memorial Presbyterian Church at the Montrose/Broadway/Sheridan intersection. My apartment building was in the Sheridan Park section of Uptown on Beacon st @ Leland. The neighborhood was far different from anyplace I've lived before or after. Uptown was fun by day but you better be indoors after 9 PM. One thing I miss are all of the privately owned eating places. Food is everywhere you look. Who can overlook the Golden House pancake house on Broadway next to the Riviera? They served mostly breakfast food and you didn't have to break your wallet to eat well. Even though I'm back in Columbus, I miss uptown and think of it fondly.

Thats the thing bout Chicago. Every neighborhood has its own flavor. I grew up in ravenswood a mile away. I was blessed to be born in this city. It builds character and it lets you see the big picture in everything in life.

Awesome photos.We're can I see more?I grew up in Logan sq.Chicago back then was so diverse and unique.Everyone would hangout outside.There was no video games & a lot of the apartments didn't have a.c.So the streets were packed with people.It was less dangerous & the gangs usually fought with fist and rarely guns.It was so much fun.We played football on the side streets and we played softball the big softballs(can't think of there size bit you didn't need gloves.We also played a game called fast- pitch were you threw a rubber ball at a wall(the wall had a square and X in the middle for the strike zone.I miss those days when your mother would let you go out by urself and on weekdays our curfew was 6 or 7pm.On the weekends mother's would let us stay out until 9pm.So much freedom.We got so much exercise.We also would walk to school in the morning and when we got out of school.Most of us were in shape from playing outside.How things have changed.I would never let my daughter walk to school alone or even play outside unless she was with an adult.The good old days.Thank you so much for memory lane.You should make a coffee book or book with all the activities we did and write about what was going on in the photo's.If you do have a book let me know please.Thanks for bringing the 1970's back to life.If you don't have a book please start.

The guy with the gun to his head is Billy Slavin RIP Billy. The white guy with the switchblade is Robert Walker. He's dead too. I grew up with these guys on the corner of Winthrop and Ainslie. That's where the no pity mural was.

Beautiful. This summer (2014) I photographed many of the residents in Uptown. However, I take candid portraits and do not talk to or otherwise engage my subjects. I should have a video on RU-vid by the end of December. Love the above film.

Uptown was my stomping ground in the 70s & 80s. However, strangely enough some of footage in this video strongly reminds me of life in certain areas of the Bronx in New York back in the day.

great pics

Wow! I used to live there when I was a kid in 70’s. Any more photos??? Any photos of Palmer Park area??

Thank you so much for sharing this I'm from Mississippi born and raised I've always wanted to visit this state along with others I love to look back into the past as if sometimes I wish I was there to see what it was like I'm going true enough but life isn't the same like it used to be family gathering friends but just to see these photos make my heart warm and now I can daydream more thank you good man

This is the beauty of photography in "old" Chicago and how things were. Unfortunately things have changed, some for the best and some for the worst.

These photos are amazing!

I lived in Uptown for years when I first moved to chicago.

I lived in uptown from 1960 to 1978

Gigios pizza

Awesome

Good evening, I'm working on a documentary about meeting my father and his family for the first time, and they happen to be from Chicago. Would it be ok for me to use pieces of this video and audio, as long as I give you guys credit?

My Grandmother lived in the Chelsea Hotel for many years. Uptown is just a yuppie catch basin now.

The Bronx kinda

Let’s see my father grew up on Addison St but spent his youth in and around Uptown. He used to go to the Golden Goose in the basement of the Darlington Hotel and the other watering holes around the area. He was always a fighter. In fact my grandparents met each other at the Aragon Ball Room in the 1920s. They lived at Hazel and Sunnyside after WW2. I worked in Uptown for over 20 yrs form the early 1990s till about 2013. I love the photography here. I remember some of the locations/buildings were still around when I started working there. Who can forget the Wooden Nickel on Wilson, the Time Out Lounge on Leland and Racine, Sharons Hillbilly Heaven on Lawrence. The thing that changed Uptown was gentrification as it always does. Helen Schiller kept the junkies and bums in their bondage to drugs and alcohol by advocating sloth and government dependency for her own political gain. Daley just took the money there out of the area by means of TIFs. Eventually the developers pushed a lot of people out, maybe for the better, but Uptown will never be the same.

I live in Uptown & this is enlightening.

Interesting. Very interesting. I just finished reading My Bloody Life, and was hoping to get a an actual glimpse of Latin King lifestyle. This fulfilled that, thank you.

THANKS FOR SHARING the UPTOWN & RIVERIA THEATERS & ARAGON BALLROOM WERE ROCKIN IN UPTOWN WITH AMAZING CONCERTS RUSH THIN LIZZY FRANK ZAPPA 70s 👍🎵🎵

Uptown was alot of fun back then. Now its just gentrified garbage. Im glad I dont live there anymore.

1:52 was everywhere in urban cities with garbage.. New York New Jersey..hope your forget a few years later 1979 the movie being there Peter Sellers last film when Chauncey Gardner steps out to take a walk in Washington DC almost looks like it's the same way with all the garbage everywhere then

My name is Simon City Royal

Really interesting to see the pics, too bad he didn’t do this at Humboldt Park back in the day.

The wilsons mens club still 180$ a month in 2002

And still hare uptown love it

I lived in uptown in the mid 80s. Great times.

Are you the man that walked around uptown on kenmore, magnolia by the big building on Wilson you took photos of me and friends even my granny on Leland and Racine just wondering if you have all those photos still? I was born and raised there 1975 until I left in 1993 you was all over uptown we called you the picture man

Nice

Fascinating pictures. I was also surprised there weren't any Asians considering how many there are now in Uptown.

I remember Uptown in the 70's and the late 80's.Back then it was the ghetto from Sheridan and Broadway to Sheridan and Foster.I remember Uptown had a a lot of abandoned buildings and drug dealers.It has gotten somewhat better now but they still have gangs and crime in that area.

The guy at 0:28 looks just like an older version of Jim Carey!

Went to Truman College for a summer

I grow up in Homer Glen township in the 1973 to 1984

I was born in Uptown in 1964. Went to stewart school there. was a tough place to grow up in . Very psychologically damaging with all problems. It was mixed racially, but the one thing all the races had in common was the poverty. Growing up as a kid there back then a free for all. You could do almost anything there and get away with it. The police never cared about the area because it was a ghetto. gangs, poverty, alcholics, drugs and the uneducated. Many southern whites migrated to uptown . anyways if I could go back to that time I would not want to go back there and go through it again. to much violence.

I was there

Those kids would be in their 60s! I wonder what happened to them.

✨💫🌟💛

its still the same as far as the people, minus the gentrification

The Motherland 🤟🏽Adc

I'm from Chicago my whole family is from Chicago on my mom side and Chicago is the best place ever it's full of different culture and this guy is just making me wanna slap him he has no idea what he is talking about so he needs to get it straight

Chicago is Always in a Disarray!

Qkk11

CIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was born and raised in uptown. I remember a lot of these places. This is the uptown I remember.