Archer Avenue, like its diagonal cousin to the north Ogden Avenue, was an old Native American trail that was a frequented route to the bustling markets in the trade port of Chicago. The road was named for Colonel William Beatty Archer (1793-1870), a commissioner for the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which paralleled the road in the 1800s. Despite his claim to fame as a civil engineer, the land around his namesake avenue remained soggy prairie and sparsely used farmland until well into the 1900s. Neither the three railroads that encircled it in the 1880s
(Belt, Santa Fe and Indiana Harbor) nor annexation to Chicago in 1889 changed much of the district’s character or economic role.

Things began to change for Archer Heights when advancements in city transit made this southwest side neighborhood more accessible. Horse-pulled trolleys were introduced in the 1890s and later gave way to new electric streetcars in the first decade of the twentieth century. Connecting the neighborhood to the rest of the city, the incorporation of streetcars into Archer Heights prompted many thousands of immigrant laborers from Western Europe to settle in the neighborhood. Archer Avenue developed into a major thoroughfare, as did Pulaski Road, and they became the primary arteries that connected the neighborhood to the nearby stockyards and the business district downtown.

Early in the 20th century, land developers started to turn the south side of Archer Heights into a more residential area. 'Heights' was a crafty developer’s designation meant to impart a sense of prestige, even though the region sat no higher than any of the territory around it. Meanwhile, the land to the north was being eyed by industrial developers for manufacturing corporations. This split personality remains today with more then 60 percent of the Archer Heights’ area devoted to the manufacturing or transportation industries. After an initial post-World War II population boom, when manufacturing in the region attracted many people to move to the neighborhood for jobs at nearby factories and Midway Airport, the numbers waned in the 1960s as many residents left for the nearby southwestern suburbs.

Over the years, though, the neighborhood has remained steadfastly family-oriented, proud of its heritage and steeped in tradition. The permanence of the modest, well-kept housing combined with the large manufacturing presence has firmly embedded the character of Archer Heights and established it as a stable, self-sufficient community that continues to be a sought-after setting for many Chicagoans.