In the late 1830s, a man named George Merrill opened a saloon near the intersection of Grand and Armitage avenues. This intersection became known as Whiskey Point, for obvious reasons. It was the first business in the area and the saloon served as a stop for travelers on their way to and from the city. Hardly any residents came to inhabit the area and businesses were few until the 1880s when the Cragin Brothers & Company opened up their metalworking plant along the tracks of the Chicago/Milwaukee/St. Paul Railroad, which covered 11 acres of nearby territory. A train station was built nearby to aid in getting the company’s employees to the factory. Before long, housing was constructed within walking distance of the plant to accommodate more workers, who could skip the commute by rail and hoof it to work. A store, schools, and a church were soon to follow, giving birth to a viable community.

In 1889, Cragin officially became a Chicago neighborhood as the city expanded its borders and annexed the parts of the northwest suburbs. Over the years, the neighborhood added more industrial businesses to its ranks such as Washburn and Moen Manufacturing and Pitts Agricultural Works. The influx of industry called for additional home construction in Cragin and surrounding areas like Belmont Central to house laborers. Traditional brick bungalows (the kind you see all over outer Chicago neighborhoods), two-flats, and other simple architectural styles emerged on the scene as commercial businesses also sprung up to serve the new populace of Cragin residents.

These days, not too many of the plants are open anymore. Some are being converted into residential property, some into retail space, others remain abandoned. But, as recent decades show, the decrease in industry has not hurt the neighborhood’s popularity. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Hispanic population in Cragin quadrupled; meanwhile Polish immigrants also moved into the area and started up new businesses, rounding out a hard-working and firmly middle-class community. Today families that seek a comfortable and prosperous life are still moving to Cragin, because it’s close enough to Chicago’s city center, while still maintaining enough distance to provide some peace and quiet.