Armour Square – Chinatown
Located 2 Miles South of The Loop.
Neighborhoods include: Armour Square, Chinatown
Zip Codes Include: 60609, 60616
Armour Square is both the name of a Chicago neighborhood on the city’s South Side, as well as the larger, officially defined community area that the neighborhood is located in. The Armour Square community area also includes Chinatown. The Armour Square area is bordered by Bridgeport to the west and Bronzeville to the east, with Pilsen and the near South Side bordering the area to the north and Fuller Park bordering its southernmost boundary along Pershing Road.
Bounded by 18th Street to the north, Pershing Road to the south, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west and the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east, Armour Square has historically been the predominantly white, working-class neighborhood with a particularly significant population of both Italian-Americans and Croatian-Americans. With its location being immediately south of Chinatown, today the neighborhood also has a large Asian population as well. Armour Square’s most recognizable landmarks are the historic Armour Square Park and nearby US Cellular Field, which sits at the southeast corner of W.35th and Shields Avenue, on the neighborhood’s southernmost end. US Cellular is home to the Major League Baseball franchise, the Chicago White Sox. There are two Catholic parishes in Armour Square: Santa Lucia and St. Jerome Croatian Catholic Church.
Chicago White Sox
In 1900, Charles Comiskey moved his St. Paul Saints to Chicago, where they became the team now known as the Chicago White Sox. They began play at the South Side Park on 39th Street in Armour Square, and have remained in the neighborhood ever since. No other major professional sports franchise has played in the same neighborhood longer than the White Sox. In 1910, Comiskey Park opened just 4 blocks north of South Side Park on a site that was formerly a junkyard. The Park remained the home of the Sox until 1990, when it was the oldest park in Major League Baseball.The new Comiskey Park, currently known as U.S. Cellular Field, opened in 1991 across 35th Street from the old ballpark. Comiskey Park was then demolished in 1991 and converted into a parking lot. A plaque embedded in the asphalt marks the spot where home plate was on the original field.
Chinatown
Chinatown is centered on and around Cermak and Wentworth Avenues, and is an example of an American Chinatown, or ethnic-Chinese neighborhood.
It is not to be confused with an area sometimes called “New Chinatown”, which is on the North Side around Argyle Street, and which has a larger number of Southeast Asians.
Transportation
Armour Square is served by the Dan Ryan branch of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line, with stops at Cermak-Chinatown and Sox-35th.
Demographics
Population (2010)
• Total 13,391
• Density 14,000/sq mi (5,200/km2)
Demographics (2010)
• White 12.26%
• Black 10.6%
• Hispanic 3.47%
• Asian 72.59%
• Other 1.08%
