I would have to guess one of the shortest streets in Chicago ( with houses on it would be 57th place between Major and the alley behind Massasoit 1/4 block like 3 houses on each side.
It is quite small...it would qualify for the tiny streets page if it were named something other than 57th pl. And the fact that Major ave is an alley makes it more odd. Do you know the history of this oddity?
I don't, but you are correct Major is an alley that serves only to connect to 57th and it certainly wouldn't seem that the houses would predate the railroad. There is an even odder house in an alley directly north two blocks, but it is literally in an alley and it has an address that is posted on a wooden sign on 56 th street as I wrote about previously. This house seems to be an old farmhouse and makes more sense that it would be built around.
A truly unique short street is Gullikson north from (7100 W. 63rd st.) It is essentially a condo parking lot and the two condos are the only addresses. It is probably too long, in total 3/8ths of a block.My question is where does the street end and the lot begin? It is realtively new, but the street does appear on google maps.
I'm from NW side and closer to O'Hare are cul-de-sacs and short streets. There is Joyce Ct, off of Melvina near Irving Park, maybe 1/4 block long. And Castle Island av near Lawrance an Cumberland.
But then again, most of the Ohare, Edison and Norwood Park area is a salad bowl of short non-grid streets.
This short street is actually in Clearing, but there is an spur of Harlem Ave that is a side street with houses on one side, from 65th street north for a block. The real Harlem curves and heads over the Bedford Pk tracks.
It's the edge of Chicago, staking its claim saying 'this is ours!'
Yes I actually took the old harlem spur the other day and it goes from 64th to 68th unconnected to Harlem now. You can also see the old route of the street where it went through it is a dirt path.
On a side note, In Ursula Bielski's Chicago Haunts book she states that the the girl she believes to be the inspiration for the Resurrection Mary story was killed in a car accident on Old Harlem and 68th while crossing the railroad tracks.
Posted by:
Jacob
(---.arm-bsr1.chi-arm.il.cable.rcn.com)
Date: March 10, 2008 10:49PM
Yeah, but the crossing on 63rd really sucks as well. Wish they'd build another underpass under the Belt RWY as well (the N-S railroad just east of Cicero). There isn't one south of 47th.
Yes they are building rather high priced townhouses on Nottingham. Nottingham forest or something. Not a great location, but I guess better than the houses built up to the tracks on 59th.