Welcome to "Little Arizona," home of Chicago's only trailer park
You have to ignore the abandoned mobile homes tagged with gang graffiti and the occasional yellow-eyed zombie wandering the narrow streets in Chicago's only trailer park if you want to see the place for what it really is.
A poor folks' paradise.
Harbour Point Estates in Hegewisch -- between Wolf and Powder Horn lakes -- sits on an old landfill straddling both sides of 134th at the Indiana border.
Locals know that part of town as "Little Arizona." It's "country living" in the big city, trailer parkers say. And more than a few of them have the lawn decorations to prove it.
Jerry Seibt rents a rickety trailer there for about 500 bucks a month on prime real estate -- a backwater channel with a tiny pier, a fire pit and makeshift bench.
"The best part about this place," Ol' Jerry says, "is the fishing.
"Bass. Blue Gill. Northerns. Catfish. Carp. I don't need to go to no Wisconsin. I catch 'em all right out back. Big ones, too."
Other folks say having a small yard of their own on quiet streets near the mature cottonwoods, and being just a short drive to cheaper gas and smokes across the border makes the place special.
Hunters love Wolf Lake -- the only place in Chicago where you can legally bag a goose or a duck. Some mornings, distant shotgun blasts are alarm clocks.
At Powder Horn, bird watchers can catch a glimpse of endangered black-crowned night herons and stroll along wildflower fields.
Ol' Jerry's lived there for about 16 years now and has never really thought about moving anywhere else. A lot of his neighbors feel the same way.
Too bad it's not up to them.
Harbour Point's owners finally figured out that those 130 acres are too valuable for a trailer park. They're betting people who can afford to buy a house might pay as much as $386,000 to live there.
They're planning to clear out the place and build houses, condos, a mini-mall and new parks there. Ald. John Pope is backing their pitch for tax incentives to help pay for installing sewers, public streets, sidewalks and lights, so it's pretty much a done deal.
The trailer dwellers know they'll get tossed out one of these days, just not when.
"I'll believe it when I see it," says Paul Demkowicz.
Four generations of his family have called the Estates home. His parents moved there from Burnside in the 1970s. The Estates were booming back then -- packed to the gills with about 3,000 trailers and loads of decent, hardworking people, Paul says.
But by the early 1990s, Harbour Point had become a trailer park cliche. Drugs. Crime. Gangs. Pregnant teenagers.
Ol' Jerry swears he remembers a night gang-bangers shot a trailer park kid right in front of his mother, or something like that.
"It was hell on wheels back then, man," Ol' Jerry says.
In 2000, new owners bought the trailer park, evicted troublemakers, removed their dilapidated homes and called the cops to help.
"We got rid of the undesirables and there were many, many of them with criminal records or being sought on warrants or doing a lot of bad things," co-owner Eric Hagen says.
Now, the place is safe and neighborly again, 20-year resident Lois Lucas says.
"It's quiet. There's no problems that I see here now," she says. "I love it here. I don't know when I'll have to move or where I'm going to go. It's terrible, and I'm sick about having to move."
But Lois figures people who buy homes and settle there will love the place, and Hegewisch will be better off without the trailer park and its troubles.
"I'm upset and hurt. This isn't just a trailer. It's home for me," she says. "But it will be better for the neighborhood when it's gone. If people buy the homes, they're getting lucky. It's beautiful here."
Construction could start in the spring, with the first batch of homes ready for new neighbors in 2009. If all goes well, the city's last trailer park will be a distant memory in about 20 years.
Still, poor folks who knew it as paradise will miss it.
Comments
I used to know Hegewisch very well when I was in high school, and I know that it's a great working-class neighborhood filled with(mostly) decent people just trying to make a living. I did have some good times there with some young ladies and watching my brother and cousin get tanked at house parties (I didn't drink at the time). And when my grade-school basketball team played at the St. Florian Christmas tournament I always felt like it was a cool little road trip into the big city.
But come on. Have developers gone mad? Who in their right mind would buy a $386K house in Hegewisch? That's insane, especially if they're going to "re-develop" the character of that little neighborhood, which seems to be the only attraction there. Yeah, you might be next to a lake and some wildflower prairie, but you're also stuck with a large mortgage payment for a house plunked down between steel factories, coke factories, and industrial parks, not to mention Indiana.
Sure, if the developer makes the houses more affordable (perhaps in the $250K range) people certainly would buy them. And if the City continues to clean up Lake Calumet and the old vacant mill properties then, yes, maybe it would be worth the investment. But that remediation stuff should come beforehand, not after you plunk down close to $400K to live in a wasteland.
But, hey, that's just my opinion.
Posted by: Taters | September 28, 2007 11:19 AM
Hegewisch was named for Adolph Hegewisch, President of US Rolling Stock Company.
Posted by: Marsha Caldwell | September 28, 2007 12:08 PM
The neighborhood is named after Adolph Hegewisch, the president of U.S. Rolling Stock Company.
Posted by: Scott | September 28, 2007 01:09 PM
We moved to "Arizona" in 1951 and my mother lived there in Harbour Point Estates.(formerly Island Park Trailer Court) until her death 9-5-91. We all went to St. Florian grade school and our 3 brothers attended Mendel Catholic High School and my sister and I graduated from St. Francis de Sales on the East Side. We knew everyone in the trailer court and my brothers delivered the Sun Times & Herald American . My sister and I baby sat for many families and also up to Avenue O. My sister still lives in the Hegewisch community. We had a great time, and had made many friends, and you could stay out late back then and not be afraid. Paul Hayes was the manager way back there. Who else remembers?
Posted by: Marge C | September 28, 2007 04:02 PM
crap, i was too slow posting my reply:
" Adolph Hegewisch, the president of U.S. Rolling Stock Company" ...
source: wikipedia
Posted by: urbaneddie | September 29, 2007 01:35 PM
Yes, I can remember Hegewisch very well, my Father worked at Ford Motor Company. He ate at this restaurant named Cousins, which I believe is still opened. We had family friends that lived out there as well. I can remember riding out that way to the bordering Indiana to buy cheap cigarettes, gas, and groceries too. We lived in Roseland neighborhood at that time. That was some really great days then when Steel mills, General mills and Ford Motor Company was thriveing. But, at this time, seem to be somewhat of an abandoned town near the east side. So, property more at a $200K would seem a lot more in the right price range!
Posted by: Stephanie | September 29, 2007 10:33 PM
stumbled on this site this morning. just decided to plug my old neighborhood into a google search. such memories.
i lived directly across the street from cousin's (formerly milan's). cousin's burned down...don't know if they rebuilt it. my dad had a pharmacy on the corner (13300 baltimore ave) and we lived on the second story. it was closed in the late 80's due to his declining health. the original business dated back to 1888 and was located in the middle of the block. i moved away in 1968 and have not been back to visit in many years.
my brother & his wife lived in the trailer park in the 60's. not so sure about $400K homes in that community unless the economy has really picked up there. of course, there may be those who would gladly commute. i live in no. virginia now and thousands from the DC area are moving this way for the rural living factor & relatively lower cost of living...so who knows? they commute every day and the new homes they are buying are in the $500K range and UP!!!
i went to henry clay and graduated from st francis de sales in '66. ate lots of good food at milan's, steve's, mama d's pizzeria. got all of my exercise on the monkey bars, teeter totters and swings at mann park. hegewisch was the best place to grow up. gotta come back to see how it's changed.
suzi k
Posted by: suzi k | November 11, 2007 09:38 AM
leave the trailer park here you wouldnt want to buy a house here three words calumet containers fire on 134th (between the two sets of railroad tracks)there was a huge fire there in the 80s that spread toxic cancer causing chemicals everywhere it is believed that the chemicals even seeped underground to nearby lakes at least six children from the hammond trailer park got cancer from living near the place harbour point is even closer to the toxic site do some reasearch on calumet containers to see for yourself.
Posted by: joeseph | November 26, 2007 01:25 AM
My mother's maternal grandparents came to Hegewisch from Poland around WWI; her paternal grandparents came over from Ireland about the same time. I spent my early years in Slag Valley (father worked at Wisconsin Steel), until my parents divorced and my mother moved us back to Hegewisch. Grew up on 135th and Buffalo, close to the old South Shore station. Grandfather still lives on 130th and O, uncle owns Mancini's pizza on Brandon. What a great neighborhood. Went to Clay and St. Francis, had many friends in the trailer park. Certainly hope the old 'hood experiences a renaissance before I die. There's still a lot of potential.
Posted by: Tony D | March 8, 2008 12:49 PM
Thanks for the toxic waste comment Suzi! I was just thinking about that...didn't they find green liquid in the ground behind the railroad tracks? I know they were testing it a year or so ago...I'm an East Sider but I had a lot of friends from Hog-wash when I was in grade/high school. My mom is also a former resident of Hegewisch. I don't know who would want to purchase a 300K house on the East Side or Hegewisch..if anything, those neighborhoods are so bad compared to what they used to be. There are gangs and shootings all around that area. If I was going to put that much money towards a home I would definitely rather check out NW Indiana or the north side of Chicago...somewhere a little safer!
SFDS alum here also! :)
Posted by: Ashley K. | April 7, 2008 03:21 PM
I was born and raised in Island Home Traler Park.I went to Henry Clay School and then to G. Washington High, I loved it there, my freinds and I would fish at wolf lake all the time, and Powderhorn lake, there was even a little lake or pond in the trailer park, I have a lot of good memories there, my family an I lived there for about 16 years,we moved in 1982, hard to beleive that homes will go for 350,000 there!!! But ya never know! Lots of great memories there!
Posted by: Rodney McCain | May 23, 2008 03:34 PM