
Chicago Real Estate
Within about four decades, Chicago’s blossoming population grew from about thirty thousand people to well over one million by 1890. And in the next four decades, Chicago real estate professionals should know, the population more than tripled to over three million. The first inhabitants of the region, nevertheless, were mainly Potawatomis tribal members, who overcame the Miami, Sauk and Fox tribes. The first white settler to the Chicago area was Haitian Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, who arrived in the 1770’s and married a Potawatomis woman. He later founded the first trading post in Chicago. After the United States Army built a fort in the area called Fort Dearborn in 1803, the tribal claims were extinguished with war and a treaty called the Treaty of St. Louis in 1816. It was not until August twelfth, 1883 that the Town of Chicago had a population of three hundred and fifty. Within three years, however, Chicago’s population would swell to well over four thousand souls and was incorporated on March fourth, 1837. Every Chicago real estate guru should know that beginning in 1848, Chicago became a very important transportation hub. Chicago, after all, is situated ideally between the United State’s east coast and west coast. Railways opened in this year and steamboats and sailing ships navigated the Great Lakes and Mississippi River, invigorating trade and the Chicago’s economy. Chicago real estate agents should know that its flourishing economy was helped by immigrants that streamed westward from the over populated east coast cities like New York City. Irish, Polish, Swedish and German immigrants, as well as other groups, bolstered the manufacturing and retail markets. Chicago real estate was getting more valuable every day. When the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 utterly destroyed about one third of the city, with its business district totally destroyed, residents and investors were quick to rebuild. Chicago’s first skyscraper was soon constructed in the area. Brian Nygard |