Smoky Hollow
At the end of the 20th century, the North River was named Smoky Hollow due to the many factories and forges in the area. The smoke was often so thick that sunlight was blocked. At the time, Smoky Hollow was a major transportation hub with railroad tracks connecting ports along the Chicago River to surrounding areas. The Merchandise Mart still has railroad tracks under the building. Massive coal bunkers were all over the neighborhood, both bringing coal into the area from ships and providing storage for the many factories and forges on the North River. Merchandise Mart was the main warehouse for storing goods. Later, the Kennedy family purchased the Merchandise Mart. Former retailer Montgomery Ward also had a large transportation and warehousing facility in River North.
Little Sicily
Little Sicily in Chicago was also located on the River North. The first Italian Roman Catholic Church in Chicago was the Assumption Parish on Illinois Street, which had a mandate to be the parish for all Italians living between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Later, Sicilians began to move north from the immediate vicinity of Assumption and began to form their own parishes. Italians whose family roots were from other parts of Italy tended to move west along Grand Street and established parishes west of Assumption.
Prohibition
In 1921, Dean O’Banion married Viola Caniff and purchased an interest in William Schofield’s flower shop on the North River, near the corner of West Chicago Avenue and North State Street. O’Banion needed a legal cover for his smuggling operation. He also had a passion for flowers and was an excellent arranger.
Schofield’s became the florist of choice for many funerals.
The shop was directly across the street from the Holy Name Cathedral, where O’Banion and Weiss attended mass. The rooms above Schofield’s were used as the headquarters of the North Side Gang, which controlled smuggling in what would later be called River North and the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago.
On the morning of November 10, 1924, O’Banion was pruning chrysanthemums in Schofield’s back room. Frankie Yale entered the store with Torrio and Capone’s gunmen John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. When O’Banion tried to greet Yale with a handshake, he tightened his grip on O’Banion’s hand. At the same time, Scalise and Anselmi fired two bullets into O’Banion’s chest, two into his cheek, and two into his throat, and Dean O’Banion died instantly.
Development of the River North neighborhood
The River North neighborhood got its name from Chicago real estate developer Albert Friedman (CEO of Friedman Properties Ltd.), who in 1974 began buying, renovating, and building commercial properties in the southeast sector. Most of the area at that time was ironclad, so in an effort to attract tenants, Friedman began calling the area “River North.” Over the course of several years, Friedman found photographers, advertising agencies, and art galleries willing to rent inexpensive space and coalesce into what is now known as the River North Gallery District, which has the largest concentration of art galleries in the United States. States outside of Manhattan.