“For those who couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, Wrigleyville is the Land of Oz, where there is no place like a home near home plate.” (Wood, and Hazucha 11) Wood and Hazucha describe Wrigleyville as a dream community for baseball lovers. The name Wrigleyville was created by real estate agents, to draw young people into the vicinity around Wrigley Field, during the 1980s. (Wood and Hazucha 11) Wrigelyville is a rather new Chicago neighborhood, it is a part of a much older neighborhood, named Lake View. The boundaries of Wrigleyville are Clark Street, Irving Park Road, Halsted Street, and the Ravenswood “L”. (Pacyga and Skerrett, 102) Wrigleyville is a neighborhood centralized around the Chicago Cubs and their stadium Wrigley Field. The…show more content… (Shea, 5) The land remained unpurchased after the Seminary left until a man named Charles Weeghman purchased the land. Weeghman decided to build a ball park, which he named Weeghman field in 1914. (Laffey, “Wrigleyville fields more than ballgames, beer”) He decided a ball park would be a great fit in that area because of the close proximity to the “L”, the distance between the Cubs and White Sox parks from Weeghman Park. (Shea, 27-28) Although Weeghman saw the prosperity that the park would bring to the area, residents were not on the same page as him. In order to build Weeghman field, many homes had to be torn down and also the National League and American League paid people to organize petitions against the building of the park in the neighborhood. (Shea, 33) None of those issues stopped Weeghman and the ball park was constructed and opened in 1914. The Federal League Whales played at Weeghman field for two years, but didn’t last and were replaced by the National League Cubs. (Shea, 84-86) The ball park was renamed to Wrigley Field in 1926 in honor of William Wrigley Jr. the owner of the Cubs at that time. (Clark, 42) Wrigley Field is not the only land mark in Wrigleyville, there are the cemeteries, churches, and the town hall. The Chicago Tribune called North Clark Street, and Sheffield Avenue “Funeral Ave” because Graceland…show more content… (“Is Wrigleyville Having Growing Pains”) Once prohibition was over bars reopened and brought a familiar feeling to what Wrigleyville is like today. In addition Wrigley Field was the only ball park without night games because the Wrigley family wanted to stay on the good side of the residents who lived around the ball park. (Butler, 70) In the 70s and 80s many stores were run by immigrants, but soon were run out and changed into stores that would cater to Cubs fans. (Wood and Hazucha, 20) Much of the property values started to rise, which pushed out people who could not afford to live next to the ball park anymore. (Wood and Hazucha, 20) Moreover, since there was no night games, Wrigleyville had no night life, “It was not a cool place to be other than to go to a game.” (“Is Wrigelyvile Having Growing Pains”) In 1988, night games were introduced at Wrigley Field, bringing with it a night life even greater than it had in the 20th century. (Butler, 70) Many alternative rock groups play at the Metro. (Laffey, “Wrigleyville fields more than ballgames, beer”) Also, the Improv Olympic, now a comedy club, had comedians before they were famous, performers including Mike Meyers, and Chris Farley. (Laffey, “Wrigleyville fields more than ballgames,
