Chicago Public Library
Special Collections and Preservation Division
Neighborhood History Research Collection

Grand Boulevard/Gage Family Collection, 1909 – 1926
78 photographs
Call number: Archives_GFC

Historical Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Provenance | Access | Photographs

Historical Note

Stanley and Katherine L. Gage married in 1905 and by 1910 were living at 4236 S. Prairie Avenue. Stanley was born in Illinois about 1877 and worked in real estate, as did his father. His son, William H. Gage, was born in 1912. Living at the same address were Henry H. and Mary B. Gage, Stanley’s parents.

The Gage home at 4236 S. Prairie Avenue is in the Grand Boulevard community, four miles south of the Chicago Loop. It is bounded by 39th and 51st Streets to the north and south, Cottage Grove Avenue and the Chicago Rock Island Railroad tracks to the east and west. The area is named for a tree-lined street built in 1874 which was later renamed for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 1870s great mansions were built along Grand Boulevard, with more modest homes and 3-flat apartment buildings springing up on the adjacent streets. Originally part of the township of Hyde Park, this area would become part of Chicago through annexation in 1889. Many German-Jewish and Irish immigrants moved to the area at the turn of the century, followed by African American migrants from the South after WWI. By the 1930s, African Americans made up 95% of the population of Grand Boulevard and the area came to be called Bronzeville.

Scope and Content

The Gage Family Collection consists of family photographs that document the daily life of a middle-class family living in the Grand Boulevard community in the early 1900s. Besides the immediate family, individuals pictured here include Stanley’s brother, Edward Gage, and his son Henry Crum Gage. Also represented are Stanley’s sister, Portia Gage, her husband William Lee, and their daughter Portia M. Lee, who was born in 1907. Others living in the household are D. Milton Woods and Alfred Hayne, who were lodgers. Names of identified persons are transcribed as given by the donor. These are all exterior photos, taken in front of, or near, the family home at 4236 S. Prairie Avenue.

Sources: 1900 U. S. Federal Census; 1910 U. S. Federal Census; 1930 U. S. Federal Census; 1915 and 1916 city directories for Chicago.

Arrangement
The photographs are arranged in groups by year with undated photos following those with dates.

Provenance
Mr. Stanley Gage donated the Gage Family Collection to the Special Collections and Preservation Division at the Harold Washington Library Center in 2006. The collection was processed in June of 2009.

Access
The Gage Family Collection is available to the public for research in the Special Collections and Preservation Division Reading Room on the 9th floor of the Chicago Public Library’s Harold Washington Library Center, 400 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60605. The collection does not circulate, although photocopy and photo reproduction services are available depending upon the condition of the original materials. First time patrons to Special Collections must present photo identification and complete a Reader Registration Form. Telephone inquiries on this collection and other Special Collections holdings can be directed to 312-747-4875.

Photographs
1.1 – 1.9
	1908 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Gage, Edward Gage, Henry Crum Gage, Katherine Lee, Portia Lee, Portia Mary Lee, William Woods, D. Milton
1.10 – 1.15
	1909 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Gage, Katherine L. Hayne, A. S. Woods, D. Milton
1.16 - 1.19
	1910 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Gage, K. P. Gage, O. K. Lee, William H. Lee, Portia G. Lee, Portia Mary Tommy (dog)
1.20 – 1.21
	1911 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Gage, Eleanor
1.22 – 1.25
	1914 Identified in this group of photographs:
	4236 S. Prairie Avenue Gage, Bill Gage, Katherine L. Hayne, Mr. Woods, D. M.
1.26 – 1.37
	1917 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Finney (dog) Gage, Bill Lee, Portia Mary
1.38
	1918 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Finney (dog) Gage, Bill Gage, Katherine Gage, Stanley Lee, Portia
1.39
	1922 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Lee, Portia Mary
1.40
	1926 Identified in this group of photographs:
	Gage, S. K.
1.41
	c. early 1920s Identified in this group of photographs:
	Lee, Portia
1.42 – 1.54
	No date Identified in this group of photographs:
	4236 S. Prairie Avenue Cooper, Therman Gage, Bill Jad (dog) Lee, Portia Gage Lee, Portia Mary Lee, William Waidner, John Waidner, Mary Ella
1.55 – 1.78
	No date Unidentified persons