What Happened to Tyler Street?

According to the Chicago Street Name Index, Chicago has honored many American presidents by naming streets after them.

In 1833, the original Town of Chicago included streets named after Washington, the first president, and Jefferson, the third. Over time these streets were joined by streets named after:

• Adams (second)
• Madison (fourth)
• Monroe (fifth)
• Quincy (named after John Quincy Adams, the sixth president)
• Jackson (seventh)
• Van Buren (eighth)
• Harrison (ninth)
• Tyler (10^th)
• Polk (11^th)
• Taylor (12^th)
• Fillmore (13^th)

This trend stopped when developers Asahel and M.J. Pierce named Pierce Street after themselves instead of Franklin Pierce, the 14^th president.

Things picked up again when streets all over town were named after Abraham Lincoln (16^th) and Ulysses Grant (18^th). Later efforts to rationalize street names resulted in the many Lincoln Streets being reduced to one Lincoln Avenue. The several Grant streets are now reduced to an obscure two-block stretch called Grant Place.

Garfield (20^th), Cleveland (22^nd and 24^th) and Theodore Roosevelt (26^th) all got streets named after them. Eisenhower (34^th) and Kennedy (35^th) were honored with expressways.

All of these streets still exist, except Tyler. On September 2, 1872, the Common Council (City Council) changed the name of Tyler to Congress. Where did Tyler go wrong?

Neither the newspapers nor the Proceedings of the City Council tell the reason for the change, but many biographies of John Tyler provide a strong hint. Tyler was the only former U.S. president to join the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was even a member of the Confederate House of Representatives at the time of his death. No doubt the Union veterans on the Council were not ready to forgive and forget in 1872.