Then and Now, Irving Park-Narragansett

For nearly a century, the property north and west of Irving Park-Narragansett was occupied by an asylum for the insane. The institution was formally known as Chicago State Hospital, but most people simply referred to it by the name of the larger community area—Dunning. In the 1932 photo, the gate to the hospital’s grounds is seen at right-center. By that time the city has already grown out to the once-isolated facility.

Chicago State Hospital closed in 1971, and the property was subdivided. The hospital’s successor institution, Chicago-Read Mental Health Center operates a half-mile to the west, on the former site of the Cook County Poor Farm.

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