Mount Greenwood (Chicago, Illinois)

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Mount Greenwood is one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas. It is a predominantly Irish-Catholic neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago. It neighbors the Chicago neighborhoods of Beverly and Morgan Park to the east, the suburb of Evergreen Park to the north, the suburb of Oak Lawn to the west, and the suburbs of Merrionette Park and Alsip to the south. Because of the presence of the cemeteries along the eastern edge of the neighborhood, the area was fictitiously said to have been known as "Seven Holy Tombs" before it was known as Mount Greenwood by author and playwright, John R. Powers in his fictionalized trilogy [see citation further below in this article] about growing up there. Mount Greenwood is about 14 miles (23 km) SW of the Loop.

Even though there were a small number of settlers in Mt. Greenwood, the origins of Mt. Greenwood began in 1817 when it was surveyed by George Waite. Mr. Waite established an area where he could trade with the local Native Americans. Mount Greenwood Cemetery was established around this time by Mr. Waite. With the cemetery came the saloons and restaurants and eventually tracks for horse and greyhound racing. The cemetery is also the final resting-place of Robert Haslam (1840-1912), who as a twenty-year-old immigrant from England became one of the most celebrated riders of the Pony Express mail service that operated from 1860-1861.

Mt. Greenwood became part of the city of Chicago in 1927. It was not until 1936 that the Works Progress Administration finally laid sewage systems, and paved and lighted city streets. As late as the 1960s, the Mount Greenwood Civic Association was still fighting the city for curbs and gutters. By the 1980s, Mount Greenwood was home to the last surviving farm in the city, which was developed as the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences at the southeast corner of 111th and Pulaski.

Mount Greenwood is home to many Chicago firefighters, police officers and union workers of Irish heritage. One of the more prominent and prolific families in Mount Greenwood at the turn of the 20th Century was that of James Dominic "Yank" Cunningham, born in Chicago in 1865. "Yank" operated a popular neighborhood saloon/restaurant and rooming house at 111th and Sacramento Streets, just across the way from Mount Olivet Cemetery. He died in 1907 at age 42, leaving a widow and eight children.

Most of Mt. Greenwood's population is also Roman Catholic. Most students in the neighborhood attend Catholic elementary schools and high schools. Mount Greenwood is home to one Catholic elementary school, St.Christina), three Catholic high schools (Brother Rice High School, Marist High School, and Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School) and a Catholic university (Saint Xavier University). Public grade schools in the area are Mt. Greenwood Elementary School and George F. Cassell Elementary School. Both are filled with neighborhood children.