Utilizing the addresses of illicit stills, breweries, speakeasies, saloons, restaurants, cabarets, and other illegal drinking establishments located in court records, newspapers, and reform organizaitons, the presentation will demonstrate the growth of criminal networks into new areas of the city. Geographic Information Systems software will allow to geocode, or pinpoint, each of these places on a base map of Chicago and then to imbede demographic information found in the census to each point. The maps will convey the type of each establishment and the ethnicity of its owner. While some maps will portray the entire city, other ones will focus on particular areas. Concentrating on the neigbhorhood communities of Douglas, Uptown, and Lawndale, the presentation will show how criminal networks developed in districts where they previously held little sway.
Examining the places of illegal booze production and consumption allows for a better understanding of how organized unlawfulness thrived in numerous wards and districts in Chicago. The poster will show how illegal alcohol establishments became ubiquitous and shared blocks with schools, churches, and other commerical businesses. The spatial representation of the alcohol underworld will demonstrate how the spread of lawbreaking activity into new communities helped transform the moral, ethnic, and class boundaries of the city.