In 1888, a village 12 miles northwest of downtown Chicago was incorporated as Niles Centre. This swampy land was eventually renamed “Skokie” in 1940. Skokie means “big swamp” in the language of the area’s former inhabitants, the Potawatomi tribe. After World War II, Skokie’s population boomed, explaining why a large percentage of its homes were…
Tag: Dr. Janusz Korczak
Dr. Korczak Terrace in Skokie
Although this post is not about a specific museum or library, it is about how I used a museum and library to gain more insight into the history of a street name. Skokie, a suburb just north of Chicago, used to have one of the largest Holocaust survivor populations per capita: approximately 7,000 people in…
Bet Arkeh 