Cabrini-Green: The Rise and Fall of Chicago's Most Famous Housing Project

In 1942, Chicago built 586 brick homes for war workers on the Near North Side, an early experiment in integrated public housing named for Mother Frances Cabrini. Then came the towers: fifteen red-brick "Reds" in 1958 and eight white "Whites" in 1962, named for labor leader William Green. At its peak about 15,000 people lived at Cabrini-Green, less than a mile from the Gold Coast. This is the story of that ground, block by block: the river district on the 1910 fire-insurance maps, the wartime rowhouses, why the city built towers, a neighborhood with more children than adults, the slow breakdown of money, rules and repairs, the headlines of 1970, Mayor Jane Byrne's three weeks living there in 1981, the residents who organized and went to court, the 1996 promise that every family who wanted to stay would stay, the last tower lit from inside by teenagers' poems in 2011, where the families actually went, the 1942 rowhouses that are still standing, and what stands on the land today. Chapters 0:00 Ten blocks west 2:18 The Ground by the River 6:17 Homes for War Workers 9:23 The United Nations 12:06 The Reds 16:07 The Whites 18:24 A City of Children 21:54 The Island 24:36 The Slow Breakdown 27:07 Headlines 29:38 The Mayor Moves in 33:58 Jobs, Not Eggs 36:06 Neighbors 37:58 The Land Underneath 41:02 Every Family that Wants to Stay 44:14 The Last Tower 47:20 Where the Families Went 51:37 The Rows that Stayed 54:28 What Stands There Today Did you or your family live in the rowhouses, the Reds or the Whites? Tell us which building and which years in the comments. Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Ben Austen, High-Risers (2018) and "The Last Tower," Harper's Magazine (2012); The Christian Science Monitor (March-April 1981); Better Government Association / WBEZ, "Cabrini-Green: A history of broken promises" (2021); Chicago Housing Authority (Cabrini NOW, 2026); Preservation Chicago (2022); DNAinfo Chicago (2015); CBS Chicago (2011); Associated Press; Chicago Tribune; NPR; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Time Out Chicago (Project Cabrini Green, 2011); Media Burn Archive; J. S. Fuerst, When Public Housing Was Paradise (2003); D. Bradford Hunt, Blueprint for Disaster (2009); Gautreaux v. CHA (1969); Harvey Zorbaugh, The Gold Coast and the Slum (1929); Sanborn Map Company (1910). Scenes marked ILLUSTRATION are AI-generated reconstructions of empty places; they contain no people. All other images are archival or credited photographs. Image credits (Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons; list only those that survive the final edit): AlphaBeta135 (CC BY 4.0), Another Believer (CC BY-SA 4.0), ChicagoGeek (CC BY-SA 2.0), David Hilowitz (CC BY 2.0), David Wilson (CC BY 2.0), Jaysin Trevino (CC BY 2.0), Joe M500 (CC BY 2.0), LHOON (CC BY-SA 2.0), Payton Chung (CC BY 2.0), Paytonc (CC BY 2.0), Sea Cow (CC BY-SA 4.0), Stephen Hogan (CC BY 2.0), Victorgrigas (CC BY-SA 3.0), Zol87 (CC BY-SA 2.0), edwardhblake (CC BY 2.0); HUD photograph scans by Devin Hunter (CC BY 2.0). Public-domain images: Library of Congress (Historic American Engineering Record photographs by Jet Lowe, 1999; Sanborn fire-insurance maps, 1910); National Archives (EPA DOCUMERICA photographs by John H. White, 1973; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Record Group 207); Home Owners' Loan Corporation map (c. 1940); Chicago Plan Commission (1946); Harvey Zorbaugh (1929); American Journal of Sociology (1913). Music: original score. Narration: AI voice.