Oak Forest (Illinois)
| Oak Forest | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Location in Illinois
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1892 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Illinois | ||
| County : | Cook County | ||
| Coordinates : | 41 ° 36 ′ N , 87 ° 45 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) | ||
| Residents : | 27,962 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 1,804 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 15.5 km 2 (approx. 6 mi 2 ) | ||
| Height : | 200 m | ||
| Postal code : | 60452 | ||
| Area code : | +1 708 | ||
| FIPS : | 17-54638 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 2395281 | ||
| Website : | www.oak-forest.org | ||
Oak Forest [ oʊk ˈfɔrɪst ] is a city in Cook County in the northeast of the American state Illinois . The center of Chicago , which includes the Oak Forest metropolitan area , is 30 kilometers north of the city, which is completely surrounded by populated areas. Oak Forest had a population of around 28,000 as of 2000 .
history
The history of Oak Forest is closely connected to the former poorhouse Oak Forest Infirmary (now: Oak Forest Health Center ), which was built here on state land from 1907 to 1910 after the conditions in the County Poor Farm in Dunning were no longer sustainable were valid. The facility was practically the center of town, with residential areas to the west and north of it, and commercial areas along Cicero Avenue and 159th Street. To the south and south-east of the hospital, the city grew through incorporations to what is now the Oak Forest exit of Interstate 57 . However, the city only had a good 600 residents outside the hospital in the 1940s.
The complex with its buildings was designed by Holabird & Roche (now Holabird & Root), an important architecture firm from Chicago. When the Oak Forest Infirmary was completed , the facility accommodated almost 2,000 people who were housed there because of poverty, mental illness, or alcoholism. Some of the inmates worked on the surrounding farms, including the Cook County Poor Farm . In 1932, at the height of the Depression , the facility had more than 4,000 inmates, including 500 TB patients . With the availability of social security and other aid programs, healthy people left the facility in the 1940s, and from the 1950s onwards, its importance as a TB clinic also waned. The facility shifted to treating the chronically ill, the disabled and geriatric patients. In 1956, the Oak Forest Institutions were renamed Oak Forest Hospital . Today the Oak Forest Health Center is part of the Cook County Hospital System .
literature
- Centennial Book Committee (Ed.): 1892-1992: The History of Oak Forest, Illinois . 1992.
- The Historical Committee (Ed.): The History of Oak Forest, Illinois . 1972.
Web links
- Oak Forest Official Website
- Entry on Oak Forest, IL in the Chicago Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Oak Forest, IL news on the Chicago Sun-Times website
- Oak Forest statistics on city-data.org
- Historic photographs of Oak Forest, IL in the Archives of the Library of Congress
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quickfacts Census, FIPS 54638 ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ann Durkin Keating: Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs: a historical guide . University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2008, ISBN 978-0-226-42883-3 , pp. 136-137 .
- ^ Larry A. McClellan: Entry on Oak Forest, IL . In: Encyclopedia of Chicago , Chicago Historical Society.
- ^ Margaret Dorsey Phelps: Almshouses . In: Encyclopedia of Chicago , Chicago Historical Society.
- ↑ About us on the Oak Forest Health Center website
