From 1895 on, those who moved away were to be found scattered all the way from Lake Shore Drive to Lake Forest. The newcomers who took their places appeared decreasingly in the Blue Book and more and more frequently they had Irish or Jewish names.
A closer examination of the changing occupancy of the sixty-one houses in the block shows strikingly the rapidity and extent of the decline and reveals some of its causes.
| Year | Number of Houses Listed with no Change in Occupants | Number of Houses Not Listed | Number of Houses with Second and Third Occupants Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | 49 | 12 | ..... |
| 1895 | 26 | 25 | 10 |
| 1900 | 18 | 28 | 15 |
| 1905 | 12 | 36 | 13 |
| 1910 | 10 | 41 | 9 |
| 1915 | 2 | 54 | 4 |
The residents.—In a house with fifty feet frontage on Prairie Avenue lived a wealthy artist, son of a Chicago pioneer merchant and member of several exclusive clubs. He lived there until a large brick factory was erected at the rear of his residence which is now occupied by a medical fraternity. A prominent Chicago family lived in another house which they had built in 1885. In 1890, they moved to Cleveland and rented the property. For sentimental reasons they kept the property, although it was fast sinking in value. In 1919 a son living in Lake Forest proposed to remodel and improve the property, if by reasonable expenditures he could be assured by real estate men of "desirable" tenants. No real estate man felt able to do this, however, and the deterioration and depreciation were uninterrupted.
Another residence, formerly occupied by a capitalist and journalist since 1890, was a large two-story house with basement and attic and two-story brick barn. The family long since moved to the North Side, and the old mansion on Prairie Avenue is now a rooming-house of thirty-eight rooms, including the garage.
At another address lived the president of a large business corporation, in a two-story stone-front building. It is now cut up into flats; and in the window recently was a sign: "4th Flat for Rent, 6 Rooms, $20.00, White Only."
Only one or two of the fine old residences in this block are still occupied by Chicago's "first families" or owned by their estates.
There are now two relatively modern three- and four-story brick apartment buildings in the block, and five old residences are rooming-houses. One is a club for railroad men, and another is a fraternity house. About a third of the places are in fairly good repair.
The altered character of the block is revealed also in the number of persons now at each address. The polling lists for March, 1920, disclose that fourteen persons are registered from one address, ten from another, seven from another, six each from three others, and so on, indicating more adults than are usually found in a single family. These are probably roomers.
The problem, however, is a complex one, for, although no Negroes moved into this block, they occupied parts of neighboring blocks during that period, and their occupancy contributed to the final stage of depreciation.