Streeterville History
The history of Streeterville dates back to the late 1800s with the arrival of George Wellington “Cap” Streeter and his wife Maria to Chicago.
They originally planned on going to Honduras to become gunrunners but decided to first launch their boat, Reutan, in Lake Michigan. In 1886, a strong storm left the Reutan stranded in a sandbar; the now grounded boat lay approximately 450 feet east of the shoreline. Captain Streeter chose to live on his boat and claimed the sandbar and the surrounding area as his own domain — separate from the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.
After the great Chicago Fire of 1871, the city was rapidly growing and developers were looking for a place to dump their construction waste. Although Streeter did not have the authority to do so, he charged developers to use the sandbar and surrounding area as a waste dump area. The area quickly filled up with debris and Streeter started renting out the land, leading to the establishment of a shantytown. Wealthy landowners around “Streeterville” soon grew worried that the shantytown would lower the property value of the area and fought to get rid of it.
In 1889 police officers attempted to evict Streeter and his wife, Maria, but were driven away in a fierce gun battle. During the same time, the wealthy landowners of the area instigated several court cases against Streeter. In 1893, the millionaire Kellogg Fairbanks, who actually owned the land that Streeter was occupying, filed a suit against Streeter, which legally obligated him to move off of the land. However, Streeter decided to stay, and continued selling plots of land.
Later, wealthy property owners realized that they could profit from building a road connecting the downtown with the North Side, and worked with the city to build the soon-to-be-called Lake Shore Drive. Entrepreneur Potter Palmer purchased some of this land and began developing it. After Palmer’s death in 1902, Streeter, who claimed that some of this land belonged to him, decided to raise an army and set up a blockade as a means of maintaining “his” land. His attempt to “reclaim” his property was swiftly put to an end by the police. This was Streeter’s last major attempt to fight for his district and would set forward the work of connecting the Streeterville area with the rest of Chicago.
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