Saturday, January 18, 2014

Kenilworth Ave In Rogers Park?




According to this postcard for sale on E-bay there was a Kenilworth Avenue in Rogers Park. Consulting the make believe map we see however that Kenilworth (road not avenue) ran parallel to Lunt.

Researching the word Kenilworth results in reading about the town of Kenilworth to the north (of course). This town was essentially founded by Joseph Sears. Its population and racial make up hasn't changed much since 1930. The Wikipedia entry states that it is still fits the criteria of a sundown suburb. Sundown town refers to the fact that nonwhite folks had to leave town by sundown.

Kenilworth's name comes from a small town in England and its namesake castle. No one is quite sure the origin of the name, this site thinks it might refer to the profession of gardener. There is a Kenilworth New Jersey (originally known as New Orange) which attributes the name to the real estate venture named Kenilworth Realty (which began the venture of developing the town) after Sir Walter Scott's novel of the same name about the castle in England.

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