Lemont was not always the semi-isolated, quiet suburb it is now. Before 1900 the town was notorious throughout Chicagoland for its sin strip, Smokey Row. Just a short ride down the I & M Canal from Chicago, Lemont provided an abundance of places for gambling, liquor, and loose women, not to mention the entertainment of bar fights and even organized illegal prizefights.

As early as the 1860s, a small area on the northeast side of the canal that ran through Lemont to Chicago served men who worked on barges, quarries, and railroads. Most of these men were single and poorly paid. Their work was hard and their hours long. In the little free time they had, they sought out dives near the canal where gambling, liquor, women, and other entertainments were available.

Lemont was an inland port for commerce between Chicago and the Mississippi River. It was a tough, violent place, where assault and even murder were commonplace. The village had no police until 1873.

Smokey Row and the honest citizens of Lemont co-existed side by side for years until the early 1890s, when the beginning of construction on the Sanitary and Ship Canal brought a huge temporary work force of primarily single men to the area. Following “Shovel Day” in 1892, when construction on Chicago’s Sanitary Canal began, Lemont’s population went from 5,800 to almost ten thousand over a period of two to three years. These canal workers were a mixture of hardworking, honest Americans and immigrant labor, plus the rowdy, nameless drifters such projects attract. Economic times were hard and laborers in town—canal, quarry, rail, and barge workers—sought ways to spend their money.

At the close of Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exhibition, an economic depression faced the nation. Lemont, due to the canal construction, was one of the few places in the area that offered jobs and a favorable economy. Therefore, after the fair, seedy businesses and those who patronized them brought Chicago’s sin strip to Lemont, where Smokey Row was already going strong. The result was an enormous expansion of Smokey Row. By 1895, it was estimated that over a hundred “dives” were in operation.

From the Joliet News, June, 1895:

“…The saloons and dives are doing an immense business and probably 60 percent of the $600,000 [canal payroll] paid each month goes into their hands…Most of the good folk of the town lock their doors at night and pull the covers over their heads. Some few rake in the money.”

The town was wide open. Canal Street was said to be one of the toughest streets in all of America, wilder and more sinful than Dodge City, Deadwood, and Tombstone combined. It had the flavor of a port town, with a red-light district and men speaking various languages, refugees from all over America and the world.

Most of the saloons were “buckets of blood,” where men could not, and bartenders did not, control their drinking. Many men came to such taverns with the intent of engaging in or watching fights, an additional entertainment. For gamblers, action could be found twenty-four hours a day: cards, dice games, billiards, and an occasional boxing match. Every night the strip was wild and rough, but weekends were a nightmare. Murders and assaults averaged two a week and the local police, along with the Sanitary Canal police force, found it hard to maintain order.

To be continued…

Where you will find me!

I hope to see you at my next program, “Hidden Gems Road Trip”, at the Lemont Historical Society on Friday, October 10 at 6:30. See flyer below for details.

October 19, Sunday morning

You will find me at a vendor booth at the Annual Run with the Nuns, at Mount Assisi, 13860 Main Street, in Lemont.

October 29, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

I’ll be talking at the Lemont Library about “The Ghosts of Lemont.” This is a free program, but please log onto the library website and register so they library knows how to prepare.

News

I’ve been spending some months (more than I expected) redesigning my website and migrating my blog from MailChimp to Patcamallierebooks.com. I hope you like the new site, but please bear with me as we are still working out some of the bugs. Comments are welcome!

To let you know what to expect, now that I’m back writing my local history blog, my intent is to return to monthly posts. However, to get off to a running start, I’m going to try to do a month of weekly blogs, then reduce the frequency to monthly again. I’ll be keeping you up to date on where I’m appearing and updates about my writing life and book reviews in this news section.

“Thanks so much to Diane Piron-Gelman for her lovely review of my newest book, Last Call at Smokey Row.

“If you’re a fan of character-driven stories, you’ll love Last Call at Smokey Row. Author Pat Camalliere sets her tale in Lemont, Illinois, a place she knows well and clearly loves. Centered on Jane Archer, a bright and observant thirty-something in search of herself, the story takes place mainly at Sami’s Saloon, a local bar and pool hall that’s well past its glory days but still has something to offer. Jane’s quest is the framework for a colorful tapestry of human experience; the regulars she gets to know at Sami’s may not all be lovable, but every single one—the pool hounds, the drifters, the fellow searchers for someplace to belong—is unforgettable.

“There’s a quiet magic to Camalliere’s writing, a vividness of place and people that draws you in and doesn’t let go. Humor, friendship, unexpected loss, and a simmering conflict that ultimately leads to a startling act of vengeance, or perhaps rough justice, are expertly intertwined by a storyteller who’s a master of her craft. Don’t miss this one.”

—D. M. Pirrone (Diane Piron-Gelman), author of NO LESS IN BLOOD and the Hanley & Rivka Mysteries