Streeterville

Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River. It is bounded by the river on the south, the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the north and east, according to most sources, although the City of Chicago only recognizes a small portion of this region as Streeterville. Thus, it can be described as the Magnificent Mile plus all land east of it. The majority of the land in this neighborhood is reclaimed sandbar.

The neighborhood contains a combination of hotels, restaurants, professional office centers, residential high rises, universities, medical facilities, and cultural venues. The area has undergone increased development in the early 21st century as numerous empty lots in Streeterville have been converted into commercial and residential properties, especially in the southern part of the neighborhood. The neighborhood had earlier experienced booms following World War I and World War II.

Before the American settlement of the Chicago area, the lake shoreline fluctuated from year to year as storm waves eroded parts of the shore and built up the shore elsewhere. By 1803, when American troops started the construction of Fort Dearborn, a baymouth bar blocked the mouth of the river causing it to jog southwards and enter Lake Michigan at about the level of present-day Madison Street. When surveyed in 1821 the Lake Michigan shoreline north of the river ran approximately along what is now North St Clair Street, just to the east of what is now Michigan Avenue. In 1834, after a number of failed attempts to cut through the sandbar at the mouth of the river, a 1,500-foot (457.2 m) pier was built to protect a channel cut through the bar. Silt and sand accumulated north of this pier, creating usable land that was later nicknamed "The Sands".Squatters and a vice district encroached on the district, causing angst among the property owners. In 1857, Chicago Mayor John Wentworth evicted these trespassers from the land.

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