Journey into the Vibrant Tapestry of Randolph Street Market at Chicago's Historic Haymarket Square in 1886

In April and May 1986, workers throughout Chicago—along with unionists, socialists, and anarchists—assembled and took to the streets to demand a nationwide shift to an eight-hour workday. Days of striking were interspersed with protest meetings, and on May 4, a demonstration that began peacefully on Des Plaines Street culminated in a violent clash between officers and citizens. The conflict left eight law enforcement officials dead and countless more citizens injured and dead. This image shows the busy center of Randolph Street Market in Chicago, just south of the 1886 anarchists’ riot.

As “The Old First Ward” the way it once was becomes a more distant memory, “the Ward” becomes more of a caricature of itself in the minds of many.

The St. Patrick’s Day parade, at what was then Elk and Louisiana, and today is South Park and Louisiana, 1925.

If all you know about the First Ward is shamrocks, taverns, and parades, here’s a bit more on the institutions that made up life there.

Elk Street Market:

In 1904, the Elk Street Market was “the largest fruit and garden truck market in the United States.” The traffic in commodities sold rivaled any similar market on the continent. German, Italian, and Irish traditions played out all over the four-block long market that ran parallel to Michigan Street, in an area now largely taken up by the Buffalo Creek Casino. This portion of Elk Street is now South Park Avenue.

Elk & Louisiana:

Elk & Louisiana

The intersection of Elk and Louisiana streets was the crossroads of the Old First Ward. A block or two in either direction were canals and the homes of scoopers teeming with the Irish immigrants who were the foundation of Buffalo’s milling and grain industry. Today, it’s the corner of South Park Avenue and Louisiana Street– the home of a gas station and a Family Dollar in front of you from this spot and the Commodore Perry Housing Complex at your left.

St. Brigid’s Church:

St Brigid’s

St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church was the center of the Irish immigrant community in Buffalo’s First Ward neighborhood for more than a century. More than just the home of spiritual life, St. Brigid’s — and specifically St. Brigid’s Hall — was a center for union meetings, political rallies, parties, sporting events and theatrical performances. Through the 1920s, it was also the place where thousands came together to organize the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade through the streets of the Ward.

The Hamburg Canal:

The Hamburg Canal

Before they were even finished digging the Hamburg Canal, in 1849, the standing, fetid water in the half-dug ditch was blamed in part for a growing cholera crisis in what we now call the First Ward and Canalside areas. The largest part of the Hamburg Canal was finally put out of its misery when the Lehigh Valley Railroad built Buffalo’s glowing new passenger terminal on a filled-in portion of it in 1916.