Garfield Ridge

      Prayer Points

• Praise God for Midway Airport, the economic hub of the community. Pray for its continued vitality.

• Thank God for a history of stability of family-centered homes and schools. Pray that this culture would survive and thrive.

• The teenage dropout rate in this community is on the rise. Pray for families to encourage their students and that these teenagers would understand the importance of a good education.

• In the last decade, many Latino residents have been moving into the community. Pray for acceptance and unity within this diverse atmosphere.

      Ethnic Breakdown

• Asian (2.3%)
• Black or African American (7.5%)
• Hispanic or Latino (33.5%)
• White (56.1%)

Neighborhood Background

Previously under the name Archer Limits, Garfield Ridge is a well establish family neighborhood along the western border of the city. With the rise of industrialism in the 1900s, homes sprouted up, making this area very residential, eventually even surpassing the industrial aspect of this neighborhood.

The majority of Garfield Ridge’s early settlers were of Dutch descent and made their living as market gardeners, mostly in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood. Probably the greatest addition to Garfield Ridge happened in 1926 with the opening of the Chicago Municipal Airport, now known as Midway.

Though the economic trajectory of this community was now set, it was still in need of development, with dirt roads, farmhouses, and livestock filling the area. The establishment of O’Hare Airport caused a great decline in Midway traffic, but with the arrival of easy transit to the loop in the 1990s, people began to turn their eyes again to Midway. Garfield Ridge has held strong and continued to grow as an urban community.