Sweet Home Chicago

I read with significant interest Rebecca Graff’s latest article on the archaeology of Chicago in Historical Archaeology: “An Archaeology of Chicago Archaeology: Urban-Heritage Dissonances from DuSable to the Mecca Flats” which I believe will be part of a larger special issue on urban archaeology. (Readers of this blog may recall that I read her Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (2020) here.)

Graff’s article discusses the archaeology of Mecca Flats, an important turn of the century apartment building in Chicago that ultimately succumbed to urban renewal and gentrification in the 1950s. By then, the buildings tenants were largely Black, and they organized an ultimately unsuccessful effort to prevent the demolition of their home. The building was perhaps best know as the basis for Gwendolyn Brooks 1968 book of poetry, In the Mecca. Its site is now occupied by the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed School of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Graff frames her article with a study of archaeological research in Chicago and argues that the prevalence of developer funded CRM work and the the precarity of academic labor has hindered efforts to document and disseminate research on the archaeology of the city. Needless to say, there was little effort to document the Mecca Flat prior to demolition and the site has received little archaeological attention subsequently. As a result, explores the history of the Mecca Flats and its demolition (including the key role that universities have played in various urban renewal efforts in American cities), but more importantly documents the results of sieving done to discard piles associated with some construction work at the site of the Mecca Flats in recent years. These piles produced a range of artifacts that allowed Graff and her students to engage with the material, textual, and visual history of the site. 

The larger point of this paper is that an archaeology of Chicago would benefit from not only more research, but through new ways of organizing and coordinating research in the city. Graff’s work demonstrated how a collaborative relationships with students, institutions, and community groups can create conditions where a vibrant academic and public archaeology can emerge in the city of Chicago. This produces a growing awareness of the city’s archaeology which, in turn, helps foster the institutional, professional, and public interest in other avenues for collaboration. In short, this article shows how even small scale archaeological work when coupled with thoughtful historical research and an understanding of the political situation in your community.

To me this was inspiring as I am slowly becoming more involved in the archaeology and public history of the small town where I live. The small archaeology practice highlighted in this article not only gives me ideas, but also makes me optimistic that even small scale work can contribute to outreach, public awareness, and institutional change.