Founding & Firsts
What year did Evanston officially become a city?
1892
What modern Evanston institution continues the legacy of documenting Black history, including disability and health equity?
Shorefront Legacy Center
Before 1914, where were most disabled and chronically ill Evanston residents sent for institutional care?
Cook County Poor Farm/Dunning Asylum in Chicago
Which Evanston resident became the national president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)?
Frances E. Willard
Evanston hired this prominent city planner in 1919 to create its first zoning plan, later linked to racial segregation in housing.
Harland Bartholomew
The arrival of this family in 1870 marked the beginning of Evanston's African American Community
Hannah Thompson McDuffin and Daniel Garnett/ McDuffin-Garnett Family
Name the first Black A.M.E. church and the first Black Baptist church in Evanston?
Ebenezer A.M.E. Church and Second Baptist Church
What year did Dr. Isabella Garnett open the Evanston Sanitarium & Training School?
1914
What is the name of Frances Willard's Evanston home that became WCTU headquarters?
Rest Cottage
In 1917, this city plan laid the foundation for Evanston’s modern zoning and development, but a report in the Evanston News Index that same year revealed the racial consequences, claiming there was a plan to “freeze out” Black residents from most neighborhoods.
The Plan of Evanston
What year did Evanston Public Library open is first permanent home?
1890s (exactly 1893)
What area became home to most of Evanston's Black residents by the early 1900s?
West Side/Fifth Ward
What hospital replaced the Sanitarium in 1926 to expand health services for Black and disabled residents?
Community Hospital of Evanston
The WCTU's "Do Everything" campaign also promoted what public cause besides temperance?
Public health and hygiene reform
What 1871 disaster indirectly shaped Evanston's socioeconomic divide by bringing affluent white residents to the North Shore?
Great Chicago Fire
This 1921 “Use Map” created separate districts that reinforced racial segregation and shaped Evanston’s housing patterns for decades.
City of Evanston’s first zoning ordinance
Which two physicians co-founded Evanston's first Black run hospital in 1914?
Dr. Isabella Garnettand Dr. Arthur Butler
What movement after World War I brought national attention to rehabilitation and prosthetic care?
Veteran's Rehabilitation Movement
Which women's movement leader's death in 1898 prompted the WCTU to relocate its national headquarters to Evanston?
Frances Willard
During his 1958 visit, no Evanston hotel would offer him lodging, so Dr. King stayed here instead.
The basement of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue
The Evanston History Center occupies the former home of which early Evanston Leader?
Charles Gates Dawes ( U.S. Vice President)
What 1900's Civic group used restrictive covenants to confine Black housing to certain areas?
West Side Improvement Association
What was on of the first Evanston programs to provide care for "crippled children" under Illinois 1913 act?
Public Health Nursing Services/local women's aid campaigns.
in 1910, what building was completed as the WCTU national headquarters and remains a historical landmark today?
The WCTU Administration and Literature Building
After years of advocacy and King’s influence, Evanston officially passed this law in 1967—the first of its kind in the city—to ban discriminatory housing practices.
Fair Housing Ordinance