The Union Stock Yard Gate, located on Exchange Avenue at Peoria Street, was the entrance to the famous Union Stock Yards in Chicago. The gate was designed by Burnham and Root around 1875, and is the only significant structural element of the stock yards to survive. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981. The plaza surrounding the gate also includes the city's principal memorial to its firefighters.
Current view of the Gate. Firefighters memorial in the center background
Memorial honoring firefighters fallen in the 1910 Stock Yard fire. Located directly behind The Gate
Detail of the gate of the Stockyard Industrial Park, featuring a miniature of The Gate is on W 43rd ST at S Ashland AVE.
Postcard of Union Stock Yards, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1901-1907
The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a centralized processing area. By the 1890s, the railroad capital behind the Union Stockyards was Vanderbilt money. The Union Stockyards operated in the New City community area for 106 years, helping Chicago become known as the "hog butcher for the world," the center of the American meatpacking industry for decades. The yards became inspiration for literature and social reform.
Union Stock Yards, Chicago, 1947
The Union Stock Yards in Chicago in 1878
Birdseye view, 1890
Panorama of the beef industry in 1900 by a Chicago-based photographer