Why you'd want to live in Bronzeville

Bronzeville is the area comprising the Douglas, Grand Boulevard, and Oakland communities on the South Side of Chicago, around the Illinois Institute of Technology, Vander Cook College of Music, and Illinois College of Optometry. It is accessible via the Green and Red lines of the Chicago Transit Authority, as well as the Metra Electric District Main Line. In 2011, a new Metra station, Jones/Bronzeville Station, opened to serve the neighborhood on the Rock Island and planned SouthEast Service. Victory Monument and the Ida B. Wells-Barnett House. In the early 20th century, Bronzeville was known as the "Black Metropolis", one of the nation's most significant concentrations of African-American businesses, and culture. The groundbreaking Pekin Theatre rose near 27th street in the first decade of the 20th century. Between 1910 and 1920, during an early peak of the "Great Migration", the population of the area increased dramatically when thousands of black Americans escaped the oppression of the South and migrated to Chicago in search of industrial jobs. The Wabash YMCA is considered the first black Y in the U.S. It remains active today due to ongoing support from nearby black churches.The Wabash YMCA's work to commemorate black culture was the genesis of Black History Month.