The power to take land for public purposes by compensating private owners has been used for major public works as well as for urban renewal projects. In the 1950s the city demolished hundreds of buildings in Grand Boulevard and Douglas to construct Stateway Gardens (1958) and the Robert Taylor Homes (1962). In the 1950s the city also used eminent domain to build new expressways through neighborhoods on the south, west, and northwest sides. Although the initial plans for the south side expressway that became the Dan Ryan would have cut through the Bridgeport neighborhood along Normal Avenue, in 1956 Mayor Richard J. Daley and the city council moved the route to Wentworth Avenue along the eastern edge of Armour Square and Fuller Park. The new route displaced residents and businesses in neighborhoods adjacent to the neighborhoods that had already been displaced by the new housing projects.

Photographer: Unknown
Source: Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-31584, 31586-87, 35476, 35485, 38119-20)