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Spotlight on
Mount Greenwood
A home for Chicago Police Officers
n BY JASON COHEN
Mount Greenwood, a community that was once known as “Seven Holy Tombs” because of the presence of ceme- teries along the eastern end of the neighborhood, is now renowned for being the place to live for Chicago Police Officers and Firefighters.
Because city workers must live within the city, Mount Greenwood is home to many city employees. According to a study done in 2013 by Politics & City Life-Chicago Magazine, the neighborhood was ranked the third saf- est in Chicago. Also, in 2015, the U.S. Census data found that more than 90 percent of Mount Greenwood residents grew up in the neighborhood.
“People just stay here,” said retired Chicago Police De- tective Larry O’Shaughnessy. “There’s no reason to move. If you’re comfortable where you are, that’s where you stay. We kind of understand if you live in the city you should try to live here. If you’re from the Southside you gener- ally often don’t change your ways and move up to the
Northside.”
Mount Greenwood took shape in 1879 when surveyor
George Washington Waite received an 80-acre land grant from the federal government. It began as Dutch, Irish and German farmers and those ethnicities still dominate the town today.
O’Shaughnessy, 70, who owns O’Shaughnessy Realtors which has an office Mount Greenwood, was a cop from 1966 to 1995. He moved to the area in 1956 as a sixth grad- er. He explained there isn’t a place he would have rather lived.
According to O’Shaughnessy, cops began to move to Mount Greenwood in the 40s and 50s. “The jobs were changing in Chicago, so everybody knew this was the place to be,” he commented.
As a teen, he found Mount Greenwood to be the close- knit community that it still is today. People left their doors unlocked, he said, and attended soccer and football games. Birthdays were celebrated together and people were there for each other in good and bad times. He add-
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60 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2016