Little Hell

Little Hell — At the time of the great fire the region west of Larrabee St. was almost unoccupied as far down as the river, and when the relief work began this tract was suggested as a good place for the building of houses for the people whose property had been destroyed. So a lot of small cottages and one long, low building with a room for each family in it were erected. The long, low building was called "The Barracks." It stood on the west side of Crosby St., just across from the gas works, and it was the center of ail the glorious doings that made " Little Hell " historical. The citizens of the " Hell " were comfortably fixed for social enjoyment. Their food and lodgings, and much of their clothing, came from the Relief and Aid Society. Work was plenty arid labor was high. They found themselves each week with a surplus on hand and nothing to do with it, unless they devoted it to the pleasures of the cup that cheers. It was thus that " Little Hell " began.
Police found it out first. Every night a patrolman would come from the station to help subdue a riot. When an old officer was to be punished, or a new one tried, he was sent to " Little Hell." Sometimes he lasted a week. If he was particularly tough and courageous, and if he had a hard head, he survived perhaps a month. Then he usually went to the hospital to furnish an interesting case of compound fracture or concussion of the brain to the clinics. "Little Hell" was a "terror district" for several years after the fire and many a bloody murder was committed within its precincts. But most of the desperate characters who infested the district have been killed or sent to the penitentiary or driven out of the city. The houses in "Little Hell" are even giving way to new brick structures, but there are frequent relics of the old "relief cottages" to be seen in the famous tract.
From The Standard Guide to Chicago, Illustrated, World's Fair Edition, 1893 by John J. Flinn