The author''s posts are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of Movoto.
The city's old police station and town hall are filled with demons and monsters every Halloween. The two-story haunted house, called Cicero's Town Hall of Horrors, is a Chicagoland Halloween favorite, and is located on W. 25th St. and S. 50th Ave.
There are three main food groups in Chicagoland: pizza, hot dogs and tacos. These beloved dishes are served up the right way at local favorites like Albano's Pizzeria, Freddy's Pizza, Henry's Hotdogs, Indio and Taqueria Los Comales. If you're hungry, you've hit the jackpot. Or, if you would like to try something outside of those three food groups, you're also in the perfect area for traditional Czech food; Klas Restaurant is a tried and accurate favorite.
Bordered by Chicago to the north and to the east, Cicero is seven miles west of the Loop and the suburb closest to downtown. And, like most Chicago suburbs, you can't tell when you're leaving the city and entering the suburb, giving it a city feel rather than that of a distant suburb. In fact, Cicero has a closer view of Chicago's downtown skyline than much of the city itself.
According to the 2010 U.S. census, 86.6 percent of Cicero's approximately 83,000 residents were Hispanic or Latino. In addition, 82.9 percent of the local population speak a language other than English at home.
Thanks to its position bordering the western edge of Chicago, criminals trying to get away from Chicago law enforcement would oftentimes flee to (or through) Cicero. During Prohibition in the 1920s, notorious gangster Al Capone established his headquarters there, as well as gambling dens, bistros and bordellos, and in 1930, his sister's wedding was held in the St. Mary of Czestochowa church on 48th Ct. and 30th St. According to local legend, Capone built many of the area's roads to speed up travel for his beer trucks.
Like most suburbs, Cicero is connected to the city by the Metra, a commuter rail division of the Regional Transportation Authority. However, it's also only one of seven suburbs to be connected by the Chicago Transit Authority's local 'L' trains. It is located on the CTA's Pink Line and the Metra's BNSF Railway line. It is also served by suburban Pace buses and city CTA buses.
Because Cicero is situated next to Chicago and the railroad, Cicero's roots lie in industry. By the 1920s, Cicero was Illinois' largest manufacturing center, and by 1930 it had 115 factories. The largest manufacturer was Hawthorne Works, owned by the Western Electric Company. It opened in 1903 and at its peak, employed 40,000 people and covered 141 acres. Hawthorne Works closed in 1983. Little by little, abandoned industrial areas are being used again, converting into housing, stores and offices.
The city is made up of eight neighborhoods: Grant Works, Hawthorne, Warren Park, Drezel, Clyde, Morton Park, Boulevard Manor and Parkholme. Cicero didn't start with a main street area and grow outward; rather, separate settlements, today represented by neighborhoods, gradually grew together.
Today Cicero is just 5.5 square miles, less than a sixth of its original size of 36 square miles. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Oak Park and Berwyn voted to break away from Cicero, while many other areas, such as Austin, became part of Chicago.
The Hawthorne Race Course is located on Cicero''s southern border with Stickney. Open since 1891, it the oldest continually-run family-owned racetrack in North America. It is one of two thoroughbred racing tracks in the Chicago area, and one of four raceways overall. Hawthorne is where area race fans come to make a wager.
