Marshall Field Garden Apartment Homes, Chicago, Illinois.

The Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located at 1450 North Sedgwick in Chicago, is a large non-governmental subsidized housing project in the Old Town neighborhood.

Construction of the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, located on the block bounded by West Blackhawk Street, North Sedgwick Street, West Siegel Street, and North Hudson Avenue. 1928

The project occupies two square city blocks (6 acres) and was the largest moderate-income housing development in the U.S. at the time of construction in 1929.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments has 628 units within 10 buildings. Construction was financed by Marshall Field III.

This "experiment" aimed not only to provide housing at a reasonable cost but also to provide a catalyst for the renewal of the surrounding area. Marshall Field Garden Apartments was at the time of construction one of two large philanthropic housing developments in Chicago.

The other was Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, at 47th and Michigan. Both were built in 1929 and both were modeled after the Dunbar Apartments built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., in 1926 in Harlem, New York City.

Marshall Field Garden Apartments was meant to be the first of three or four similar projects, but the Great Depression kept those plans from coming to fruition. Marshall Field had hoped to provide low-cost housing but land acquisition and construction cost overruns pushed the rent into the moderate range.

In 1991, the apartments were deteriorated and were sold to private investors with a clause that specified that they would remain available only to low income tenants for 25 years.

In 2016, the apartments were sold to Related Midwest. A public-private partnership agreement was made to keep the units affordable until 2045. 

All 628 Marshall Field Garden apartments are currently Section-8 assisted living units. 

MARSHALL FIELD AND COMPANY ARTICLES

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.