The Chesterfield Community Council, established in 1952, is a nonprofit community-based organization whose sole purpose is to promote, unify, and assist in all endeavors pertaining to the Chesterfield Community.
The Chesterfield community is located in Chicago, Illinois twelve miles south of the downtown area. The land was originally a marsh and low-laying swamp in the late 1800s. When Illinois Central Railway came into existence, they established a method of quick transportation for commuting to and from city and rural areas. The area adjacent to Chesterfield is Chatham. Dauphin Park, located between 87th and 93rd Streets, State Street and the Illinois Central tracks, was laid out in 1889 after Chatham was annexed by Chicago as a part of the Village of Hyde Park and the Town of Lake.
The Chesterfield Community is truly unique. Dauphin Park, which was later called Chesterfield, was settled by Hungarian and Irish railroad workers. It’s adjacent to the heavily populated Chatham community and encompasses Chicago’s smallest area, Burnside. By the early 1900s, Chesterfield was maturing with housing stock consisting of primarily small frame, brick Bungalows and two-flat homes; most of which are still standing today. In 1920, the population of Chesterfield was estimated at 1,800, which mostly included first and second generation Poles, Hungarians, Irish and Italians. As Chicago’s social patterns began to change under the impact of the Great Migration of southern African-Americans, so did the neighborhood. In the early 1950s, Blacks began to move further south, out of Chicago's Black Belt, into areas such as Chatham.