Archer Avenue (Chicago)
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Archer Avenue (formerly Archer Road) in Chicago, Illinois is a diagonal street running southwest between the area south of the Chicago Loop and Harlem Avenue. It follows the old portage trail between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, and parallels the path of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Alton Railroad.
Archer Avenue is the street made famous by Finley Peter Dunne in his books and sketches about the fictional saloonkeeper Mr. Dooley, whose tavern was on "Archey Road". Dooley lived in the Bridgeport, Chicago neighborhood.
Archer Avenue was named after the first commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. One early map of Chicago (ca. 1830) listed the future Archer Road as "The Road to Widow Brown's". [1]
Archer Avenue is also known as one of the most haunted roads in the world, mainly because it is home to Resurrection Cemetery, located along Archer in the village of Justice, Illinois. Resurrection Cemetery is believed by many historians and paranormal researchers to be the burial site of the young woman who became, after death, Resurrection Mary, one of the world's most famous ghosts. Several miles south of the cemetery, also on Archer, is the Willowbrook Ballroom, where Resurrection Mary was said to have spent her last evening. Mary is a ghost known as a "vanishing hitchhiker," a phantom who is generally picked up by drivers along the road only to disappear from the car before reaching the intended destination. Ghost experts believe Archer is haunted because of at least three factors: 1)It was originally an Indian Road, perhaps built over a sacred line (or "ley line") in the region; 2)It was the building route of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, where many Irish immigrants died under severe working conditions in the early-mid 19th century; and 3)Thre is a high concentration of water in the area, which is believed by some paranormal researchers to contribute to paranormal activity. (Ursula Bielski, "Chicago Haunts: Ghostlore of the Windy City, 2nd ed." Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 1997)
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