The district was formed by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a vast centralized processing area. By the s, the railroad capital behind the Union Stockyards was Vanderbilt money. The stockyards became the focal point of the rise of some of the earliest international companies, whose ability to get product moved across the world became crucial. These companies and corporations refined industrial innovations and influenced financial markets.
Both the rise and fall of the Yards reflect the evolution of transportation services and technology in America. The stockyards have become an integral in Chicago's cultural history.
They are also considered one of the chief drivers that empowered the animalβindustrial complex into its modern form. From the Civil War through the s, peaking in , more meat was processed in Chicago than in any other place in the world.
The Yards closed at midnight on Friday, July 30, , after several decades of decline during the decentralization of the meatpacking industry. The neo-gothic Union Stock Yard Gate on Exchange Avenue was designated a Chicago Landmark on February 24, , [ 7 ] and a National Historic Landmark on May 29, , and is the only remnant of the old stockyards, which largely became business and industrial parks after the closure.
Before construction of the various private stockyards, tavern owners provided pastures and care for cattle herds waiting to be sold. With the spreading service of railroads , several small stockyards were created in and around the city of Chicago. Between and , five railroads were constructed to Chicago. The Illinois Central and the Michigan Central railroads combined to build the largest set of pens on the lake shore east of Cottage Grove Avenue from 29th Street to 35th Street.
