Homes for sale in
South Chicago Heights.

Near the southern edge of Cook County, this small town grew around the intersection of the Sauk and Hubbard's Trails, both of which had served for hundreds of years as major routes for native peoples and early traders. In 1833 Adam and Phoebe Brown, from Ohio, settled at the crossing and operated a general store and inn at a spot known as Brown's Corner that stayed in the family for 70 years. Local tradition holds that Brown's Corner was a stop on the Underground Railroad. By the late nineteenth century the trails had become wagon and coach roads, with Hubbard's Trail better known as Chicago Road, and in 1906 the Browns sold their inn to the Burgel family, who kept it until 1968.

In 1907 residents near the old intersection joined with local commercial interests and, meeting in the depot of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, voted to incorporate as the village of South Chicago Heights. The first year's budget was 3,800 dollars, met by property taxes and three saloon licenses, and by 1910 the village had a volunteer fire department and its first policeman. From 1913 into 1928 the original route of the Lincoln Highway ran through the village along Sauk Trail and then north on Chicago Road, and the Chicago Road section was designated part of the Dixie Highway in 1915 and Illinois State Route 1 in 1926. Housing developed predominantly for workers in nearby business and industry, with neighborhoods originally home to families of Italian, Polish, and German ancestry who worked in Chicago Heights.