Community: North Avenue Neighborhood, Sycamore

The 1924 Sandborn Insurance Map of Sycamore, illustrates houses along the three blocks of North Avenue and the one block of Lucas Avenue. The area is listed as “Factory Addition.” At the western edge of this small neighborhood was the Chicago Insulated Wire Company (later it became Anaconda Wire). The main factory building was located at the intersection of today’s Brickville Road and North Avenue (located several blocks north of downtown Sycamore). The Black community was welcome to live and work in this neighborhood, and two churches were created within the first decade after the turn of-the-century. North Avenue Baptist Church was established in 1904 and Israel of God’s Church, White Horse Army in 1908. Both churches sought to meet the social and spiritual needs for those who lived within the North Avenue community.