Santa Milano farming near Lake Calumet

The Milano family donated a number of family photographs to the Southeast Chicago Historical Museum. Santa Cocco Milano, who was born in 1885 and emigrated from the Campobosso region of southern Italy, owned a small ethnic grocery store with her family on the East Side. Her husband Valentino worked in the steel mills. This photo was taken in the late 1930s and shows Santa Milano farming a plot of land off Torrence Avenue near Lake Calumet in South Deering. Even though the area looks rural, it was located in the city. Many families gardened to help support themselves during the difficult years of the Depression. The Milanos may have also sold produce at their store. Much of the open land in between the mills, neighborhoods, and waterways would later become areas for waste disposal, first by the steel mills and, later, by the city and other waste disposal companies.