Dark Chicago    The City    Neighborhoods    Southwest Side      Englewood

“You don’t just end up in Englewood. If you’re here, it’s ‘cause you were born here, or you got nowhere else left to go.”

Englewood sits deep in the South Side, bounded by West Englewood to the west, Greater Grand Crossing to the east, and the web of old railyards that cut through it like scar tissue. In the 1950s, the area is fraying—once proud homes sag against chain-link fences, corner stores flicker through dust-caked neon, and families fight to hold ground that the city would rather forget. This was once a hub of working-class pride and Black upward mobility. Now it’s a place where people get stuck—or disappear.
The Veil runs close to the surface here. Thin and patchy in some spots, thick and violent in others. Strange weather sweeps in without warning. Radios play dead stations. Bones get dug up by mistake. Between abandoned churches and weed-choked alleys, old rituals persist—quiet acts of defiance, remembrance, and protection. You don’t survive Englewood on toughness alone. You survive because you remember who walked before you, and you know better than to walk alone.

Neighborhoods

Old Rail Yards

A stretch of rusted tracks, gutted warehouses, and phantom trains that run without engineers. Squatters cluster near broken signal towers, and ritual circles etched in chalk mark the gravel around certain junctions. Some say the Veil here pulses on a timetable—thin in the mornings, heavy by dusk. Black Cobra Nation uses the far eastern edge as a dead-drop zone and unofficial enforcement corridor. One boxcar—sealed tight, marked with crimson sigils—has been humming for months.

Halsted Corridor

Lined with old tenements, basement storefronts, and more barbershops than banks, this corridor pulses with hustle and heat. Crown Sons-affiliated families still live on every block, though most dealings happen in borrowed rooms and behind locked doors. Moonshine stills hum under floorboards, while upstairs rooms serve as Veil seance sites and listening stations. Kids run games in cracked lots while men trade secrets over shaved ice and chain smoke in silence. The tension’s steady here—but so is the loyalty.

Notes

The CPD presence is barely visible. Officers rarely exit their cars unless paid or summoned.

Disappearances linked to Veil bleed are often chalked up to “urban myth” by officials—locals know better.

BCN controls major routes through the railyard and certain housing blocks, but lesser gangs are starting to test that grip.

An elder Veil-walker named Sister Odessa claims the sealed boxcar in the Old Yard is a gate—and that it’s waking up.

Halsted barbershops act as cultural anchor points and shadow information hubs.

One church near 63rd has stopped offering mass—but the choir still sings every Sunday.

Certain street murals along Halsted shift slightly at night. No one paints them.

A missing CPD officer’s badge turned up nailed to a telephone pole with the words “still watching” scrawled beneath it.

The ground here doesn’t forget. Neither do the ghosts. Veil threads knot around every rail spike and alley prayer.

Wealth
Security & Safety
Criminal Influence
Occult Influence

African American	70%
Irish American	10%
Polish American	8%
Mexican American	5%
Other	7%

South Side

Southwest Side

Englewood

63rd Street Market – Open-air stalls and closed-mouth vendors. Anything you want, for a price.
Calumet Switch Tower – Overgrown signal tower near the railyard, rumored to flash during eclipses.
St. Anselm’s Ruins – Former church, firebombed in ’49, still visited nightly by unknown worshipers.
The Humming Boxcar – Rust-sealed railcar pulsing with Veil energy. The seal’s beginning to crack.
Elder House on Sangamon – Community meeting place and unofficial Veil mediation hub.
McGavin’s Tap – Dive bar with Crown Sons history, known for “silent nights” where nobody speaks after dark.
Old Rail Yards:

The Humming Boxcar – Pulsing with Veil energy; sealed for decades
Shed 11B – BCN stash house and meeting point
East Platform Lot – Zone for unspoken deals, quiet ambushes
Chalk Switchhouse – Veil markings change weekly
Signal 6 Crossroads – Phantom train activity and residual trauma site
Ruined Dispatch Office – Squatters see a glowing figure some nights
Halsted Corridor:

McGavin’s Tap – Long-standing dive with gang ties and Veil whispers
Barber Paul’s – Neutral ground for word-trading and Veil listening
Mooney’s Hardware – Front for stolen goods and Veil tools
Stoopline Murals – Shift when unobserved; source unknown
The Choir House – Former rectory with a ghost chorus
Jasper’s Basement – Veil bleed site; no light source stays lit inside