Archer Avenue (Archer Road)

Ronald J. Bragassi Memorial Road State Street (Lockport and Fairmont only)
Archer Avenue north of Midway Airport
Part of	IL 83 / IL 171
Length	33.6 mi (54.1 km)
Location	Joliet–Chicago
Southwest end	Dartmouth Avenue (turns into Collins Street locally)41°35′49″N 88°03′14″W / 41.59704°N 88.053834°W / 41.59704; -88.053834
Northeast end	State Street (approx. 1900 South) 41°51′23″N 87°37′38″W / 41.856514°N 87.627172°W / 41.856514; -87.627172

Archer Avenue, sometimes known as Archer Road outside the Chicago, Illinois city limits, and also known as State Street only in Lockport, Illinois and Fairmont, Illinois city limits, is a street running northeast-to-southwest between Chicago's Chinatown and Lockport. Archer follows the original trail crossing the Chicago Portage between the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, and parallels the path of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the Alton Railroad. As a main traffic artery, it has largely been replaced by the modern Stevenson Expressway.

The street was named after the first commissioner of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, William Beatty Archer.^[1] One early map of Chicago^[2] (ca. 1830) listed what may have been the future Archer Road as "The Road to Widow Brown's"^{[nb 1]}.

Route description

The east end of Archer begins in Chicago's Chinatown, then passes through the Bridgeport, McKinley Park and Brighton Park neighborhoods on its way to Archer Heights and Garfield Ridge. Outside Chicago, Archer Avenue/Road passes through the villages of Summit, Justice, Willow Springs, and the southern edge of Lemont before terminating on the north side of Lockport. Between Summit and Lockport, Archer Avenue is designated as a part of Illinois Route 171.

Points of interest

Southwest of Lemont, Archer passes Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, site of numerous Professional Golfers Association tournaments.

History

Historically, this section of Archer was a part of Illinois Route 4, the original 1924 highway connecting St. Louis and Chicago.^[4] In 1926, Route 4 was rerouted to the north side of the Des Plaines River on an alignment that subsequently became U.S. Route 66, and its former route on Archer was redesignated as Illinois Route 4A.^[5] By 1939, Route 4A had been extended along most of Archer Avenue into Downtown Chicago.^[6] In 1967, Route 4A was truncated back to Summit and merged into Illinois Route 171.^[7]

Historical sites

The former site of Argonne National Laboratory and its predecessor, the University of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory in the forest preserve near Red Gate Woods, can be entered from an access road on Archer Avenue.^[8] This was once a secret Manhattan Project site, and is now known as the Site A/Plot M Disposal Site. Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), the world's first nuclear reactor, was moved from Stagg Field to this site in 1943 and renamed Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2). The remains of CP-1, CP-2, and Chicago Pile-3 (CP-3) remain buried at this site.

A defunct Playland Amusement Park opened in mid-summer of 1950 which, at the time, was located in Willow Springs, Illinois. Back then, Willow Springs used to be an unincorporated community. The amusement park was located at 9300 West 79th Street in present-day Justice, Illinois.^[9]

In popular culture

Archer Avenue was made famous by Finley Peter Dunne in his books and sketches about the fictional saloonkeeper Mr. Dooley, whose tavern was on "Archey Road". The fictional Dooley "lived" in the real-life Bridgeport, Chicago neighborhood.

Archer Avenue is also famous as the purported haunting place of Resurrection Mary, a vanishing hitchhiker who is said to travel between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery.^[10][11]

Major intersections

County	Location	mi[12]	km	Destinations	Notes
Will	Joliet			IL 171 south (Collins Street)	Continuation beyond Dartmouth Avenue
	Joliet–Fairmont line	0.0	0.0	Dartmouth Avenue	Southwestern terminus
	Lockport	2.7	4.3	IL 7 (9th Street)
		6.7	10.8	I-355 Toll (Veterans Memorial Tollway)
	Lemont	9.2	14.8	CR 35 begins (135th Street - Romeo Road)
Cook		10.3	16.6	CR B51 ends (131st Street)
		11.2	18.0	CR B50 begins (127th Street)
	Lemont Township	12.1	19.5	CR W18 begins (Bell Road)
	Sag Bridge	12.3	19.8	IL 83 south (111th Street)	Southern end of IL 83 overlap
		13.1	21.1	IL 83 north (Kingery Highway)	Northern end of IL 83 overlap
	Willow Springs	17.7	28.5	CR W79 begins (Nolton Avenue)
	Willow Springs–Justice line	18.7	30.1	US 12 / US 20 / US 45 (La Grange Road) / I-294 Toll south (Tri-State Tollway)	I-294 southbound entrance only; to mainline toll barrier
	Justice	19.2	30.9	79th Street	Northbound IL 171 exit; southbound IL 171 entrance
	Bedford Park–Bridgeview line	21.1	34.0	CR W32 begins (Roberts Road)
	Summit	22.8	36.7	IL 171 north (1st Avenue)	Northern end of IL 171 overlap
	Summit–Chicago line	23.2	37.3	IL 43 (South Harlem Avenue)
	Chicago	26.3	42.3	IL 50 (South Cicero Avenue)
		29.3	47.2	CR W94 (California Avenue)
		31.2	50.2	CR W48 south (Ashland Avenue)
		33.6	54.1	South State Street	Northeastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Concurrency terminus       Incomplete access