Many CPL locations are named after the community or neighborhood they're located in. The Clearing Branch is no exception. But what is the origin of the name Clearing? Thanks to the local historical files of the Clear-Ridge Historical Society, we know the answer.
The Clearing community name was assigned in the 1920s, as were most of the names of Chicago's 77 communities, thanks to a group of sociologists from the University of Chicago who were tasked with naming the various areas of Chicago. The group based the name Clearing on the previous "Town of Clearing," which existed from 1912 to 1915. (The annexation of the area in 1915 put an end to the town.) This short-lived town grew out of a community that had existed since the 1890s. These settlers called the area Clearing because of the Chicago and Clearing Rail Company, which owned the rail yards directly south of the current community.
The Chicago and Clearing Rail Company was owned by H.H. Porter. Porter fashioned the yards into the second largest rail yards in the country and built the neighboring Clearing Industrial District on the lands just north of the rail yards. The Clearing Industrial District was only the second known example of a planned industrial district in the world. The Chicago and Clearing Rail Company sold the yards to the Belt Line Railway, which own the yards to this day, but the name Clearing stuck.
The Clearing Industrial District has, for the most part, disappeared and is no longer part of Chicago, but the Clearing rail yards continue to be the second largest in the country.
