Spring 25 OP Newsletter

HERITAGE SITES

When Fiore Chiappetti opened his first slaughterhouse in the 1920s, the Chicago meatpacking industry had been flourishing for decades. Though there had been small slaughterhouses and cattle yards in the city before the nineteenth century, it was not until the 1860s that Chicago developed a consolidated stockyard district. The expansion of railroads during the 1850s to the 1870s drove more business to Chicago due to its central location; this led to an increase in the commercialization in the city center. Furthermore, during the Civil War, the federal government purchased meat primarily from Chicago to feed Union troops. As a result, the meatpacking industry quickly grew. On Christmas Day, 1865, the Union Stockyards opened with the following boundaries: 39th Street to the north, Halsted Street to the east, 47th Street to the south and South Racine Avenue to the west. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “by the beginning of

Fiore Chiappetti, c. 1960s (Photo courtesy of the Chiappetti Family)

the 1890s. . .the Union Stock Yard could hold more than 400,000 live animals at a time,” and, over the course of 1865 to 1900, more than 400 million animals were processed within it. By 1921, 40,000 people worked in the Union Stockyards, including Fiore and his family. Fiore’s business was a great success, and he had saved a good deal of money in the bank by 1929. However, as the story goes, since the bank could not afford to pay him back his money when the Great Depression hit, he was instead offered a deed to a farm in Orland Park, which he accepted. In 1934, Fiore received a deed for the land that Karl Stahulak had sold back to the Orland State Bank only weeks before. He now owned a 400-acre farm on 153rd Street, where Crystal Tree Golf Course now stands. That year, Fiore and Salvatore moved their business to Orland Park. On the farm they grew corn, soybeans and oats. Fiore converted the limestone building constructed by Joseph Rust into a slaughterhouse because it was cool on the inside during the summer. At this location, he processed lambs, calves and cattle. The meat was sent to the Union Stockyards in Chicago and the bones were sent to Darling & Co. to be made into fertilizer. Fiore’s use of the building gave it the name we refer to today: the Chiappetti Slaughterhouse. Fiore’s business grew considerably after his move to Orland Park. To better expand their operation, in the 1940s he and his children opened another slaughterhouse on Halsted Street in Chicago. On June 2, 1948, he sold his land on 143rd Street to the Andrew Corporation for $42,000 (approximately $548,000 in 2025).

orlandpark.org | Spring 2025 |

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