Primarily an industrial neighborhood, there is a small group of residences in the northeast corner with approx 80% of the area being zoned as industrial, natural wetlands, or parks. The rest of the neighborhood, is for residential and commercial uses.
The settlement of the neighborhood, which was renamed South Deering in 1903 after the Deering Harvester Company, began in the 1870s, when the the Joseph H. Brown Iron and Steel Company set up a factory in the area.
Manufacturing and industry drove the neighborhood, with the major employers including Wisconsin Steel, Illinois Slag and Ballast Company, and the Federal Furnace Company, as well as U.S. Steel Southworks in nearby South Chicago and the Ford Assembly Plant in Hegewisch.
The large railroad marshaling yard has been present in the northwest part of the neighborhood since the 1870s. However, many of the factories have since closed down leaving polluted lands behind with some of the areas declared as superfund sites due to the potential health risk to residents.
South Deering includes several neighborhoods including Irondale, Jefferey Manor, Vet’s Park and Slag Valley.
Irondale was the original settlement in South Deering.
Vet’s Park was where many homes were built following World War II to house returning soldiers looking for work at one of the local factories.
