Near West Side, Chicago in the context of "Chicago Loop"

The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago, Illinois, during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km) of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration spreading quickly. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then crossed the main stem of the river, consuming the Near North Side.

Help flowed to the city from near and far after the fire. The city government improved building codes to stop the rapid spread of future fires and rebuilt rapidly to those higher standards. A donation from the United Kingdom spurred the establishment of the Chicago Public Library.

Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the West Loop neighborhood of the Near West Side of Chicago, United States. Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest, Union Station is the terminus of eight national long-distance routes and eight regional corridor routes. Six Metra commuter lines also terminate here.

Union Station is just west of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. Including approach and storage tracks, it covers about nine and a half city blocks (mostly underground, beneath streets and skyscrapers, some built with the earliest usage of railway air rights).

United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named for its corporate sponsor United Airlines. With a capacity of nearly 21,000, the United Center is the largest arena by capacity in the NBA, and second largest arena by capacity in the NHL. It also has a seating capacity of 23,500 for concerts.

Opened in 1994, the United Center replaced the West Side's Chicago Stadium ("the madhouse on Madison"), which was opened in 1929 and located across Madison Street from the center. It is owned by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, owners of the teams that use the arena, and which also own much of the surrounding land. The first event held at the arena was WWF SummerSlam, and it hosts hundreds of sporting events, and concerts a year. The center also hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1996 and 2024. The arena served as the municipal emergency hub in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hull, opened to serve recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had expanded to 13 buildings. In 1912, the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of a summer camp, the Bowen Country Club. With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement; by 1920, it grew to approximately 500 settlement houses nationally.

The Hull mansion and several subsequent acquisitions were continuously renovated to accommodate the changing demands of the association. In the mid-1960s, most of the Hull House buildings were demolished for the construction of the University of Illinois Chicago. The original house and one additional building, a community refectory and meeting hall (which has been moved 200 yards (182.9 m)) survive today. On June 23, 1965, it was designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. On October 15, 1966, the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On June 12, 1974, the surviving Hull mansion was designated as a Chicago Landmark.

The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in the Near West Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States.

The university was the second institution established within the University of Illinois System and it is now the largest university in the Chicago metropolitan area, having more than 35,000 students enrolled in its 16 colleges. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity."

Malcolm X College is a public municipal community college in the Near West Side community area in the west side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of the City Colleges of Chicago system.

The college was founded as Crane Junior College in 1911 and was the first of the City Colleges. Crane ceased operation during the Depression; their newspaper, the Crane College Javelin, was still being printed in May of 1932. It was reopened in 1934 as Theodor Herzl Junior College, located in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's West Side in. Needing a new campus in the late 1960s, Herzl's building was changed into an elementary school. In 1969, the school was named in honor of civil rights advocate and orator Malcolm X on its move to a new campus in the Near West Side.