Riverdale is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, Illinois and is located on the city's far south side. As originally designated by the Social Science Research Committee at the University of Chicago and officially adopted by the City of Chicago, the Riverdale community area extends from 115th Street south to the city boundary at 138th Street and from the Illinois Central Railroad tracks east to the Bishop Ford Freeway. History The first non-native settler in the area was David Perriam who, in 1837, claimed land north of the horseshoe bend in the Calumet River in an area referred to as Wildwood. This land was later acquired by Colonel James H. Bowen who was instrumental in construction of the Cal-Sag canal connecting the Calumet River to the Illinois River. After he lost his home in the Chicago Fire, Bowen moved to Wildwood and made this a palatial summer home where Chicago's elite gathered in the 1870s. Another early resident, George Dolton, settled near the Calumet River by the Chicago-Thornton Road (today's Indiana Avenue). He operated a chain ferry across the river. Levi Osterhoudt operated a tavern/road house at 133rd and Thornton Road from 1840 and the area became known as the Riverdale Crossing. In 1842, Dolton and Osterhoudt replaced the ferry with a toll bridge and called it the "Dolton Bridge. In 1849, the Dolton family leased 50 acres of farmland on the north bank of the Calumet River to John Ton, a Dutch immigrant who was one of the founding fathers of the new settlement of Roseland to the north. Ton was an abolitionist who operated a station on the Underground Railroad from this site until the Civil War. The north end of Riverdale is more closely aligned with Roseland both historically and culturally. In 1852, the Illinois Central Railroad opened a station at 115th Street where the Michigan Central Railroad joined the ICRR tracks calling it the Calumet Station, later renamed, "Kensington" after the palace and gardens in London. In 1880, George Pullman began constructing his model city just north of 115th Street. At Kensington, a small settlement of stores, boarding houses and saloons sprang up to serve the construction crews and immigrant tradesmen who came to work at the Pullman shops. The notorious saloons prompted the modest Dutchmen of nearby Roseland to nickname Kensington, "Bumtown." Riverdale was annexed into Chicago in 1889. In the aftermath