Editing Chicago Loop (section)

===19th century===
In what is now the Loop, on the south bank of the [[Chicago River]] near today's [[Michigan Avenue Bridge]], the [[United States Army]] erected [[Fort Dearborn]] in 1803, the first settlement in the area sponsored by the United States. When Chicago was initially platted in 1830 by the surveyor [[James Thompson (surveyor)|James Thompson]], it included what is now the Loop north of Madison Street and west of State Street. The [[Sauganash Hotel]], the first hotel in Chicago, was built in 1831 near [[Wolf Point, Chicago|Wolf Point]] at what is now the northwestern corner of the Loop. When [[Cook County, Illinois|Cook County]] was incorporated in 1831, the first meeting of its government was held at Fort Dearborn with two representatives from Chicago and one from [[Naperville, Illinois|Naperville]]. The entirety of what is now the Loop was part of the Town of Chicago when it was initially incorporated in 1833, except the Fort Dearborn reservation, which became part of the city in 1839, and land reclaimed from Lake Michigan.

The area was bustling by the end of the 1830s.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> Lake Street started to become a center for retail at that time, until it was eclipsed by State Street in the 1850s.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/>