Union Stock Yards

Union Stock Yards was the engine room of Chicago's South Side — 475 acres where the nation's cattle, hogs, and sheep arrived by the millions and left as the meat that fed a growing country.

Opened on Christmas Day 1865 at Exchange and Halsted, the Yards processed nearly 15 million head of livestock a year at their 1920s peak, earning Chicago the title Carl Sandburg gave it: Hog Butcher for the World. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle exposed the conditions inside, and the reforms that followed reshaped American food safety. The limestone gate at Exchange Avenue watched generations of immigrant labor pass beneath it on their way to the killing floors.

The Yards closed in 1971 as the industry decentralized. The gate still stands — a lone landmark over ground that once defined the city.

A piece of the South Side for the wall — understated enough for any room, specific enough to mean something to anyone who knows.