Dunning

Dunning is one of 77 officially designated community areas of the city of Chicago, Illinois. Dunning also is a neighborhood located on the Northwest Side of the city. The neighborhood is home to the Eli's Cheesecake factory. It is also the location of the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, formerly known as Cook County Insane Asylum and commonly referred to, in its day, as simply "Dunning." In 1851 this remote prairie location seemed ideal for Cook County's plans to erect a poor farm and asylum for the insane. The county purchased from Peter Ludby 160 acres hemmed in by Irving Park Road and Nar ragansett, Montrose, and Oak Park Avenues. Both facilities were housed in a three-story building situated atop a ridge. Residents of the poor...