[2] 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.

"[3] In 1851 this remote prairie location seemed ideal for Cook County's plans to erect a poor farm, potter's field and asylum for the insane.

Residents of the poor farm lived with their families growing vegetables, washing their clothes, and attending school on the premises.

Following the Civil War, Andrew Dunning purchased 120 acres just south of the county property to start a nursery and lay the groundwork for a village.

Although trains brought employees and commuters from the city, visitors had to walk two and a half miles from the depot to the county farm.

After a single three-mile track was extended to the facilities in 1882, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway's "crazy train" brought patients, supplies, and medicines.

With the advent of the Irving Park Boulevard street railway, clubs, churches, and companies held picnics in the grove.

Based on records from the Chicago Department of Revenue, we know that in 1910 other similar venues such as Kosciuzko Grove were also in the Dunning area.

After 1910 the poor farm was moved to Oak Forest, and two years later the state bought the mental hospital and property for one dollar.

Research led to the re-discovery of the Cook County Potter's Field, which had been located near the poor house and insane asylum.

In 1916 the first housing boom occurred when Schorsch Brothers Real Estate bought a tract west of Austin and south of Irving Park.