The community was entirely agrarian until the late 19th century, when the town of Pullman, Chicago was built between Roseland and Lake Calumet.

George M. Pullman planned a model industrial city built around a factory that manufactured his "Palace" railway coaches.

The Pullman Freight Car Works was built in the 1900s decade on 103rd Street, and survives to this day as a distribution center for flat-rolled steel.

Sant' Antonio di Padua (St. Anthony's) Church (built 1903) and its grammar school were key religious and cultural landmarks of the area.

Supporting businesses flourished rapidly changing the farmland into commercial and residential communities surrounded by a number of industries.

It was considered an "upscale" [citation needed] neighborhood of Roseland and extended west into the Washington Heights community up to Halsted Street.

In mid August 1947, several black veterans and their families moved into the CHA Fernwood Park Housing Project at 104th and Halsted.

Area residents viewed this as one of several attempts by the CHA to initiate racial integration into white communities.

[3] During the 1950s and 1960s the community witnessed the combined effects of blockbusting by unscrupulous real estate agents and the ensuing white flight resulting in complete ethnic transition.

[4] To Black trades workers, Lilydale represented an all-too-rare opportunity to use their skills and help resolve their own housing problem.

Today, only about 12 city blocks remain of the original settlement and the area is generally referred to as a part of Princeton Park.

Unscrupulous realtors used scare tactics such as blockbusting to frighten and intimidate white residents; churning the real estate market for quick profits.

As suburban housing and commuting became more accessible in the 1960s and 1970s, middle class whites left the Roseland area resulting in a total ethnic transformation.

The main campus of Chicago State University at 95th and Martin Luther King Drive, is in the northeast portion of Roseland.

Roseland is one of the deadliest neighborhoods in Chicago, despite stepped-up efforts by City Hall to curb gang violence.