Readers please note that this article has been in my "drafts' folder for some time. An update follows the original article.
The Chicago Rat Hole Has Charmed Thousands. Neighbors Have Had Enough.
A shrine is built up around the Chicago Rat Hole, a decades-old rodent-shaped indent in the sidewalk that's become the city's hottest new tourist attraction. (Winslow Dumaine)
Jonathan Howell had been hearing about Chicago’s hottest new tourist spot for weeks. On Jan. 19, he and his wife finally made the 10-minute drive from his place to check out the Chicago Rat Hole, a rodent-shaped imprint in the sidewalk on an unassuming residential street.
Except when they got there, there was no hole.
Howell, 49, quickly realized that someone had filled in the impression with a concrete-like substance that was still wet. At first, a wave of anger hit him. Then he decided to do something about it. After fetching an old license plate from his car, he scraped out the concrete.
“I love quirky Chicago things,” Howell said, adding, “It’s one of those Chicago gems that you want to keep around.”
That is not a universal sentiment. The unidentified would-be destroyer of the Rat Hole is not the only person who’s become frustrated with the critter-shaped curiosity of mysterious origin. Although charmed by the imprint and its new fans, some residents who live on the 1900 block of West Roscoe Street have grown irritated by the large crowds, the loud noise they bring and the trash they leave behind. Knowing the garbage could attract actual rats, they take turns each morning clearing ever-replenishing shrines of rat figurines, cheese, greeting cards and Chicago-made Malört liqueur, only to clean up the next batch of offerings 24 hours later.
“It’s a little bit crazy,” resident Cindy Nelson told The Washington Post.
Coins and other items are left behind by visitors at the Chicago Rat Hole in the Roscoe Village neighborhood. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
At the start of Rat Hole mania, Nelson said she and her neighbors were celebrating their block’s sudden popularity, though they were a little surprised at the attention. And while most are still fond of the imprint, some have become disgruntled by the baggage that’s come with it.
No matter how big the crowds get, sightseers during the day are well behaved, waiting in line to snap a few photos near the imprint and then leaving, Nelson said, sharing a photo that showed an orderly line wrapped around the block Jan. 21. But those who come at night wreak havoc, she added. They bring alcohol, make noise and leave a slew of trash, including food.
“It’s always the 2 percent who ruin it for the other 98,” she said.
Two weeks into the craze, artist Winslow Dumaine, the man whose tweet drew new attention to this decades-old local oddity, implored Rat Hole tourists to be considerate of the neighborhood they were visiting.
“I don’t want to ruin the fun, but if you’re going to visit the Rat Hole, please be respectful of the neighborhood. It’s right by an apartment building and I’m getting noise and obstruction complaints,” he wrote in a tweet. “Also, don’t put Malort in the ground where dogs can drink it!”
“There are ways that we can keep the shrine as what it is without blocking traffic for the residents,” he wrote in another post. “Let the people of Roscoe go about their business and you can pay your respects in peace.”
As the noise rose and the garbage mounted, residents posted laminated signs next to the imprint, nudging visitors to “be respectful of the rat’s neighbors and keep noise and clutter to a minimum.” They also asked them not to leave food near the shrine lest it attract live rats or anything that might be harmful to pets or children.
They signed off with the picture of a rat, a heart emblazoned with Chicago’s flag and the words “With love, Rat Neighbors.”
Scott Waguespack, the alderman who represents Roscoe Village, told WMAQ last week that he planned to talk with city transportation officials about the possibility of removing the slab with the imprint because of threats against residents who had complained about some visitors. He told WGN that it might be given away or raffled off.
“I’m more concerned about residents dealing with it,” he told WMAQ.
Waguespack did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.
When Jeff VanDam, who lives six doors down from the Rat Hole, told his daughters that it might be removed, they were dismayed, he told The Post. But that doesn’t mean it will be destroyed, he said. It could be moved to another place where crowds wouldn’t bother residents. When he asked his girls where it should go if that happens, his 10-year-old said the Chicago History Museum and his 6-year-old said Fellger Park, which is a few blocks away.
VanDam hopes the craze fades, the crowds ebb and the Rat Hole can stay. He pointed to Our Lady of the Underpass as a source of optimism. In 2005, crowds swarmed to the Kennedy Expressway underpass at West Fullerton Avenue to see a water-and-salt stain that devotees claimed looked like the Virgin Mary.
Eventually, the crowds left and the news stories abated. The stain, which had also been dubbed the Viaduct Virgin and Salt Stain Mary, remained.
VanDam said he thinks the Rat Hole resonates with people because it turns a stereotypical knock against the city on its head. Chicago is infamous for being infested with rats — in October, the pest control company Orkin declared Chicago the “rattiest” city in the country for the ninth year in a row — and the imprint morphs that criticism into a point of pride.
“It’s reversing the image of this gritty city — the rat — and turning it into an emblem,” he said, adding, “That’s something Chicago does really well.”
Jonathan Edwards is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. Before joining The Post, he covered public safety for The Virginian-Pilot and Lincoln Journal Star.
WinslowDumaine
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ROSCOE VILLAGE — A year ago, the world was introduced to The Chicago Rat Hole.
The rodent-shaped hole in a Roscoe Village sidewalk turned into a viral sensation after a local comedian posted about it on social media on Jan. 10, 2024, racking up millions of views. Captivated by its strange beauty and mysterious origins, the city was quick to declare The Rat Hole as the city’s newest mascot.
Shirts and prints were made. People visited the Rat Hole and left money, trinkets and trophies. One couple got married on the sidewalk, pouring celebratory drinks in the Rat Hole to sanctify their eternal love. Jimmy Fallon and The Roots sang about it on “The Tonight Show.” The Rat Hole even has its own Wikipedia entry.
But a year later, many are wondering what happened to The Rat Hole after city crews delicately removed the slab of sidewalk a few months after the hole went viral due to complaints of crowds from neighbors.
Fans and admirers of the Rat Hole can rest assured that the slab has been carefully preserved by the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department.
The Rat Hole has been encased and preserved at City Hall where it will stay until the city finds a proper place to store and display it some day soon, Mimi Simon, a spokesperson with the city’s Streets and Sanitation Department, told Block Club.
Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stallard showed FOX 32’s Dane Placko the preserved rat hole — encassed under glass — on a tour of the agency’s office.
“The people who wonder where it’s at, it’s in good hands. It’s under glass here. And we’re taking care of it,” Stallard told FOX 32.
Comedian Winslow Dumaine, who posted about the rat hole a year ago, sparking that social media frenzy, told FOX 32 this week the Rat Hole brought Chicagoans together.
“The news cycle was extremely depressing at that time. As it generally is these days. And having some sort of silly, unique thing that is extremely Chicago kind of brought a lot of people together. And I think it still does,” Dumaine said.
Although the Rat Hole has been in the public’s consciousness for only a calendar year, the rodent-shaped hole has been part of neighbors’ lives in Roscoe Village for decades.
“I remember trying not to get my Razor scooter caught in it,” Briana Carroll said.
Carroll, Marco Villa and their pup Francis were out on a walk Thursday afternoon and reminisced on their earliest memories of the Rat Hole.
According to their memory, the Rat Hole had been there for at least a decade. The couple has lived in Roscoe Village for a few years. Carroll grew up in the neighborhood and said she wasn’t necessarily thrilled about all the attention that came with the Rat Hole’s popularity.
Once the Rat Hole was discovered by everyone, it became a tourist attraction and eventually caused a distraction for neighbors as a once-quiet street became filled with people vying to see the viral phenomenon. Two couples even had their proposal and marriage by the rat hole (which many locals believe was actually the imprint of a squirrel).
Visitors were leaving gifts beside the rat hole and along the sidewalk, creating shrines with coins, alcohol, weed and condoms, among other items, neighbors said.
“It sort of speaks to the consequence of things going viral in the digital era,” Villa said. “Sure, it’s just a rat hole, and maybe the Rat Hole doesn’t matter, but what about things that do matter? And once it’s gone, they’re gone.”
Carroll and Villa both joked that a Block Club reporter hanging out at the Rat Hole on Thursday afternoon was the first person they saw at the site in months.
But all jokes and shrines aside, Carroll said she was glad that so many people found joy in something so silly.
“I’m so glad we live in a society where people appreciate a good Rat Hole,” Carroll said.
