1880s photo of 653 W. Wrightwood (now 655 W. Wrightwood) in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, typical of the Victorian-era structures in the area. Note the wooden sidewalk, dirt road and lack of buildings surrounding the edifice.
In 1824, the United States Army built a small post near today's Clybourn Avenue and Armitage Avenue (formerly Centre Street). Native American settlements existed along Green Bay Trail, now called Clark Street (named after George Rogers Clark), at the current intersection of Halsted Street and Fullerton Avenue. Before Green Bay Trail became Clark Street, it stretched as far as Green Bay, Wisconsin, including Sheridan Road, and was part of what still is Green Bay Road in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin.[3][4]
In 1836, land from North to Fullerton and from the lake to Halsted was relatively inexpensive, costing $150 per acre ($370/ha) (1836 prices, not adjusted for inflation). Because the area was considered remote, a smallpox hospital and the city cemetery were located in Lincoln Park until the 1860s.[5][6]
In 1837, Chicago was incorporated as a city, and North Avenue (to the south of today's Lincoln Park neighborhood) was established as the city's northern boundary. Settlements increased along Green Bay Trail when the government offered land claims and Green Bay Road was widened. The area north of Chicago, including today's Lincoln Park, was eventually incorporated as Lake View Township. The city, nonetheless, owned extensive tracts of land north of North Avenue, including what is now the park. The Township was annexed to Chicago in 1889.[7] The Lincoln Park Zoo opened in 1868.[8]
In the period following the Civil War, the area around Southport and Clybourn became home to a community of Kashubian immigrants. Arriving from what is now north-eastern Poland, Chicago's Kashubians brought their own distinct culture and language, influenced by their rustic traditions.[citation needed] In 1882, St. Josaphat'sRoman Catholic parish was established specifically for the Kashubian community. The resulting nicknames of "Jozafatowo" (Polish for "Josaphat's Town") as well as "Kaszubowo" (Polish for "Cassubian Town") made the neighborhood one of Chicago's Polish Patches. The current Romanesque Revival church building was completed in 1902. A Pomeranian Griffin Crest visible on the school south of the church is a nod to the parish that once anchored one of the communities in Chicago dubbed Little Cassubia."
From 1896 to 1903, the original Ferris Wheel was located at a small amusement park near Clark St. and Wrightwood Ave.[9] The site was from 2619 to 2665 N. Clark St., which is now the location of a McDonald's and a high-rise residential building.[10] On February 14, 1929, seven mob associates and a mechanic were shot to death in an automobile garage at 2122 N. Clark St.[11]
During the Great Depression, many buildings in Lincoln Park fell into disrepair.[12] In 1954 the Lincoln Park Conservation Association was founded to prevent deterioration of housing in the neighborhood and by 1956 Lincoln Park received urban renewal funds to renovate and restore old buildings and schools.[13]
I pointed out that it was in the best interests of the City to have us in Lincoln Park ten miles away from the Convention hall. I said we had no intention of marching on the Convention hall, that I didn't particularly think that politics in America could be changed by marches and rallies, that what we were presenting was an alternative life style, and we hoped that people of Chicago would come up, and mingle in Lincoln Park and see what we were about.
In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Lincoln Park became home to the first Puerto Rican immigrants to Chicago. Jose Cha Cha Jimenez transformed the local Young Lords gang into human rights activists for Latinos and the poor.[16] They published newspapers,[17] mounted sit-ins and takeovers of institutions and churches at Grant Hospital, Armitage Ave. Methodist Church, and McCormick Theological Seminary.[18]
In 1969, members of the Puerto Rican Young Lords and residents and activists mounted gigantic demonstrations and protested the displacement of Puerto Ricans and the poor including the demolition of buildings on the corner of Halsted and Armitage streets, by occupying the space and some administration buildings at McCormick Theological Seminary.[19] There were civil rights arrests and martyrs including the unsolved murders of United Methodist Rev. Bruce Johnson and his wife Eugenia Ransier Johnson who were strong supporters of the poor. Today their history is archived at DePaul University's Richardson Library and at Special Collections at Grand Valley State University.
On June 29, 2003, a porch collapse occurred during a party at 713 W. Wrightwood Ave. The disaster was the deadliest porch collapse in U.S. history; 13 people were killed and 57 seriously injured.
It encompasses a number of neighborhoods, including Lincoln Central, Mid-North, Old Town Triangle, Park West, RANCH Triangle, Sheffield, and Wrightwood Neighbors. The area also includes most of the Clybourn Corridor retail district, which continues into the Near North Side. Lincoln Park neighborhood associations include: Lincoln Central Association, Mid-North Association, Old Town Triangle Association, Park West Community Association, RANCH Triangle Community Conservation Association, Sheffield Neighborhood Association, and Wrightwood Neighbors Association. All are affiliated with the Lincoln Park Conservation Association.
Lincoln Park is home to Lincoln Park High School, Francis W. Parker School, and DePaul University. Many students who attend these schools now live in this neighborhood. Lincoln Park is also home to five architecturally significant churches: St. Vincent de Paul Parish, St. Clement Church, St. Josaphat's (one of the many so-called 'Polish Cathedrals' in Chicago), St. James Lutheran Church and St. Michael's Church in the Old Town Triangle area of Lincoln Park. Visible from throughout the neighborhood, these monumental edifices tower over the neighborhood, lending the area much of its charm. Five Lincoln Park churches are affiliated with the Catholic Church (St. Bonaventure Oratory, Saint Clement Church, St. Michael in Old Town, St. Teresa de Avila Catholic Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish). The neighborhood also houses Children's Memorial Hospital (recently moved to Streeterville and was renamed Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago) and the currently closed Lincoln Park Hospital (formerly known as Grant Hospital and before that German-American Hospital), which is slated for redevelopment to condominiums, apartments, medical offices, and retail to be renamed Webster Square.
The neighborhood contains a large number of upscale national retailers, boutiques, bookstores, restaurants and coffee shops. There are also many bars and clubs in the area.
A. Finkl & Sons Steel operated on the west side of Lincoln park along an approximately 22-acre lot by the Chicago River for 113 years. The site is now vacant and is the site of the proposed Lincoln Yards project.
Lincoln Park is one of the wealthiest and most expensive communities in which to live. While the average single-family house is priced around $1 million, many homes in the area sell for more than $10 million. In 2007, Forbes magazine named the area between Armitage Avenue, Willow Street, Burling Street, and Orchard Street as the most expensive block in Chicago.[23]
Lincoln Park, for which the neighborhood was named, now stretches miles past the neighborhood of Lincoln Park. The park lies along the lakefront from Ohio Street Beach in the Streeterville neighborhood, northward to Ardmore Avenue in Edgewater. The section of the park adjacent to the Lincoln Park neighborhood contains the Lincoln Park Zoo, Lincoln Park Conservatory, an outdoor theatre, a rowing canal, the Chicago History Museum, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, the North Pond Nature Sanctuary, North Avenue Beach, playing fields, a very prominent statue of General Ulysses S. Grant, as well as a famous statue of Abraham Lincoln (and many other statues).[24]
Most of Lincoln Park is currently part of the 43rd ward of the Chicago City Council, represented by Timmy Knudsen. The extreme south and extreme western sections of the neighborhood are part of the 2nd and 32nd wards, represented respectively by Brian Hopkins and Scott Waguespack. All three aldermen are Democrats.
State
In the Illinois House of Representatives, the lakefront portion of the neighborhood is part of the 12th district, represented by Margaret Croke. Central Lincoln Park is part of Ann Williams’ 11th District, and the riverside portion of the neighborhood is represented by Jaime Andrade in the 40th district. The Sheffield Neighbors area is part of Jawaharial Williams’s 10th district, and a small southern portion of the neighborhood is represented by Lakesia Collins. All representatives are Democrats.
Additionally, two zoned elementary schools (grades K-8), Abraham Lincoln Elementary School[28] and Louisa May Alcott School.[29] are found in the neighborhood. LaSalle Language Academy, Oscar Mayer Elementary School,[30] and the Newberry Math and Science Academy, all magnet schools, serve the neighborhood.
Melanie Ann Apel, author of Lincoln Park, Chicago, described Lincoln School as "the school most often associated with Lincoln Park".[31]
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The YMCA opened the New City YMCA in 1981.[37] The YMCA's clientele included people in Lincoln Park and in Cabrini-Green.[38] As the YMCA was located in the latter, it was built windowless so it would not suffer from stray bullets, a product of crime in that neighborhood.[37]CBS Chicago 2 stated that the facility was "once credited with breaking down a barrier between families from" different socioeconomic communities.[39] In 2007, the YMCA closed, with the land sold, as Cabrini Green's impoverished community moved away. The YMCA shifted its focus and planned to open a new facility in Kelly Hall of the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels in Humboldt Park.[37]
Music
Lincoln Park currently has a number of music venues including the Park West, Lincoln Hall, Kingston Mines and B.L.U.E.S.[citation needed]
Jelly Roll Morton recorded early jazz work in 1926 at the Webster Hotel ballroom (now Webster House) at 2150 N. Lincoln Park West.[40]
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago operates the St. Clement Catholic Church. In 2018 the archdiocese bought a 3,044-square-foot (282.8 m2) residence, with four bedrooms, to house priests at the church, paying $1,650,000.[41]
Lincoln Park was home to a number of important historic figures including:
J. J. Bittenbinder (1942–2023), police officer, television host, and author. He was a childhood resident of the DePaul neighborhood in Lincoln Park.[42]
Roger Brown, an important Chicago Imagist painter, lived at 1926 N. Halsted St. The house is now site to the Art Institute of Chicago's Roger Brown study center.[43]
Lincoln Park, looking NNW along North Lake Shore Drive. The Lincoln Park Passerelle is roughly halfway up, opposite North Avenue Bathing Beach at middle-right of frame
^Lyon, Jeff (May 2, 1993). "The J.J. Bittenbinder Show: From church basements to TV, a Chicago cop gets top billing with his tips on stayin' alive". Chicago Tribune. p. SM22 – via ProQuest. growing up in the DePaul neighborhood
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