Lincoln Park, IL, Website

Lincoln Park, Illinois. Located west from the lakefront to Halsted Street and north from North Avenue to Diversey Parkway and named for the city's largest park, Lincoln Park has a lot to offer.

The park itself boasts an excellent zoo (the oldest in the country, and still free to the public), botanical conservatory, and four of the city's beaches. Besides seemingly countless bars frequented by young, upwardly-mobile professionals and DePaul University students, Lincoln Park provides trendy boutiques, coffee shops, many restaurants, and SUV dealerships.

The Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association and the Sheffield Neighborhood Association are two of the seven neighborhood groups affiliated with the Lincoln Park Conservation Association. The LPCA led an eight-year campaign for a new Lincoln Park Branch Library, which recently opened.

Lincoln Park is also home to the popular concert venue “Park West,” as well as the world-famous Steppenwolf Theatre. Like Old Town, Lincoln Park was originally settled in the 1850's by German immigrants coming to this country seeking a better way of life, and is one of Chicago's oldest communities. Today, it is considered the city’s shining star of the lakefront neighborhoods (especially by its inhabitants) and is undeniably the current yuppie Mecca of Chicago.

Lincoln Park Vicinity Map - Lincoln Park In Red!

Lincoln Park East, Old Town Triangle

People from all over the city flock to the Lincoln Park area, which is bounded by North Avenue, Diversey Parkway, the Kennedy Expressway and Lake Michigan.
In summer they take advantage of the parks, softball and baseball diamonds, picnic areas, lagoons and beaches. Snowy days bring cross-country skiers. The Lincoln Park Zoo boasts a real dairy farm, a rookery and an excellent conservatory. The area also has a wide array of restaurants and boutiques.

The spectacular expanse of parks complete with lagoons, and the style and charm of many of the buildings, attract many transferees to the area.

Lincoln Park's housing options include contemporary townhouses and condos, Victorian three-flats, walk-ups, a few vintage mansions and towering high-rises overlooking Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park. There are historic landmark districts as well as residential and commercial areas in Lincoln Park, each with its own active community organization.

The Wrightwood Neighbors Conservation Association and the Sheffield Neighborhood Association are two of the seven neighborhood groups affiliated with the Lincoln Park Conservation Association. The LPCA led an eight-year campaign for a new Lincoln Park Branch Library, which recently opened.

Much of the new housing in the heart of the original Lincoln Park neighborhood, bounded by North, Halsted, Webster and Lincoln Park, was built on urban renewal land.

Between the early 1960s and 1977, the Department of Urban Renewal demolished 606 buildings. Hundreds of two-, three- and four-story brick walk-ups have been built in all areas of the community over the past two decades. Newer townhouses often are Victorian-style scaled to fit 25-foot lots.

Old Town. The Old Town Triangle area was designated a Chicago landmark district in 1977, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Old Town neighborhood, bounded by Armitage Avenue, Clark Street, Division Street and the former Ogden Avenue right-of-way, still retains some of its original cobblestone streets and antique street lights.

Old Town is the home of the famous Second City comedy troupe. Thousands of visitors also descend on the neighborhood for the Old Town Art Fair, a juried fair that features food and entertainment while providing the opportunity to tour the neighborhood.

DePaul. DePaul University began with a small cluster of buildings around St. Vincent's Church on Webster. Today, more than 16,000 students attend classes on DePaul's downtown and Lincoln Park campuses. St. Vincent's, with its twin towers, is still a neighborhood landmark. But the centerpiece of the DePaul campus is the $25-million library on a landscaped triangle on Seminary Avenue.

Coffeehouses, neighborhood taverns, antiques shops and bookstores give the DePaul neighborhood the look and feel of a small university town. The elevated tracks are the only reminder that the community is near the heart of a major city. Residents say the community attracts students and young renters. Those who purchase homes in the neighborhood may be young, but they must be affluent, because prices are high.

Housing. Lincoln Park offers a varied selection of high- rise condominiums along the lakefront. In 1998, single- family homes in Lincoln Park sold for an average of $717,774. Significant recent residential construction in Lincoln Park includes The Pointe, a townhouse complex at Lincoln and Armitage Avenues, on a five-acre site formerly occupied by the old Augustana Hospital. The price range for the townhouses is from $249,900 to $599,900.

Many homes in Lincoln Park are brownstones, graystones and other older homes, many of which have been turned into condominiums.

In 1998, the average sale price for townhouses and condominiums in Lincoln Park was $264,815. Typical monthly apartment rents for studios range from $585 to $775; from $775 to $1,200 for one-bedroom units; from $1,200 to $1,600 for two-bedroom units; and from $1,500 to $2,100 for three- bedroom units.

In DePaul the average single-family home price was $636,969.

In Old Town Triangle the average home value in 1998 was $602,357. The average price of condominiums and townhouses was $180,266 in 1998.

Transportation. Convenience is one reason so many people want to live in the Lincoln Park area. CTA buses run on Fullerton, Halsted, Diversey Parkway and Lincoln Avenue.

The Ravenswood Line rapid transit trains stop at Diversey, Fullerton and Armitage. The Howard-Dan Ryan Line stops at Fullerton (elevated) and North and Clybourn (subway).

Lake Shore Drive is a few minutes' drive east, and the Kennedy Expressway(I-90/94) exits are west on North Avenue and Fullerton. The Loop is only 10 to 15 minutes away.