Neighborhood News: The ‘Southern Gateway of Uptown’ is Historic Buena Park
Bounded by Graceland Cemetery, Marine Drive, Irving Park Road, and Montrose Avenue, Buena Park is adjacent to Lake Michigan and nestled between Wrigleyville and Montrose Park. Most importantly, for families, the cozy, tree-lined streets are filled with the city’s most beautiful homes and architecture and is adjacent to Montrose Beach and Montrose Harbor.
Note: Montrose Dog-friendly Area, 4697 Lawrence, W. Wilson Drive, is located where Wilson Avenue reaches east almost to Lake Michigan in Chicago, Illinois. Visitors say this dog beach offers a large, clean, and fenced area for dogs to play and swim in shallow water. They also highlight the convenient on-site dog washing stations and ample parking. Guests mention the friendly atmosphere and the opportunity for dogs to socialize and exercise.
And there’s enough to keep families busy as well. The Uptown Branch of the Chicago Public Library is located at 929 W. Buena Avenue, hosting programs like August 27th’s ‘Summerween Sip & Paint’ from 4:30pm – 6pm. On September 1, they’re hosting “Claws DIY: Nail Art and Hair Claw Clips” from 4pm – 5:30pm.
That could be before or after you tour the Hutchinson Street Historic District, a famous tree-lined enclave known for stunning Prairie School (think Frank Lloyd Wright) mansions and historic turn-of-the-century architecture designed by architects like George Maher.
Buena Park History
According to Wikipedia sources, Buena Park was first developed in the 1890s. The district was originally planned to be an upper-class suburban neighborhood of Chicago with spacious homes.
Hutchinson Street Historic District
The two-block stretch of Hutchinson Street was a part of the parcel of land James Waller bought in 1850. This parcel was outside of the city of Chicago in an area commonly known as Lakeview, according to the Buena Park Neighbors blogsite. Later, Lakeview was incorporated as a city in 1887. Two years later (1889), Lakeview was annexed by the city of Chicago. In the ensuing years, the Waller family sold some of the Waller property for development. The lakefront properties were sold at a premium to wealthy buyers. And, German and Scandinavian farmers bought much of the inland properties.
The blogsite goes on to say that Charles Scales, a Civil War veteran, bought a parcel of land that includes present day Hutchinson Street. Scales developed his parcel with a sense of purpose. To encourage development, he installed a road down the middle of his land. He called the road Kenesaw as an homage to the battle at Kenesaw Mountain, a fight in which he was a combatant. Scales built the first house on Kenesaw Street. Intended as a family residence, Scales hired Chicago architect George Washington Maher to design the home and it was completed in 1894. This remarkable Queen Anne style house stands today and is located 840 W Hutchinson.
Development in the early twentieth century made the neighborhood denser, and while it was still a wealthy neighborhood by 1930, it featured many apartment buildings as well.
The district’s houses reflect Chicago’s architectural development at the turn of the century; while its nineteenth-century homes have Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival designs, its twentieth-century houses exhibit newly popular styles such as the Prairie School and Classical Revival. The district’s apartment buildings were designed in part to match the character of its houses, as doing so portrayed a sense of luxury and domesticity to its affluent residents; as a result, they largely used the same styles as the twentieth-century homes and often included courtyards to replace lawns.
A Great Place for Birdwatching!
The Magic Hedge is a migratory stop located at the most easterly part of Montrose and is home to some of the rarest birds ever recorded in the state. In addition, the Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary on the lakefront at Addison is an eight-acre woodland and wetland which houses over 150 species of birds, where visitors can observe the migratory swallows who make their home there in the summer.
The striking Kwa-Ma-Rolas totem pole topped with the symbolic thunderbird representing power, protection, and strength is nearby. According to the Chicago Park District, in 1929, James L. Kraft, founder of Kraft Foods Inc., donated the Kwa-Ma-Rolas totem pole to the city of Chicago. A collector of jade and other antiquities, Kraft often traveled to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest to find and buy artifacts. On one such a trip, he found two totem poles believed to have been carved by Haida Indians.
At its dedication in June 1929, local Native Americans danced in costume with students from Alcott School in a pageant symbolizing Kwanusila—the thunderbird—and other carved figures depicted on the forty-foot pole.
Nightlife
As Choose Chicago notes, “it feels like yesterday when I danced at the Aragon Ballroom when the Talking Heads and Elvis Costello toured. One block east on Lawrence stands this iconic Ballroom, where legendary performers like David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Ike and Tina Turner, and the Grateful Dead played to alt music enthusiasts from the sixties to the present.”
Those were the days, my friend! And they’ll never end. Live Nation keeps the spot filled with the latest bands.
Buena Park is an elegant part of Chicago, mixed with modern. It’s definitely worth visiting and living in. For more information, click here.
Alison Moran-Powers and Dean’s Team Chicago
