GETTING TO KNOW UPTOWN

What’s the Appeal? Long one of Chicago’s most diverse communities, Uptown offers a fascinating blending of cultures, from Native American and Appalachian to Vietnamese and Hispanic. For example, a walk down Argyle Street just east of Broadway can feel like stepping into a bit of Asia. Uptown also enjoys an outstanding location along Chicago’s beautiful lakefront, with excellent transit access to downtown Chicago via the Red Line and Lake Shore Drive. It is blessed with a rich trove of exuberant early 20^th Century architecture, and from a residential perspective, Uptown offers a little bit of everything and lots of architectural interest. East of Clark Street there are the landmark mansions and mid-century high rises in Buena Park, gracious old apartment buildings in Sheridan Park, Margate Park and the Kenmore/Winthrop corridor and 1920s apartment hotels along Lawrence Avenue that have been recently transformed to meet contemporary standards. West of Clark, there’s Ravenswood, where single-family homes dominate but are augmented by a mix of condominium and rental apartment properties.

Where Is It? It’s easy to find Uptown because of its central location on the city’s north lakeshore between Lake View and Edgewater.  Uptown is bounded on the east by the lake, on the west by Ravenswood Avenue and on the north by Foster Avenue.  Its southern border follows Irving Park Road west from the lake to Clark Street, then jogs north to Montrose Avenue and follows Montrose west to Ravenswood.  The neighborhoods that make up Uptown include Uptown Square, Buena Park, Sheridan Park, Margate Park, Ravenswood and South Andersonville. Originally, Uptown extended north to Devon Avenue, but in the 1970s residents of the area north of Foster wanted to disassociate themselves from the name Uptown, which had become associated with urban decay, and the city agreed, creating new community area called Edgewater.  

What’s in the Name?  The name Uptown was the brainchild of Loren Miller, a former manager at Marshall Field & Co., who opened his own department stores early in the last century, first downtown and then at 4720 N. Broadway in 1915. Miller soon began calling that second location the Uptown Store. Miller’s designation, which drew on the glamour of New York City’s Uptown area, soon caught on with the local business community. In response, the city agreed to change the name of Evanston Avenue to Broadway, another nod to New York and then eventually designated the intersection of Broadway, Lawrence and Racine Avenue as Uptown Square. For the first half of the 20^th Century, Uptown lived up to its name, serving as Chicago’s major entertainment and shopping center outside the Loop. Today, it is working to preserve and revitalize that legacy.

Who Lived in Uptown?  Uptown began as a rural community first settled by Conrad Sulzer, a Swiss farmer. More famers followed as did more prosperous Chicagoans seeking a lakeside escape from the city. The farmers were largely Germans and Swedes, but in 1872 a rail line connecting Chicago to Evanston was built, and the area began to grow rapidly. John Lewis Cochran, a land developer, played a key role in bringing the elevated railway system (today’s CTA Red Line) to the area. Passengers could ride the elevated as far as Wilson Avenue, then transfer to the North Shore trains, or do the reverse. It made Uptown a key transfer point between several rail lines and the elevated system and a magnet for theaters, restaurants and merchants. Its diverse urban amenities, from beaches and transit to entertainment and shopping, made Uptown an ideal location for a new type of residence, the apartment hotel, where couples, singles and small families could rent small, furnished apartments in an amenity rich environment with cleaning and laundry services on the premises. As a result, Uptown had many large buildings filled with small apartments, and as the neighborhood changed and wealthier residents moved to the suburbs, these properties offered low cost housing for new groups, such as Hispanics, Appalachian whites, Asians and other new arrivals. By the 1960s, Uptown had become a major port of entry. 

Claims to Fame: Few of Chicago’s communities can claim a history as varied, fascinating and unusual as Uptown. Uptown boomed in the early 20^th Century as a vibrant center for entertainment and shopping and a wide assortment of residential options. Its glamorous image was enhanced by the fact that it was the home to Essanay Studios, one of the nation’s leading motion picture production companies during the first three decades of the last century. Well known movie stars including Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson (a local girl), Wallace Beery, Ben Turpin, Francis X. Bushman and “Bronco Billy” Anderson worked at Essanay and were regularly seen out and about in Uptown. In fact, the owners of Green Mill Gardens, the forebearer of today’s Green Mill jazz club, reportedly installed a hitching post on Lawrence Avenue so Anderson could ride over on his horse after a long day before the camera. Uptown has also been the home of several of the cities most legendary entertainment venues, including the Green Mill, the Aragon Ballroom and the Riviera and Uptown theaters. The Uptown, which was the city’s largest and most elaborate movie palace, is scheduled to enjoy a $75 million renovation in the next few years. The Green Mill, Riviera and Aragon have hosted some of the most famous names in American popular music and jazz, from Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington to Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Ramones. Plus, Uptown can claim well documented connections to some of Chicago’s most notorious citizens, including Al Capone, Machine Gun Jack McGurn and Roger “Terrible” Touhy.