Get to Know Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park, one the city’s most popular neighborhood, gets its name from Lincoln Park, the vast stretch of park that runs along Lake Michigan. With more bars, restaurants and boutiques per capita than the rest of the city, this neighborhood is often considered the heart of Chicago’s north side.
Pocket neighborhoods within Lincoln Park include Clybourn Corridor, DePaul, Old Town, Lincoln Park West, Ranch Triangle, Sheffield, West DePaul and Wrightwood. Just a quick drive or commute to Chicago’s downtown, residents enjoy a lively cultural scene, exceptional architecture, lovely gardens and of course, the 1,200-acre park.
What to do in Lincoln Park
To the east, Lincoln Park is all park with the wonderful Lincoln Park Zoo, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, beaches, ball parks, running paths, boat docks, tennis courts, a golf course, a summer theater, driving range and more. West of the park, into the neighborhoods, there are hundreds of restaurants and bars to fit every taste and budget. Plus, it is home to some world-class theaters and comedy clubs. Lincoln Park is filled with Chicago history, which can be fully explored at the Chicago Historical Society on Clark Street at North Avenue.
Lincoln Park’s Distinctive Housing
The south end of Lincoln Park, toward downtown, is known as Old Town. It contains quiet tree-lined residential streets with some of Chicago’s finest and most expensive homes: impressive greystones, brick townhomes; and charming row houses and tucked-away coach homes. Further north are the Wrightwood and Sheffield neighborhoods with a mix of mansions, two-flats, apartments, condos and frame homes.
West of Sheffield Avenue is the DePaul neighborhood, with stately single-family and multiple-unit housing, and original Chicago row houses with richly ornamented Victorian facades. There are also handsomely restored greystones and newer homes designed by the world’s top architects.
Over the years, urban dwellers have taken churches, old schools, warehouses, stores and factory buildings and converted them into desirable condos, stores and restaurants. So, the boundaries of Lincoln Park have recently pushed farther west to create the Ranch Triangle neighborhood, an area that hugs Clybourn Avenue.