Uptown Real Estate and Neighborhood Info
Most of this article was taken from Wikipedia.
This article may be viewed in its entirety
by clicking here.
Uptown is a Chicago North Side neighborhood. As
one of Chicago’s 77 community areas, Uptown has
well defined boundaries. They are: Foster on the
north; Lake Michigan on the east; Montrose
(Ravenswood to Clark), and Irving Park (Clark to Lake
Michigan) on the south; Ravenswood (Foster to
Montrose), and Clark (Montrose to Irving Park) on
the west.
Uptown borders three community areas and Lake
Michigan. To the north is Edgewater, to the west is
Lincoln Square, and to the south is Lake View.
Here is a look at recent real estate activity in Uptown.
This will give you a good idea of real estate values
in this popular Chicago neighborhood.
Uptown Real Estate Analysis
=======================================
SEP-NOV 2009 CONDO SALES ANALYSIS
TYPE______UNITS_SOLD____AVG_PRICE
0Bed/1.0Bath_______05________105K
1Bed/1.0Bath_______51________139K
1Bed/1.5Bath_______01________202K
2Bed/1.0Bath_______21________235K
2Bed/1.5Bath_______02________269K
2Bed/2.0Bath_______65________281K
2Bed/2.5Bath_______01________195K
3Bed/1.0Bath_______04________277K
3Bed/1.5Bath_______01________320K
3Bed/2.0Bath_______18________348K
3Bed/2.5Bath_______01________475K
3Bed/3.0Bath_______12________348K
4Bed/2.0Bath_______01________330K
A Total of 182 condos were sold in
Uptown during this 3 month period.
The average 2 bed, 2 Bath condo sold for $281,000.
CLICK HERE FOR Uptown Condos For Sale
–=====================================
History
The historical, cultural, and commercial center of
Uptown is Broadway, with Uptown Square at the
center. In 1900, the Northwestern Elevated Railroad
constructed its terminal near Montrose and Broadway
(now part of the CTA Red Line). Uptown became a
summer resort town for downtown dwellers, and derived
its name from the Uptown Store, which was the
commercial center for the community. For a time, all
northbound trains from downtown ended in Uptown.
From here Uptown became known as an entertainment
destination. Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and other
early film stars produced films at the Essanay Studios
on Argyle Street. The Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theater,
Uptown Theatre, and Green Mill Jazz Club are all located
within a half block of Lawrence and Broadway. Uptown is
also home to one of Chicago’s most celebrated final
resting spots, Graceland Cemetery.
For over a century, Uptown has been a popular
Chicago entertainment district, which played a
significant role in ushering in the Gilded Age, the
Lyceum Movement, the jazz age, the silent film era,
the swing era, the big band era, the rock and roll era,
has been a filming location for over 480 movies, has
ties to significant spectator sport athletes and
organizations, including the Chicago Blackhawks and
three Olympic figure skaters, as well as theater, comedy
clubs, dance performers who later became nationally-
famous, and even “The People’s Music School,” a needs-
based, tuition-free music school for formal classical
music training.
By the 1950s, the middle class was leaving Uptown
for more distant suburbs, as commuter rail and
elevated train lines were extended. Uptown’s housing
stock was aging, and old mansions were subdivided.
Residential hotels which had housed wives of sailors
attached to the Great Lakes Naval Station during
World War II now served low-income migrants from the
South and Appalachia. Uptown developed a reputation
as “Hillbilly Heaven” during the 1950s and 1960s.
Large-scale urban renewal projects like Harry S.
Truman College eliminated much low-cost housing,
and the low-income Southern white residents
dispersed. New waves of Asian, Hispanic, and African-
American migrants moved into the remaining
neighborhoods.
Latinos forced out from other near downtown and
lakefront areas by urban renewal settled close to the
border with Lakeview at Sheridan, near Irving Park.
In 1975 Young Lords founder Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez
joined with a broad coalition of whites, blacks and
Latinos and ran unsuccessfully against Daley-sponsored
Christopher Cohen. They still were able to garner 39%
of the vote. His main campaign issue was housing
corruption, which was then displacing Latinos and the
poor from prime real estate areas of Chicago.
Most recently, since 2000, gentrification has spread
north from neighboring Lakeview and south from
Edgewater. Median condo prices jumped 69.1% from
2000-2005. In addition, the white population has
jumped 10% since 2000 with the black population
falling 12%.
Neighborhoods comprising Uptown in the city of Chicago
Buena Park
Buena Park is a neighborhood bounded by Montrose
Avenue, Irving Park Road, Graceland Cemetery and
Lake Shore Drive. The core of the neighborhood is very
suburban with driveways and spacious lots. It is in
sharp contrast to the skyscrapers that populate the
area around it. It can be accessed from the Sheridan
stop on the CTA’s Red Line.
Buena Park enjoys one of the most active neighborhood
organizations in the city of Chicago, Buena Park
Neighbors (BPN). Founded in 1997, Buena Park Neighbors
is a 46th Ward neighborhood association of more than
200 residents, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations
in the nationally registered Buena Park Historic District.
Today, many people assume that Buena Park is a
“new name” given to this part of Uptown by developers
trying to give the area a better name (like those trying
to call Humboldt Park “West Bucktown”). In reality Robert
A. Waller developed Buena Park starting in 1887 by
subdividing his property. The original Waller home is now
the site of St. Mary of the Lake church (built in 1917).
Buena Park pre-dates the remainder of Uptown by a
number of years.
Sheridan Park
Sheridan Park is a neighborhood bounded by Lawrence
Avenue on the north, Clark on the west, Montrose on
the south and Broadway on the east. It is mostly
residential, containing six-flats, single family homes,
and courtyard apartment buildings. There is a growing
business district along Wilson Avenue, which bisects
Sheridan Park from Broadway to Clark. Truman College,
one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is also located in
Sheridan Park. The neighborhood can be accessed from
either the Wilson or Lawrence stop on the CTA’s Red Line.
In 1985, the Sheridan Park Historic District (a National
Landmark District) was established to protect the
unique single family and smaller multi-family architecture
of the area. Some structures of Uptown Square were
also added as contributing structures. In 2007, the
Sheridan Park area along Dover Street was also
egistered as an historic district. Many of the homes
along Dover are large single family homes from the early
1900′s.
Little Vietnam
This neighborhood is mostly populated by residents who
had Vietnamese and Cambodian nationality. However,
many, if not most, were from ethnic Chinese minorities
and, for that reason, became refugees during the Sino-
Vietnamese war of the late 1970s. In the span of a few
city blocks, Little Vietnam boasts half a dozen Asian
grocery stores as well as more than a dozen
Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, and Chinese restaurants.
The neighborhood should not be confused with Old
Chinatown, which is in the Armour Square community
area on the South Side of the city.
Margate Park
Margate Park forms the eastern border of Uptown and
Edgewater, nested between the recently revitalized
strip of new construction on Sheridan Rd. and the
pleasantries of the Lincoln Park northern reaches.
Its tree-lined streets, historic mansions, and gilded
mid-rises reflect the area’s development in the bustle
of Uptown Chicago’s burgeoning entertainment industry
in the early 1900s. The diverse housing also includes
ornate, terra-cotta clad hotels, immortalized in movies
as Chicago Gangster Era apartment hotels. Some of
these 1920′s Jazz Age hotels have been since been
converted to SROs in the area to provide transitional
and supportive housing, adding to the tremendously
diverse population of the area.
This lakefront neighborhood is home to Margate
Fieldhouse, a gym and fitness facility. The area
around the fieldhouse is an official off-leash area
in the city for dogs. Annual city permits are required
for dogs using the areas.
The fieldhouse is also host to the Margate Playground,
with 1,400 square feet (130 m2) of playspace for
children. Artists Jim Brenner, Corinne D. Peterson,
Ginny Sykes, and Roman Villareal created a unique
space reflecting the urban locale catering to children’s
interests and local fauna.
Uptown Entertainment
Historically a very popular tourist destination, the
Uptown Entertainment District is home to various
music venues, nightclubs, restaurants and shops.
The Uptown Entertainment District is now experiencing
a revival, with new restaurants and shops opening
every year. Uptown Square, at the center of the
Uptown Entertainment District, was designated as a
National Historic District on the National Register of
Historic Places in 2000. Uptown is also a stop for
Chicago Gangster tours, with many locations tied to
infamous gangsters such as John Dillinger, Al Capone,
Machine Gun Jack McGurn, Roger “The Terrible” Touhy
and others.
The Aragon Ballroom is still a very popular music venue.
During the 1920s and 1930s, most of the nation’s
well-known jazz groups played the Aragon. Live radio
broadcasts from the Aragon helped promote the Aragon’s
entertainers throughout the Midwest and beyond.
Hotels quickly sprang up in the Uptown area, and it
became a mecca for young adults who visited Chicago
to dance to the Big Bands of the 1940s and 1950s.
Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny
Goodman, Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, Guy
Lombardo, Wayne King and other famous bandleaders
often played there. In decades to follow, a very diverse
selection of “big name” groups have performed, including
The Rolling Stones, U2, The Smiths, The Doors, Snoop
Dogg, Green Day, The Kinks, The Smashing Pumpkins,
Dr. John, Grateful Dead, B.B. King, Uriah Heep, Metalica,
Tommy Bolin, Black Sabbath, The Clash, Tangerine
Dream, Slayer, Motörhead, Nirvana, and many others.
The Aragon Ballroom is located at the intersection of
Lawrence and Winthrop Avenues, just adjacent to the
Lawrence Red Line ‘L’ stop.
Montrose Harbor
Chicago’s Lincoln Park straddles Uptown—providing
soccer and athletic fields, a segment of the Chicago
lakefront bicycle/running path, Montrose Point Bird
Sanctuary (“The Magic Hedge”), a sledding hill, Puptown
Dog Park, Wilson Skatepark and Waveland (Marovitz)
Golf Course to the south. Also in the Uptown portion of
Lincoln Park is Montrose Beach, which includes a dog
beach at its northern edge,[9] and Montrose Harbor, a
marina for local and transient boaters and home to the
Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club.
Two separate parks, which may be considered inland
xtensions of the lakefront Lincoln Park, are located just
west of Lake Shore Drive. Named Clarendon Park and
Margate Park, each feature athletic fields, children’s
playgrounds and indoor sports facilities.[11][12] Chase Park,
located on the west side of Clark Street at Leland Avenue,
has indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, as well as an
outdoor pool and tennis courts.
Schools
* Uplift School
* Brenneman Elementary School
* Disney Elementary Magnet School
* Goudy Elementary School
* John T. McCutcheon Elementary School
* Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School
* St. Augustine College
* St. Mary of the Lake Elementary School
* St. Thomas of Canterbury Elementary School
* Stewart Elementary School
* Stockton Elementary School
* Truman College
If you have any other questions about Chicago Real
Estate, please contact me at my site:
www.773property.com
Until the next time,
Mark Killion
Real Estate Broker
Century 21 Affiliated
5200 S. Harper Ave
Chicago, IL 60615
24 Hour Voice Mail: 312-242-1822
Send me a note!
Visit me online: www.773property.com
EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY
