Apartments in Wicker Park Chicago

Thriving Art and Fine Dining in Chicago’s Walkable Wicker Park

In 1868 The Chicago Board of Public Health chose to create a fashionable park west of Milwaukee Avenue and south of North Avenue. An alderman, Charles Wicker, purchased 80 acres to be developed as a subdivision with a four-acre park at its center in this area. The subdivision building was begun by Chicagoans who were displaced by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. By the end of the 19th century Wicker Park was home to many of Chicago’s wealthy Northern European immigrants who subsequently built cathedrals similar to those in Europe. The church styles included Renaissance Revival and Baroque Revival architecture. During the late 1950s, the Kennedy Expressway was built which displaced many residents and by the 1970s the city lost slightly more than 11% of its residents. At one point an area of North Avenue became a haven for prostitution, drug dealers and gangs. New affordable housing became available because of community development groups like Northwest Community Organization and by 2012 Wicker Park was named the #4 hippest hipster neighborhood in the country by Forbes.

Who Lives There

The current population of Wicker Park is 21,973 with 48% holding bachelor’s degrees and 29% holding master’s degrees or higher. This is a family-friendly area of Chicago with 11% of the population 10 years old and younger. 42% of the people are in the 25-34 group and only 5% at 65+. The median household income is $116,093 and rents range from an average of $1,320 per month for a 580 Old Town.

Places of Interest

Trendy, eclectic businesses are scattered throughout modern-day Wicker Park, like Paper Doll, a quirky shop on Division Street that carries paper products from Egg Press, Smock and The Happy Envelope. A spa, restaurant and café called Red Square are currently occupying a building that once housed a Russian bathhouse. As a nod to the middle of the last century, Corbett vs. Dempsey is a gallery that specializes in works by artists who became adults from 1950-1979. Today, as gentrification continues, we find a vast array of shops and galleries popping up. Wicker Park also boasts some of the safest and best bike lanes in all of Chicago, including lanes into nearby Humboldt Park where various paths create a sense of freedom for cyclists.