Hyde Park

Sub Neighborhoods:

Hyde Park

Community Information:

Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, approximately seven miles south of the Chicago Loop.  It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Oriental Institute and the Renaissance Society. It is formerly the name of a Township that included numerous other neighborhoods that have all been annexed by the city of Chicago.

Today, the name Hyde Park is officially applied to the neighborhood from 51st Street (Hyde Park Blvd.) to the neighborhood around the Midway Plaisance or simply The Midway (between 59th and 60th).  The neighborhood’s eastern boundary is Lake Michigan and its western boundary is Washington Park.

In the early 1890s, with the founding of The University of Chicago by John D. Rockefeller, Hyde Park began to make its mark. In 1893, Hyde Park hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition. While the fair covered hundreds of acres, the only structure left today is Charles Atwood’s Palace of Fine Arts, which has since been converted into Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.

In the 1950s and 1960s the University of Chicago, supported by the community under the title “Fight Against Blight” and by community leaders including Hyde Park Herald publisher Bruce Sagan, sponsored of one of the largest urban-renewal plans in the nation. In coordination with the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, the urban renewal plan resulted in the demolition and redevelopment of entire city blocks of decayed housing and other buildings with the goal of creating an “interracial community of high standards.”

Promontory Point extends out into Lake Michigan at 55th street. Promontory Point extends far enough east into the lake that it provides spectacular views of both the Downtown Skyline to the north and the South Chicago and Northwest Indiana skyline to the south. “The Point,” as it is affectionately known, sits on Chicago Park District land and like most of Chicago’s lakefront park land, it is popular with hikers, bikers, joggers, runners, sunbathers, picnickers, and adventurous swimmers.

Recent Listings in this Neighborhood: