Kenwood

Sub Neighborhoods:

Kenwood, Indian Village

Community Information:

Kenwood, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, is home to some of the largest homes in the city. Kenwood was once one of the most elite neighborhoods in all of Chicago. The official community areas were defined in the early 20th century and the area including both the Hyde Park neighborhood and South Kenwood (the part of Kenwood South of 47th Street) are sometimes collectively referred to as Hyde Park.

Kenwood is bisected by 47th Street, which marks a dramatic socio-cultural and architectural boundary. North Kenwood suffered significant depopulation and attendant decline of the housing stock and retail base, bottoming out around 1990, although the area has been gradually redeveloping since then.

South Kenwood fared this period better, escaping middle-class flight in the 1970s due to the efforts of the Kenwood Open House Committee to have the area zoned single-family homes only, halting a trend then underway to apartment and rooming-house conversion. In the real estate boom of the mid-2000s, houses sold for in excess of two million dollars, and long vacant lots were redeveloped with high-end luxury houses.

The southeast portion of this neighborhood includes the Indian Village neighborhood, which includes the National Register of Historic Places-designated (NRHP) Narragansett, the Chicago Landmark Powhatan Apartments, and the NRHP site of the former Chicago Beach Hotel that now hosts Regents Park is also in the neighborhood.

The recently re-opened Hyde Park Art Center, located on Cornell Ave. just north of 51st Street/E. Hyde Park Blvd., is Chicago’s oldest alternative exhibition space, with an on-site school and studio and an extensive outreach program.

Recent Listings in this Neighborhood: