Hyde Park, Chicago

Location within the city of Chicago

Hyde Park

**Hyde Park (Chicago, Illinois)**

Latitude Longitude
Neighborhoods
ZIP Code	parts of 60615, 60637
Area	4.27 km² (1.65 mi²)
Population (2000) Density	29,920 (up 4.51% from 1990) 7,001.3 /km²
Demographics	White Black Hispanic Asian Other	43.5% 37.7% 4.11% 11.3% 3.39%
Median income	$35,991
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

Hyde Park is a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, located seven miles south of the Loop; it is home to the Museum of Science and Industry, The DuSable Museum of African American History and the University of Chicago.

Hyde Park was founded by Paul Cornell in the 1850s on the Illinois Central Railroad south of Chicago. The community organized as a township and was independent of Chicago until 1889. As a township, Hyde Park stretched from 39th Street south to 135th Street, but as a neighborhood, its definition shrank to a core area grouped closely around Cornell's development on 53rd Street and the lakefront. Today the name Hyde Park is applied to the neighborhood from 51st Street ("Hyde Park Blvd.") to 61st Street. The neighborhood's eastern boundary is Lake Michigan and its western boundary is Washington Park. Some refer to the area between 47th Street and 51st Street ("E. Hyde Park Blvd.") as a part of Hyde Park, although this area is technically the south half of the Kenwood neighborhood.

History

In the 1890s Hyde Park started to make its mark in Chicago as an urban neigborhood. The University of Chicago was founded by John D. Rockefeller in the early 1890s. 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 the Museum of Science and Industry.

The University of Chicago, with leadership from William Harper, its first president, and large financial contributions from John D. Rockefeller, quickly became one of the nation's best universities. It has since grown to become a highly prestigious research university with over 70 Nobel prize winners associated with the university. The University of Chicago continues to dominate the neighborhood physically and politically today.

Between the 1950s and 1960s Hyde Park began to suffer from the economic decline that was affecting much of the South Side. To protect itself, the University of Chicago sponsored one of the largest urban renewal plans in the nation. Organizing through the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference in the 1950's, many citizens wanted to create an "interracial community of high standards." In the 1960s Hyde Park's average income soared by 70%, but its black population fell by 40%. Overall, Hyde Park did not experience the same economic depression that came to face neighboring areas such as Woodlawn, Washington Park, and Oakland all the while remaining a racially diverse neighborhood.

Famous Hyde Park residents have included Clarence Darrow, Julius Rosenwald, Muhammad Ali, Marshall Field, Mayor Harold Washington, Bernardine Dohrn and Louis Farrakhan. The neighborhood has also produced three U.S. Senators: Paul Douglas, Carol Moseley Braun, and Barack Obama. The neighborhood contains buildings from famous architects such as Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Institutions

Hyde Park is home to a number of higher education institutions:

The University of Chicago
The Catholic Theological Union, a seminary of 28 Roman Catholic religious orders (not the diocesan seminary of the Archdiocese of Chicago)
The Chicago Theological Seminary, a seminary of the United Church of Christ
The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
The McCormick Theological Seminary, a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Meadville Lombard Theological School, a seminary of the Unitarian Universalist Association

Local Controversies

Thanks to the socioeconomic and educational background of many residents, many Hyde Park residents are politically active within and beyond Hyde Park. Political activities and controversies (of varying levels of importance) in Hyde Park include:

Debate over urban renewal plans and construction
Planned reconstruction of the lakeshore at Promontory Point
Election campaigns of resident Harold Washington and Senate candidates (cited above)
University construction and expansion
Financial and management problems at the Hyde Park Co-Op, a supermarket and member-based cooperative
Challenges associated with the off-campus behavior of students at Kenwood High School
Local economic development, such as the new Borders bookstore
The possible sale and redevelopment of Harper Square, an outdoor shopping center that was designed with local artisans, small businessowners and the community in mind.

Location and Transportation

Hyde Park is generally defined as bordered by Cottage Grove Avenue on the west, 51st Street (also known as East Hyde Park Boulevard) on the north, 61st street on the south, and the Lake Michigan shoreline on the east. The area between 47th Street and 51st Street is sometimes considered a part of Hyde Park, but it is actually the southern half of the Kenwood neighborhood.

The neighborhood is connected to the rest of the city by both Chicago Transit Authority and Metra transportation services. CTA services include the number 4 (Cottage Grove), X4, 6 (Jackson Park Express), 15 (Jeffery Local), 28 (Stony Island), X28, 55 (Garfield), X55, and 173 (University of Chicago/Lakeview Express) buses. These allow transfers to Red and Green Line trains to the Loop or provide direct express service to downtown. Metra's Electric District line, located on the former Illinois Central, has several stops in Hyde Park and provides service to downtown by way of the Randolph Street Station. South Shore Line trains stop at the 55th-56th-57th Street Station and provide service to Indiana.

Layout

The even numbered streets in Hyde Park (e.g., 52nd, 54th, etc.) are almost exclusively residential. 53rd, 55th, and 57th streets contain the largest number of businesses.

53rd street, Hyde Park's oldest shopping street, is lined with restaurants and small businesses between Woodlawn to the west and Lake Park to the east. A small-business-oriented shopping center, Harper Court, extends north of 53rd Street along Harper Ave. It includes a wide variety from Dr. Wax (record store) and Hyde Park Pets to Maravillas, a popular hangout serving Mexican food.

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. It is a popular place to watch summertime fireworks displays from Navy Pier to the north, especially for Independence Day. "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, and picnickers. Many residents of Hyde Park and fans of the point show their pride by putting bumper stickers on their cars, bikes, skateboards, etc. that simply say "Save the Point." This shows their support of the renewal expenditures on The Point and the neighboring 57th St. Beach.

Between the lake and the Metra tracks on 55th street are a series of independent Asian restaurants. To the west of the Metra line between 54th and 55th streets a shopping center centers on the Hyde Park Co-Op grocery store (with a US Post Office in the basement) and also includes Walgreen's, a bakery and an upscale French restaurant.

57th Street is noted for independent bookstores, including the South Side branch of Powell's and the general-readership branch of the Seminary Co-op Bookstore, known as "57th Street Books".

Very few retailers operate west of Woodlawn. The neighborhood south of 55th Street and west of Woodlawn is dominated by the University of Chicago, and north of 55th Street the neighborhood consists mainly of apartments. The lack of many restaurants within a five minute walk of campus is often a source of frustration to local students.

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