Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Living on the Near North Side: A Local’s Guide to Community Area 8

The Near North Side is Chicago’s Community Area 8, the official umbrella for River North, Streeterville, the Gold Coast, the Magnificent Mile and the southern part of Old Town. The Chicago River and Lake Michigan form three of its edges, so the Loop is across a bridge and the lake is at the end of the street. Living here mostly means a high-rise, seven L stations and two beaches.

Housing: towers, landmark rows and old warehouses

Most homes here are in high-rises. High-rise apartments arrived in the 1920s and later decades added more, per the Encyclopedia of Chicago.

On East Lake Shore Drive, a row of eight buildings designed between 1912 and 1929 helped make the apartment respectable; it became a City landmark district in 1985. The Astor Street District (landmarked 1975) mixes 19th-century houses with later apartments and townhouses, ringed by high-rises built mostly from 1960 to 1980.

In the 1950s the City cleared the strip between Clark and LaSalle and sold it to Arthur Rubloff for Sandburg Village. River North began as factories; the Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House, a 1907–08 warehouse on the river at 600 W. Chicago Ave., is now a landmark.

On the west side, the Chicago Housing Authority built the Cabrini row homes in the 1940s, then the Cabrini Extension and William Green Homes high-rises. Under a 1990s plan calling for mixed-income housing, the high-rises came down, the last on March 30, 2011. The two-story row homes still stand.

Getting around: seven L stations and one bridge

The Red Line stops at Grand, Chicago and Clark/Division, all accessible, plus North/Clybourn at the northwest edge, which is not accessible. The Brown and Purple lines stop at Merchandise Mart, Chicago and Sedgwick, all accessible. Purple Line trains stop here only on weekdays during rush periods, so the Brown Line is the one you plan around.

Walking to the Loop is normal. The river is the southern edge, and the Michigan Avenue Bridge, opened in 1920 as part of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago, carries you straight into it. In January, that bridge is where the wind off the lake introduces itself.

For the beaches, the Park District lists CTA routes 22, 36 and 151 plus the Clark/Division Red Line stop for Oak Street Beach, and routes 29, 65, 66 and 124 plus the Grand Red Line stop for Ohio Street Beach.

The neighborhood names inside

The City’s approximate neighborhood map puts the Gold Coast, the Magnificent Mile, River North, Rush & Division and about 94% of Streeterville here. Old Town is split: about 48% is here, the rest in Lincoln Park (Community Area 7).

Streeterville is named for George Wellington Streeter, who ran his boat aground on the lakefront sands in 1886 and argued the land building up around it lay outside Illinois. Gun battles and jail followed; a court ruled against him in 1918. It now holds the Hancock tower and Water Tower Place.

The Gold Coast’s turn began when Potter and Bertha Palmer built their mansion along the future Lake Shore Drive. The Magnificent Mile runs from the Loop north to Oak Street and the Drake Hotel. The Encyclopedia of Chicago credits Arthur Rubloff with the name in the 1940s in one entry, while another ties his campaign to the 1950s. River North became a gallery center in the 1980s, per the Encyclopedia, though Time Out dates the start to Roy Boyd’s 1979 move.

Parks and the lakefront

The area has two beaches. Oak Street Beach, on landfill at the foot of Oak Street, is technically part of Lincoln Park, the lakefront park, and a WPA-funded pedestrian tunnel under Michigan Avenue leads to it. Ohio Street Beach, in Jane Addams Memorial Park beside the Jardine Water Filtration Plant, faces north; open-water swimmers use it for the half-mile run up to the Oak Street curve. Lifeguards are on duty from the Friday before Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Inland, 16 Park District parks are centered in the community area. Washington Square, across from the Newberry Library, dates to an 1842 land donation and earned the nickname Bughouse Square for its soapbox speakers. Seward Park, completed in 1908 and named for Lincoln’s Secretary of State, has a Dwight Perkins-designed fieldhouse with gyms and a boxing ring. Lake Shore Park, next to the Museum of Contemporary Art, has tennis, pickleball and a running track. Stanton Park has the indoor pool, and Ward Park has a dog-friendly area.

Main streets: Michigan, Clark, Chicago and Division

Michigan Avenue is the famous one. At Chicago Avenue, the Water Tower and the Chicago Avenue Pumping Station were the only public buildings to survive in the area burned by the Fire of 1871, per the City, and they anchor a landmark district designated in 1971.

Clark Street is the old middle. The Encyclopedia of Chicago describes it as a residential and commercial buffer between the lakefront mansions and the industrial west. Washington Square fronts it at 901 N. Clark.

Chicago Avenue runs from the Water Tower west past the Red and Brown/Purple stations to the Montgomery Ward building at the river. Division Street has the Clark/Division Red Line stop and the Near North library branch at 310 W. Division. The other branch, Water Works, is at 163 E. Pearson. Out east, just north of Grand Avenue, is Navy Pier, which the city built from 1914 to 1916 and renamed in 1927.

Near North Side at a glance

Near North Side is official community area 8 of Chicago’s 77. Inside its lines: 7 CTA L stations, 16 Chicago Park District parks, 2 public library branches and 7 Chicago Public Schools buildings. Neighborhood names on the City’s map that fall at least partly inside: Gold Coast, Magnificent Mile, Old Town, River North, Rush & Division, Streeterville.

L stations

  • Chicago (Brown/Purple): Brown and Purple lines (accessible)
  • Chicago (Red): Red Line (accessible)
  • Clark/Division: Red Line (accessible)
  • Grand: Red Line (accessible)
  • Merchandise Mart: Brown and Purple lines (accessible)
  • North/Clybourn: Red Line (not accessible)
  • Sedgwick: Brown and Purple lines (accessible)

Purple Line trains stop here only on weekdays during rush periods, when the Purple Line Express runs past Howard to the Loop.

Parks

  • Seward Park: 8.7 acres; playground, gymnasium
  • Lake Shore Park: 7.2 acres; playground, gymnasium, community center
  • Stanton Park: 6.7 acres; indoor pool, playground, gymnasium
  • Jane Addams Memorial Park: 5.8 acres
  • Park No. 598 (1514 N Larrabee St): 3.9 acres
  • DuSable Park: 3.4 acres
  • Ward Park: 2.9 acres; playground, dog-friendly area
  • Washington Square: 2.8 acres
  • White Park: 1.7 acres; gymnasium
  • Durso Park: 1.5 acres; playground
  • Ogden Plaza Park: 1.4 acres
  • River Esplanade Park: 1.1 acres
  • Seneca Park: 1.0 acres; playground
  • Smaller parks and mini-parks: Goudy Square, Connors Park, Mariano Park

Library

Public schools

These are the Chicago Public Schools buildings located inside the community area. Being near a school is not the same as being in its attendance boundary: to see which schools serve a specific address, use the CPS School Locator.

More on the neighborhood

Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago: Near North Side; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Streeterville; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Magnificent Mile; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Gold Coast; City of Chicago Landmarks: Astor Street District; City of Chicago Landmarks: East Lake Shore Drive District; City of Chicago Landmarks: Old Chicago Water Tower District; City of Chicago Landmarks: Washington Square District; City of Chicago Landmarks: Michigan Avenue Bridge and Esplanade; City of Chicago Landmarks: Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalog House; City of Chicago Landmarks: Near North region list; Chicago Park District: Oak Street Beach; Chicago Park District: Ohio Street Beach; Chicago Park District: Addams (Jane) Memorial Park; Chicago Park District: Seward Park; Chicago Park District: Lake Shore Park; Chicago Park District: Washington Square Park; WTTW Chicago by ‘L’: River North; WBEZ: 10 years after the last tower fell; Time Out Chicago: How River North changed (Nov. 6, 2015); City of Chicago, community area boundaries; City of Chicago, neighborhood boundaries; City of Chicago, CTA ‘L’ stops; Chicago Park District parks; Chicago Public Library locations; CPS school locations, 2025–26. Lists checked October 19, 2026; park features are from Park District data last updated in 2022.