Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Living in Lincoln Park: A Local’s Guide to Community Area 7

Lincoln Park is a North Side community area where post-Fire brick rowhouses and frame cottages share blocks with walk-up flats and lakefront high-rises, and where much of the older housing sits inside City landmark districts. Its east side is the park itself, roughly 1,200 acres of lakefront with a free zoo, and two accessible L stations, Fullerton and Armitage, connect it to the Loop. Locals use the name loosely, so the Lincoln Park on a moving truck’s paperwork can be bigger than the official Community Area 7.

Housing: rowhouses, cottages, walk-ups and high-rises

Most homes here are in apartment and condo buildings, not houses. In CMAP’s 2022 community snapshot (2016–2020 Census survey data), about 60% of housing units were in buildings of five or more units and about 11% were detached houses. The median building dates to 1967.

The side streets are the old part. By the mid-1870s, after the Fire of 1871, Chicago had banned new frame construction here, so the blocks south of Fullerton filled with brick and stone. The City’s Mid-North District, bounded by Fullerton, Armitage, Lincoln and Clark, holds Italianate, Queen Anne and Romanesque rowhouses plus a few pre-Fire wooden cottages. North of Fullerton, the Arlington-Deming District’s earliest houses are frame cottages from the 1870s, built when that land was still the Town of Lake View, which Chicago annexed in 1889. Other City landmark districts include the McCormick Row House District (1882–1889), the Burling Row House District (1875) and the Old Town Triangle.

Getting around: Fullerton and Armitage

The L does most of the work. Fullerton is the transfer station, served by the Red, Brown and Purple lines, and Armitage serves the Brown and Purple lines. Both are accessible.

Armitage’s one-story brick station house is dated 1899 in the City’s landmark catalog. The Northwestern Elevated started regular service in 1900, and stations at Webster and Halsted closed in a 1949 CTA consolidation. The CTA restored the Armitage station house and added elevators, work that won a City preservation award in 2009.

The park, the lake and the smaller parks

The neighborhood’s front yard is about 1,210 acres, per the Chicago Park District, and runs well north of the community area. It began in the 1860s as 60 acres called Lake Park, on top of a city cemetery, and was renamed for Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Thousands of graves were moved; per the Chicago Architecture Center, many were not.

Inside it: the Conservatory (1895), the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool (a National Historic Landmark since 2006), the Nature Museum, the Chicago History Museum and the zoo. Sources disagree on the zoo’s start: the Encyclopedia of Chicago and WTTW say 1868, with swans from Central Park; the Architecture Center says 1874, with a $10 bear cub. Everyone agrees it’s free, and a city agreement keeps it that way through 2050.

The Park District counts 17 parks centered in the community area. Oz Park (14.4 acres, 2021 N. Burling) came out of 1960s urban renewal and has a Tin Man, a Cowardly Lion, a Scarecrow and Dorothy. Wrightwood Park has an outdoor pool.

Main streets: Armitage, Halsted, Lincoln and Clark

Shopping here happens on old streetcar streets, not in a single downtown. Armitage between Halsted and Racine, plus Halsted from Armitage to Webster, became the Armitage-Halsted landmark district in 2003. Most buildings are two to four stories, with stores below and apartments above, built mostly in the late 1880s and 1890s. Look up: the district is known for pressed-metal bays, cornices and corner turrets. Armitage was originally called Center Street.

Lincoln Avenue began as Little Fort Road, a farmers’ route into the city. Clark Street follows the old Green Bay Trail. Clybourn Avenue is the other retail corridor.

The institution you’ll notice most is DePaul University, whose Lincoln Park campus sits around Fullerton and Sheffield. It opened as St. Vincent’s College in 1898 and took the DePaul name in 1907. Part of it was McCormick Theological Seminary land; the City says the seminary was here until 1975, while the Encyclopedia of Chicago dates its sale to DePaul to 1973.

Where Lincoln Park starts and stops

Officially, Community Area 7 runs from Diversey Parkway south to North Avenue, and from the lake west to the North Branch of the Chicago River, which angles across its southwest corner. Inside it, the City’s neighborhood map places Lincoln Park proper, Sheffield & DePaul, and roughly half of Old Town; the other half of Old Town is in the Near North Side.

Unofficially, the name stretches. The local chamber of commerce has counted the Diversey, North/Clybourn and Sedgwick L stops as Lincoln Park stations, though none of the three is inside the community area. Listings stretch it further still. If the line matters to you, check the address against the City’s community area map before you sign, and expect your neighbors to give you three different answers.

Lincoln Park at a glance

Lincoln Park is official community area 7 of Chicago’s 77. Inside its lines: 2 CTA L stations, 17 Chicago Park District parks, 1 public library branch and 8 Chicago Public Schools buildings. Neighborhood names on the City’s map that fall at least partly inside: Lincoln Park, Old Town, Sheffield & DePaul.

L stations

  • Armitage: Brown and Purple lines (accessible)
  • Fullerton: Red, 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

  • Lincoln Park: 1,210 acres; beach, playground, dog-friendly area, gymnasium, community center; the park itself runs along the lakefront well beyond the community area
  • Oz Park: 14.4 acres; playground, community center
  • Wrightwood Park: 4.6 acres; outdoor pool, playground
  • Jonquil Park: 3.3 acres; playground
  • Trebes Park: 1.9 acres; gymnasium, community center
  • Bauler Park: 0.84 acres; playground
  • Adams Park: 0.78 acres; playground
  • Noethling Park: 0.58 acres; dog-friendly area
  • Smaller parks and mini-parks: Clybourn Park, Supera Park, Clover Park, Schaefer Park, Park West Park, Privet Park, Park No. 535, Mid-North Park, Eugenie Triangle

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: City of Chicago Landmarks: Armitage-Halsted District; City of Chicago: Armitage-Halsted District landmark designation report (PDF); City of Chicago: 2009 Preservation Excellence Award, Armitage Brown Line station (PDF); City of Chicago Landmarks: Mid-North District; City of Chicago: Mid-North District preliminary study, 1974 (PDF); City of Chicago Landmarks: Arlington-Deming District; City of Chicago: Arlington-Deming District landmark designation report (PDF); City of Chicago Landmarks: McCormick Row House District; City of Chicago Landmarks: Burling Row House District; City of Chicago Landmarks: Old Town Triangle District; City of Chicago Landmarks: North region district list; City of Chicago: Greater Lincoln Park plan, Context draft (PDF); CMAP Community Data Snapshot: Lincoln Park, July 2022 (PDF, via HUD User); Chicago Architecture Center: Lincoln Park; Chicago Park District: Oz Park; WTTW: Lincoln Park Zoo to Remain Free Through at Least 2050; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Lincoln Park Zoological Gardens; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Lincoln Park; Encyclopedia of Chicago: Lincoln Square (Little Fort Road); Encyclopedia of Chicago: DePaul University; CTA: Purple Line timetable (PDF); Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce: Doing Business in Lincoln Park (PDF, 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.