Chicago Tribune Profile of Hyde Park

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Community profiles: Hyde Park & neighbors

This page brought to you by Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference and HPKCC's website, www.hydepark.org. Join the Conference!

Visit also Affordability Information page for basic neighborhood demographics and statistics. For detailed, Tracking Community Trends I and II and Urban Renewal home and Timelines to present.

When Roger Fross arrived in Hyde Park to attend law school at the University of Chicago more than 40 years ago, the neighborhood was getting a fresh start.

The worst slums had been cleared away, and new residential and commercial development was breathing life back into Hyde Park.

"When I got out of law school, it seemed like the most interesting and enjoyable place to live in the city," Fross said of Hyde Park. "Why move?"

So Fross made the South Side neighborhood his home. He married there, and with wife Madelon, they bought a house and raised a son in Hyde Park. They still enjoy what the neighborhood has to offer, whether it's riding bikes on the lakefront and running behind the Museum of Science and Industry in historic Jackson Park, or taking advantage of leisure activities ranging from symphonies and lectures to University of Chicago Maroons' basketball.

Hyde Park* at a Glance
*Larger area below

Population 2000:
29,920

Demographics:
White - 13,020
Black - 11,290
Hispanic - 1,230
Asian - 3,366
Other - 1,014

Median Income:
$35,991

Median Home Price
(January-March 2003):
$181,500*

Sources: U.S. Census, Record information services

*Red Streak 7/18/03 citing Chic. Assn. of REALTORS gives $394,000 based on Chicago median $170,000.

Greater Area incl Kenwood and some areas to the west:

Service Area Population including in this case Kenwood: 50,084

Ethnic Grouping (1990 Census)
African American 53.3%
White 37.8%
Hispanic 2.4%
Asian American 6.1%
Native American 0.2%
Other 0.3%

Age distribution (1990 Census)
0-17 years 19.6%
18-34 years 33.8%
35-64 years 33.1%
65+ 13.5%

Average School Years Completed: 12.8

Schools Served: Elementary: 17
High School: 4

Retail mix:

  • 74% independently owned
  • 6.3% regional
  • 19% national
  • 31% eating or drinking
  • 26% personal services
  • 16% specialty goods and stores

    Biggest voids: home furnishings, apparel

In more recent years, Fross has experienced satisfaction in seeing the same standard of living spread into surrounding areas, adding to the security and stability of Hyde Park.

"You can't be an island," Fross said. "Let's not kid ourselves. This isn't nirvana. We still have neighborhoods around us with big problems."

As Hyde Park continued to improve in the last 40 years, it began to resemble an island of stability and affluence on the South Side, and that was reflected in local housing prices.

The real estate market has grown steadily since the urban renewal push of the late 1950s and early 1960s led to demolition of slum housing and vigorous code enforcement to preserve the remaining stock, according to Winston Kennedy, a real estate broker with and former owner of Century 21 Kennedy, Ryan, Monigal in Hyde Park. Today, Hyde Park's real estate market offers "a wide range of product, from studio apartments to mansions and everything in between."

The most popular sellers are condos for first-time home buyers. One- and two-bedroom starter units sell for about $150,000, Kennedy said, while houses and town homes can start in the $300,000 to $400,000 range [and] rise to more than $2 million.

About a third of home buyers are affiliated with the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals, Kennedy said. Another third are moving within the neighborhood, and the rest are people drawn to Hyde Park.

The fastest growing segment of the population in recent years is what the South East Chicago Commission calls "urban up-and-comers," professionals in the 25- to 34-year-old age bracket, SECC Executive Director Bob Mason said. "Hyde Park has really taken off in the past several years," Mason said. "I expected it to peak a few years ago, but it continues to rise."

There's a lot to draw that population, Mason said. Hyde Park is home to several popular restaurants and more than half a dozen museums of art, culture, science and history. They include the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute at 1155 E. 58th St. and the DuSable Museum of African American History at 740 E. 56th Pl. The university also provides venues for theater, music, dance, films and lectures that are open to the public.

With two shopping centers and several neighborhood business districts, Hyde Park is also a popular shopping hub, according to Lauren Alspaugh, executive director of the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce.

"Many of the customers are from outside Hyde Park," Alspaugh said of the local trade group. "There's relatively no commercial from 47th Street to south downtown."

The neighborhood's main business district is along 53rd Street, which received a $2 million streetscape improvement last year and has been designated a tax increment finance district to raise money for a new parking garage. Several new business[es] have come into the area since creation of the TIF, including a Borders Books & Music expected to open in July at 53rd Street and Lake Park Avenue. Improving conditions in surrounding neighborhoods -- such as North Kenwood-Oakland and Woodlawn -- are also a boon to Hyde Park.

"The university has been an active agent in improving the community and working with the community," said Homer Ashby, [then] president of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference.

Weekly farmers' market in Harper Court

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A Tale of Three Neighborhoods: Hyde Park spurs growth in Kenwood-Oakland, Woodlawn

New Homes Magazine June 2005. By Jeffrey Steele.

Conjure and image of the ideal urban neighborhood, and you might visualize Hyde Park on a recent warm Sunday morning. On sun-dappled 53rd Street west of Lake Park Avenue, throngs have converged on the tree-lined sidewalks, strolling, window shopping, sipping coffee at an outdoor cafe.

Near the University of Chicago, a soccer game consumes the energies of players from across the globe, and on Hyde Park Boulevard, dog walkers amble past the stately, ivy-covered apartment buildings that line the street.

Every neighborhood likes to think it's unique, but in Chicago none fits the bill like Hyde Park, bounded roughly by Hyde Park Boulevard, Cottage Grove, 60th and the lake, and neighboring South Kenwood, which stretches north to 47h and is in many ways an extension of Hyde Park.

The distinction can be sensed immediately on 53rd Street the neighborhood's main commercial strip. for one thing, in a city that's among the most segregated in the U.S., the crowd here is incredibly diverse -- African American, white, Asian and Latino. Well-off and poor. Jewish, Muslim, Christian. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hyde Park is about 46 percent white, 38 percent African American, 11 percent Asian and 4 percent Latino, making it one of the truly integrated communities in the city.

Physically, the neighborhood is nestled in a stunning pocket of parks -- Jackson Park and a beautiful stretch of lakefront on the east, Washington Park on the west and the grassy Midway Plaisance on the south, connecting the two. The architecture is nearly as varied as the population. There are the vintage apartment buildings, many of them former hotels, that house rambling, gracious apartments and condos, and stately single-families with wide lawns. Some gems, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's breathtaking Robie House, are known the world over.

But perhaps the most distinctive neighborhood trait is also the most intangible. Words like culture, recalcitrance and optimism hint at this quality, but they don't adequately explain it. The neighborhood character has been evolving ever since the two formative events that shaped a young Hyde Park: the birth of the University of Chicago in the early 1890s and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

The The Columbian Exposition spurred massive development, including the creation of an elevated train line extending from the Loop to Jackson Park and the community was elevated to a world stage as Daniel H. Burnham oversaw creation of the "White City." The University of Chicago brought an intellectual and cultural powerhouse to the HP Neighborhood and though its role in Hyde Park has not been without controversy, the school proved to be an important anchor and stabilizing force when white flight scarred so much of the South Side.

This is a neighborhood that has had its share of problems, but it's also and incredibly activist community that generally believes, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, that it can overcome them. Take an outdoor seat at t he Starbucks on 53rd, and your neighbors might be arguing over the controversial rehab of Promontory Point (the historic beach at 55th ant South Shore Drive neighbors are adamant about controlling), the financial trouble of the Hyde Park Cooperative Society (which operates two co-op markets in the neighborhood) or the new memoir by Hyde Park resident Leon Despres (for 20 years the staunchest foe -- and often the lone independent voice -- battling the old Machine of former Mayor Richard J. Daley)...

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Thanks to the South East Chicago Commission for the following "clippings."

In 2005 the Chicago Tribune asked Chicagoans to name "The Seven Wonders of Chicago." Three (or 2 and 1/2) of the winners were right here in Hyde Park:

Hyde Park's Medici on 57th was names a "top contender" in the Tribune's 2005competition for Best Burgers in Chicago.

Where described Hyde Park among "Beyond the Mag Mile: 6 Hot Neighborhoods Worth Exploring," in its October 2005 issue. Hyde Park is a "culture corner," with recommended amenities including the Museum of Science and Industry- including the U-505, Jackson Park's Osaka Garden, Smart Museum of Art, Robie House, Seminary Co-op Bookstore/57th St. Books, Calypso Cafe/Dixie Kitchen, and Medici on 57th.

The Tribune in fall 2005 recommended among the most scenic drives in the Chicago Region- Jackson Park.

Chicago Magazine, in its 2005 Chicago bests, named Harold's Chicken Shack a place to go for one's last meal on earth.

New Homes magazine published a neighborhood profile on Hyde Park, saying that no neighborhood in Chicago fits the description "unique" like Hyde Park! One of the hallmarks of this is its diversity, according to the article.

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Win Kennedy, with Jeanne Spurlock, tells of Urban Renewal, evolution of real estate in the neighborhood, and what attracts home buyers to Hyde Park

Winston Kennedy on the real estate perspective, from Urban Renewal (which he says improved it) days to the early 21st century. Also Deco Arts Building.

Hyde Park Herald, March 28, 2007. By Brian Wellner

Winston Kennedy has been selling real estate in Hyde Park for a long time, 40 years to be exact. While planning an anniversary celebration, Kennedy sat down with the Hyde Park Herald last week and reflected on how the neighborhood’s real estate market has changed since the 1960s.

He believes it changed for the better, in large past due to Urban Renewal. “It worked very well. It provided a lot of housing and got rid of a lot of eyesores,” Kennedy said. “It put Hyde Park on the map.”

Mistakes were made, too, he admitted. “There was a clearing of Hyde Park, maybe to much.” The federally-funded Urban Renewal project of the 1950s and 60s converted much of the neighborhood’s retail environment to new housing, especially townhomes and condominium developments that Kennedy said catered especially to homeowners affiliated with the University of Chicago who wanted to live near work.

Before Urban Renewal, Kennedy said there was very little code enforcement in the area and the housing stock deteriorated. Kennedy was manager of the university’s commercial real estate department from 1956 to 1967, when Urban Renewal was at its peak. During that time the university created the South East Chicago Commission [sic-SECC was in its heyday then, but was created in 1952] to enforce codes and track crime in Hyde Park.

Kennedy credited the creation of the SECC—as well as the university’s decision in 1952 to stay in the neighborhood and not to move to the suburbs—with improving the area’s real estate market.

The change was gradual “The financial community had written off the South Side and Hyde Park,” Kennedy said. He said banks often would not give mortgages to Hyde Park homeowners. “It was partly a racial thing,” he said.

Urban Renewal, he said, allowed the Federal Housing Authority to become involved in multi-family housing developments in the neighborhood, such as Regent’s Park.

One of the streets hit hardest by Urban Renewal’s block-by-block redevelopment was 55thstreet, once a major commercial strip in the area. In 1978, Kennedy bought on of the last of the old commercial buildings on 555th Street, the Deco Arts Building.

Hyde Park Chevrolet used to own the whole building, which was built in 1928, and the showroom faced Lake Park Avenue. Drawings of cars are still etched into the outer walls above the windows.

Kennedy, who said he was hooked on racquetball at the time, moved his real estate business, Kennedy, Ryan and Monigal and Associates, from 57th Street to the old showroom. He wanted to build a racquetball court on the roof, but plans never materialized. By 1980 he opened a Century 21 franchise in the showroom, where he still has an office to this day.

Kennedy started his real estate business in 1967 out of a studio apartment in the Windermere building. A year later he bought Parker Holsman Co., one of Hyde Park’s oldest businesses, which handles the management of real estate properties. Kennedy, Ryan and Monigal worked out of one part of the office. Parker Holsman continued to work out of another part. Having outgrown the Parker Holsman office on 57th Street, Kennedy relocated to the Deco arts building.

Kennedy is the last of the partners who made up Kennedy, (Edward) Ryan and (Vernon) Monigal still selling real estate. Ryan and Monigal have retired. Kennedy said his is one of the last remaining real estate businesses to have survived the 1960s. “They’re gone. We’re left,” he said.

Jeanne Spurlock joined the firm in 1981 and bought the company in 1997. She said home buyers are attracted to Hyde Park’s diversity and schools. And she said the neighborhood is perceived as less congested than Lincoln Park, which is typically the draw for people moving to the city for the first time. “Often times we win out because of the congestion of Lincoln Park,” Spurlock said. “We’re still a good value in comparison.”

According to Spurlock, the typical home buyer moving to Hyde Park has a family, one or two cars, and is affiliated with the University of Chicago.

Kennedy said he doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon. “I’ve stayed on because I don’t know what else to do,” he said.

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A look at the unusual and historic along Kimbark's 54o0 block, Honorary Father Thomas J. Fitzgerald.

A feature in the April 12, 2007 Chicago Weekly News by Sam Feldman takes a walk along a "typical" block that harbors some treasures:

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