Uptown, Chicago
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Community Area 03 - Uptown Location within the city of Chicago |
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| Latitude Longitude |
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| Neighborhoods | ||
| ZIP Code | parts of 60613, 60640 | |
| Area | 6.09 km² (2.35 mi²) | |
| Population (2000) Density |
63,551 (down 0.45% from 1990) 10,441.3 /km² |
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| Demographics | White Black Hispanic Asian Other |
42.2% 21.1% 19.9% 12.9% 3.89% |
| Median income | $38,883 USD | |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | ||
Uptown is a diverse neighborhood located north of Chicago's downtown. As one of Chicago’s 77 community areas, Uptown has officially defined boundaries. They are: Foster on the north; Lake Michigan on the east; Montrose (Ravenswood to Clark), and Irving Park (Clark to Lake Michigan) on the south; Ravenswood (Foster to Montrose), and Clark (Montrose to Irving Park) on the west. Uptown borders three community areas and Lake Michigan. To the north is Edgewater, to the west is Lincoln Square, and to the south is Lake View.
The historical, cultural, and commercial center of Uptown is Broadway, with Uptown Square at the center. In 1900 the Northwestern Elevated Railroad constructed its terminal near Montrose and Broadway (now part of the CTA Red Line). Uptown became a summer resort town for downtown dwellers, and derived its name from the Uptown Store, which was the commercial center for the community.1 For a time, all northbound trains from downtown ended in Uptown. From here Uptown became known as an entertainment destination. Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson and other early film stars produced films at the Essanay Studio on Argyle Street. The Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theater, Uptown Theatre, and Green Mill Jazz Club are all located within a half block of Lawrence and Broadway. Uptown is also home to one of Chicago's most celebrated final resting spots, Graceland Cemetery.
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[edit] Uptown Entertainment District
Historically a very popular tourist destination, the current Uptown Entertainment District is home to various music venues, nightclubs, restaurants and shops. The Uptown Entertainment District is now experiencing a revival, with new restaurants and shops opening every year. Uptown Square, at the center of the Uptown Entertainment District, was designated as a National Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. Uptown is also a stop for Chicago Gangster tours, with many locations tied to famous gangsters such as John Dillinger, Al Capone, Machine Gun Jack McGurn, Roger "The Terrible" Touhy and others.
[edit] Aragon Ballroom
The Aragon Ballroom, probably the most famous ballroom in America, is still a very popular music venue. During the 1920s and 1930s, most of the nation's well-known jazz groups played the Aragon. Live radio broadcasts from the Aragon helped promote the Aragon's entertainers throughout the Midwest and beyond. Hotels quickly sprang up in the Uptown area, and it became a mecca for young adults who visited Chicago to dance to the Big Bands of the 1940s and 1950s. Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, Wayne King and other famous bandleaders often played there. In decades to follow, a very diverse selection of "big name" groups have performed, including The Rolling Stones, U2, The Smiths, The Doors, Snoop Dogg, The Kinks, Dino Latino, Dr. John, Grateful Dead, B.B. King, Nirvana, Circuit Mom and many others.
[edit] Riviera Theater
The Riviera Theater, also a popular music venue, was once a Jazz Age movie palace which featured live jazz performances with the movies. In the 1970s, the seats were removed on the main floor and it was converted to a concert venue.
[edit] Green Mill Jazz Club
The Green Mill Jazz Club is on the site of a much bigger Green Mill Gardens complex, which was an outdoor music gardens fashioned after The Moulin Rouge Gardens in Paris. It was a sunken gardens area, surrounded by a wall and featured nightly entertainment during the summer months. It also featured a dining room which was later converted to the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge during construction of the Uptown Theatre on the former site of the outdoor music gardens.
The Green Mill Cocktail Lounge was once owned by "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, a right-hand man of Al Capone, who was a regular patron at The Green Mill. The 1957 movie, The Joker Is Wild, is based on the life of a regular performer at the Green Mill, Joe E. Lewis. Starring Frank Sinatra, the movie is the story about how Joe tried to leave his gig at the Green Mill and was attacked and left for dead in his apartment. Joe survived and continued his successful career in California. The Green Mill Jazz Club still hosts top jazz performers and a weekly Poetry Slam. Marc Smith, who is credited for developing the Poetry Slam, still hosts the weekly events at the Green Mill.
[edit] Kinetic Playground
The Kinetic Playground is a new Uptown concert venue which takes its name from the famous music venue of the early 1960s, which helped launch the Rock 'N Roll Era in Chicago. Famous for its light shows, the original Kinetic Playground, located in the former Rainbo Arena on Clark Street, hosted such Rock greats as Janis Joplin, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Jethro Tull.
[edit] Argyle Street Asian restaurants and shops
Argyle Street, from Sheridan to Broadway and spilling onto Broadway, features an exceptional selection of Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, French Vietnamese and Cambodian ethnic restaurants and bakeries. There are also many Asian groceries, shops and trading companies that sell unique Asian merchandise. This area is locally called by many different names, including New Chinatown, North Chinatown, Little Chinatown, Little Saigon, Little Cambodia or Little Vietnam. The surrounding neighborhood, which has attracted Asian immigrants and refugees for the past several decades, is a unique and popular tourist destination. It is easily reached by the Argyle stop on the Red Line "El."
One block east of the Argyle "El" stop, at the corner of Argyle and Winthrop is The Roots of Argyle mural, a community-produced masterwork depicting 100 years of immigration and daily life on Argyle Street. The over 100 ft. painting was designed by community members and painted by world famous muralist Br. Mark Elder and his mural students from DePaul University. Mural figure key and historical narrative is hosted by Uptown United at http://www.uptownunited.org/
[edit] Uptown Theatre
The Uptown Theatre is a large, ornate movie palace with almost 4,500 seats. The largest in Chicago, this architectural gem is on several Landmark Registers. The Uptown Theatre was designed by famous movie palace architects, Rapp and Rapp, who also designed the Chicago Theatre in the Chicago Loop. It was managed by the Balaban and Katz Company. The Uptown Theatre is currently closed, but efforts are underway by Friends of the Uptown and other local groups to restore and reopen the theater. A 2006 documentary, Uptown: Portrait of a Palace, shows the interior of the theatre. It is also featured on the cover of the book The Chicago Movie Palaces of Balaban and Katz by David Balaban.
[edit] The Rainbo
The Rainbo, at 4812 N. Clark, has recently been torn down for a new condo and townhouse development. At one point, however, it was a very popular outdoor music garden, fashioned after the Moulin Rouge Gardens in Paris, which is the original namesake for what was then called "Moulin Rouge Gardens."
Investors bought the Moulin Rouge Gardens property and spent one-million dollars to expand the facility. Opened in 1921, Mann's Million Dollar Rainbo Room, named after Fred Mann's wartime service in the U.S. Army's 42nd Infantry or "Rainbow" Division, was said to be the largest nightclub in America, featuring some of the biggest names in Vaudeville and musical entertainment. Larry Fine (actor) was performing there the night he was asked to join The Three Stooges. The Rainbo Room had a revolving stage to allow for continuous entertainment. There was table seating for 2,000 patrons and space on the dance floor for an additional 1,500. WMAQ radio, which was then WQJ and owned by the Rainbo and Calumet Baking Powder Company, broadcasted music of the Rainbo's performers as a form of promotion.
In 1927, during Prohibition, it was converted to a major casino and sports venue, called the Rainbo Fronton.
In 1934, during the Chicago World's Fair (A Century of Progress), it became French Casino. The French Casino is where John Dillinger spent his birthday, July 21, 1934, the night before he was shot.
In 1939, it became Mike Todd's Theater Cafe, which was a popular dinner theater. Tommy Sutton, the Theater Cafe's choreographer, went on to work with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole, among others. It was also a venue for Championship Wrestling where, in 1955, the first women's tag team wrestling match was held. (Mille Stafford and Penny Banner vs LeChona LeClaire and Mae Weston)
In 1957, The Theater Cafe was converted to an ice skating rink, called Rainbo Arena, which was a practice rink for the Chicago Blackhawks including the year they won the 1961 Stanley Cup. The Rainbo Arena was also a training rink for several Olympic figure skaters, housed a pro bowling alley and the original Kinetic Playground music venue.
More recently, The Rainbo was a popular late night roller rink.
[edit] Arcadia Ballroom
The Arcadia Ballroom, at 4444 N. Broadway was one of the first Dance Halls in Chicago. Promoter Paddy Harmon, who later developed Dreamland Ballroom and the Chicago Stadium, found that black jazz bands were popular with the Arcadia Ballroom late night crowds. It was one of the few places on the north side of Chicago which would book black jazz bands in the 1920s and 1930s, the other being the Green Mill Jazz Club. The building was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s.
[edit] 5100 Club
The 5100 Club, at 5100 N. Broadway Avenue, was a nightclub that hosted comedy performances before the advent of television. One regular headliner was Danny Thomas, who was discovered there by the head of the William Morris Agency. Danny would later go on to star in movies and in "Make Room For Daddy," one of the longest running sitcoms in American Television history. His daughter, Marlo Thomas, who is married to Phil Donahue, was the star of the Television series, That Girl.
[edit] Parks, Beaches and Boating
A lakefront community at the northern edge of Lincoln Park on Lake Michigan, Uptown features two public beaches: Foster Beach and Montrose Beach. There is also a dog beach at the southern edge of Montrose Beach. Montrose Harbor, just near Montrose Beach, is a marina for local and transient boaters and is home to the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club. Small craft boat rental is available at Montrose Beach.
Uptown also has an extensive park system. The main park for the Uptown area is Lincoln Park, which has soccer and athletic fields, a segment of the Chicago lakefront bicycle/running path, Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary ("The Magic Hedge"), a sledding hill, Puptown Dog Park, Wilson Skatepark and Waveland (Marovitz) Golf Course to the south. Two separate parks, which may be considered inland extensions of the lakefront Lincoln Park, are located just west of Lake Shore Drive. Named Clarendon Park and Margate Park, each feature athletic fields, children's playgrounds and indoor sports facilities. Both parks in turn give its name to the surrounding neighborhood. Chase Park, located on the west side of Clark Street at Leland Avenue, has indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, as well as an outdoor pool and tennis courts.
[edit] Neighborhoods
[edit] Buena Park
Buena Park is a neighborhood bounded by Montrose Avenue, Irving Park Road, Graceland Cemetery and Lake Shore Drive. The core of the neighborhood is very suburban with driveways and spacious lots. It is in sharp contrast to the skyscrapers that populate the area around it. It can be accessed from the Sheridan stop on the CTA's Red Line.
Today,many people assume that Buena Park is a "new name" given to this part of Uptown by developers trying to give the area a better name (like those trying to call Humboldt Park "West Bucktown"). In reality Robert A. Waller developed Buena Park starting in 1887 by subdividing his property. The original Waller home is now the site of St. Mary of the Lake church (built in 1917). Buena Park pre-dates the remainder of Uptown by a number of years.
Additionally, Lincoln Park High School on Armitage Ave in the Lincoln Park neighborhood was formerly Robert Waller HS until being renamed in 1980.
"The Delectable Ballad of the Waller Lot" by Chicago poet Eugene Field:
Up yonder in Buena Park There is a famous spot, In legand and in history (Known as) the Waller lot.
[edit] Sheridan Park
Sheridan Park is a neighborhood bounded by Lawrence Avenue on the north, Clark on the west, Montrose on the south and Broadway on the east. It is mostly residential, containing six-flats, single family homes, and courtyard apartment buildings. There is a growing business district along Wilson Avenue, which bisects Sheridan Park from Broadway to Clark. Truman College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, is also located in Sheridan Park. The neighborhood can be accessed from either the Wilson or Lawrence stop on the CTA's Red Line.
[edit] New Chinatown
The New Chinatown, also known as North Chinatown or Little Chinatown neighborhood (indicated as Argyle Park on graphic) is along Argyle Street and Broadway in Uptown. Despite the name, this neighborhood is mostly populated by residents who had Vietnamese and Cambodian nationality. However, many, if not most, were from ethnic Chinese minorities and, for that reason, became refugees during the Sino-Vietnamese war of the late 1970s. This neighborhood may also be referred to as Little Cambodia or Little Vietnam or Little Saigon. In the span of a few city blocks, New Chinatown boasts half a dozen Asian grocery stores as well as more than a dozen Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, and Chinese restaurants. The neighborhood should not be confused with Chinatown, which is in the Armour Square community area on the South Side of the city.
A noteworthy minority within a minority on Argyle are the Bui Doi, those of mixed Vietnamese and American ancestry. Children of mixed unions often suffered from discrimination in Vietnam, partly because of hostility to the US armed forces and partly because the women (the unions were almost always of Vietnamese women and American men) were seen as prostitutes. The most discriminated against are those of African American-Vietnamese parents.
The neighborhood is centered by the Argyle stop on the CTA's Red Line.
[edit] Margate Park
Margate Park forms the eastern border of Uptown and Edgewater, nested between gritty Sheridan Rd. and the pleasantries of Lincoln Park's northern reaches. Its trees-lined streets, historic mansions, and gilded mid-rises reflect the area's development in the bustle of Uptown Chicago's burgeoning entertainment industry in the 1900s. However, there are also numerous SROs in the area, mainly in former hotels, housing mentally ill, debilitated, and impoverished individuals.
This lakefront neighborhood is home to Margate Fieldhouse, a gym and fitness facility. The area around the fieldhouse is an official off-leash area in the city for dogs. Annual city permits are required for dogs using the areas.
The fieldhouse is also host to the Margate Playground, with 1400 square feet of playspace for children. Artists Jim Brenner, Corinne D. Peterson, Ginny Sykes, and Roman Villareal created a unique space reflecting the urban locale catering to children's interests and local fauna.
[edit] Points of interest
- Aragon Ballroom (Concert Venue)
- Challenger Park
- Chase Park
- Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club
- Essanay Film Manufacturing Co. (Chicago Landmark)
- Foster Beach
- Graceland Cemetery
- The Green Mill Jazz Club
- Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary ("The Magic Hedge")
- Montrose Beach
- Montrose Beach Boat Rentals
- Montrose Dog Beach
- Montrose Harbor
- People's Music School
- Puptown Dog Park
- Rainbo Village (Former location of Chicago's famous Moulin Rouge Gardens, Rainbo Gardens, Rainbo Fronton, French Casino, Michael Todd's Theater Cafe, Rainbo Arena, the Kinetic Playground and Rainbo Roller Rink)
- Riviera Theatre (Concert Venue)
- St. Boniface Cemetery
- Swedish-American Museum Center
- Uptown Entertainment District/Uptown Square
- Uptown Theatre (Chicago Landmark)
- Vietnam War Museum
- Waveland (Marovitz) Golf Course
- Wilson Avenue Beach
- Wilson Avenue Skatepark
[edit] Hospitals
- Chicago Lakeshore Hospital
- Thorek Hospital and Medical Center
- Weiss Memorial Hospital
- U.S. Public Health Hospital
[edit] Schools
- American Islamic College
- Arai Middle School
- Brenneman Elementary School
- Disney Elementary Magnet School
- Goudy Elementary School
- John T. McCutcheon Elementary School
- Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School
- St. Augustine College
- St. Mary of the Lake Elementary School
- St. Thomas of Canterbury Elementary School
- Stewart Elementary School
- Stockton Elementary School
- Truman College
[edit] Theatres
- Annoyance Theatre
- Black Ensemble Theatre
- National Pastime Theatre
- Pegasus Players (Truman College)
- Riviera Theatre
- Science Theatre Productions
- Uptown Theatre
[edit] References
1. Stacewicz, Richard and Robert McNeill. “Uptown.” Local Community Fact Book. Chicago Metropolitan Area. 1990. Chicago Fact Book Consortium. University of Illinois, Chicago: 1995
[edit] External links
- Official City of Chicago Uptown Community Map
- Lakeside Community Development Corporation
- Uptown Chicago Commission
- Collection of Uptown Cultural Resources
- Buena Park Neighbors
- Magnolia Malden Neighbors
- Uptown in the 1930s
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