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The city’s far southwest corner: Victorians on the wooded ridge that Longwood Drive climbs, brick Georgians running west to the county line, Rock Island trains downtown, and an actual farm inside the city limits.
Morgan Park shares the Blue Island Ridge with Beverly next door, the highest ground in Chicago, and its oldest blocks were laid out in the 1870s as a picturesque commuter village: curving streets, big trees, and Victorians looking down Longwood Drive’s slope. Mount Greenwood, west of it, filled in later with brick Georgians and ranches and keeps a small-town main street along 111th.
The South Side Irish Parade marches up Western between the two each March, and the Beverly page covers the Ridge’s northern half; this guide takes the south end.
The working farm on 111th Street belongs to the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, seventy-some acres of crops and pasture inside the city limits, with a farm stand in season and livestock visible from the sidewalk. Mount Greenwood Park adds a pool and fieldhouse, the Dan Ryan Woods forest preserve sits just north on the ridge, and three of the region’s great cemeteries frame the area with old-growth trees.
The Rock Island’s Beverly branch stops at 107th, 111th and 115th on the Morgan Park side, running to LaSalle Street downtown in about half an hour. Mount Greenwood runs on buses and cars, with 111th as its spine and the Tri-State a short drive west. This is a corner where a garage earns its keep.
Victorians, foursquares and Prairie-influenced houses on the ridge blocks off Longwood, sturdy brick Georgians and Cape Cods through Mount Greenwood, and post-war ranches toward the county line, nearly all houses and nearly all owner-kept. Ridge-top frame houses ask different questions than flatland brick; our older-homes guide and foundations guide cover both, and the home styles field guide helps you name what you are looking at.
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