Living in O’Hare: a neighborhood guide

The lay of the land

Chicago annexed the airport lands in 1956 and reached them with a ribbon of city territory barely wider than a road, which is why the map’s number 76 floats out west like an island. The airport began as Orchard Field, which is why your luggage tag still says ORD, and took its name in 1949 from Butch O’Hare, the Navy flying ace and Medal of Honor recipient. But the community area is not just runways: east of the Tri-State, real streets hold real households, and they know exactly what they like about it.

The pockets

Schorsch Forest View, built by the same Schorsch firm whose name is on Schorsch Village in Dunning, is the heart: ranches and split-levels on quiet curving streets that dead-end into the Des Plaines forest preserves, with deer at the yard line and the airport’s jobs ten minutes away. The Cumberland corridor adds condo and apartment towers around the Blue Line’s Cumberland stop, the closest thing the Far Northwest Side has to high-rise living.

The trade-offs

You hear planes; how much depends on the block and the runway rotation, so stand outside for ten minutes before you offer, the same advice we give beside Midway. In exchange: forest preserve trails out the back door, two L stops, every expressway at once, and airport employment security that steadies the blocks. For flight crews, frequent flyers and anyone who works the field, it is the most rational address in Chicago.

The housing stock

Mid-century ranches and split-levels in Schorsch Forest View, condos and townhomes near Cumberland, and little turnover anywhere, people stay. Mid-century houses ask mid-century questions, original mechanicals and windows above all; bring our house systems guide and window guide, and the buyers FAQ covers condo assessments on the Cumberland towers.

The neighborhoods inside O’Hare

O’Hare is community area 76 of Chicago’s 77, on the Far North Side. The names people use inside it: Schorsch Forest View.

The community areas have been the city’s official map since the 1920s; the neighborhood names inside them are the ones people use. All 77 on one interactive map.

Guides worth reading before you tour here

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