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Chicago’s garden corner: brick Tudors and Georgians on streets that bend with the river, forest preserve on three sides, a rail-trail running up the middle, and two Metra stops that make Union Station a short ride.
The whole area sits on land granted in 1828 to Billy Caldwell, the Potawatomi leader known as Sauganash, and his name never left. When developers laid out Sauganash in the 1920s they sold it as a planned residential park, brick homes only, no flats, winding streets, and the neighborhood still reads exactly that way. Edgebrook, across the forest preserve to the north, grew around its 1880s Metra stop, with Wildwood tucked along the river beyond it.
This is the rare Chicago neighborhood bounded mostly by trees: the North Branch and its forest preserves wrap the west and north, which is why the streets bend and the maps confuse first-timers.
The North Branch Trail begins its long run to the Botanic Garden from Caldwell and Devon, and LaBagh Woods puts picnic groves and herons ten minutes from any front door. The Sauganash Trail, a converted rail line, runs a straight green mile through the middle of the neighborhood and links toward the Valley Line trail north of it. Between the preserves, the golf course at Edgebrook, and the parkway plantings, the tree cover here is about as deep as the city gets.
Brick Tudors with slate roofs, center-entrance Georgians, wide post-war ranches, and a growing number of substantial rebuilds, nearly all houses rather than flats, nearly all masonry, on lots that give real side yards. Queen of All Saints Basilica on Sauganash Avenue is the architectural anchor. Tudors and slate ask their own maintenance questions, so bring our roof guide and brick guide when you tour, and the house systems guide covers the rest.
There is no L stop, and the neighborhood is proud of it. Metra’s Milwaukee North line covers the commute from two stops, the Kennedy and Edens are minutes away by car, and daily errands lean on Cicero, Devon, and the Edgebrook business pocket by the station. If your life runs on late-night trains, look along the Blue Line instead; if it runs on a morning Metra seat and a quiet street, this corner is hard to beat.
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