Living in South Shore: a neighborhood guide

The lay of the land

South Shore runs along the lake from Jackson Park to 79th, and its centerpiece explains it: the South Shore Cultural Center, a 1906 country club the Park District saved in the 1970s, now a public palace with a solarium, a nine-hole lakefront golf course, stables turned arts spaces, and the ballroom where Barack and Michelle Obama held their wedding reception. Michelle Obama grew up a few blocks inland on Euclid Avenue, a story the neighborhood tells with some pride.

71st Street and Exchange carry the business life, with the Metra Electric running right down 71st’s median like a streetcar that grew up.

The Highlands, and the beach

The Jackson Park Highlands, laid out from 1905 between 67th and 71st, is a City landmark district of architect-designed houses on lots far wider than the Chicago norm, on streets with no alleys and buried utilities, one of the South Side’s great showpieces. Rainbow Beach spreads along the lake south of the Cultural Center with one of the city’s better beach houses, and the lakefront trail connects it all north to Jackson Park.

Getting around

The Metra Electric’s South Chicago branch is the neighborhood’s quiet advantage: stations every few blocks, electric trains, and Millennium Station downtown in under half an hour. The J14 Jeffery Jump runs express bus service up Jeffery to the Loop, and Lake Shore Drive begins just north at the park.

The housing stock

Large brick and stone singles in the Highlands, solid bungalow and Georgian blocks inland, and one of the city’s deepest stocks of vintage apartment buildings, courtyards, co-ops and high-rises, along South Shore Drive and the numbered streets. Vintage co-ops price differently than condos, so read our buyers FAQ on assessments, bring the building-reading guide to any courtyard tour, and the older-homes guide covers the Highlands’ era.

The neighborhoods inside South Shore

South Shore is community area 43 of Chicago’s 77, on the South Side. The names people use inside it: Jackson Park Highlands.

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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