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A lakefront neighborhood with a country-club front door: the South Shore Cultural Center on its own stretch of shoreline, a landmark district of architect-designed houses on oversized lots, and an electric railroad that stops every few blocks.
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 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.
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.
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.
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