Lincoln Park & Old Town

Nineteenth-century grandeur and 21st-century retail

Word to the wise: The bars serving the university’s students on nearby Lincoln and Clark get even younger, louder and drunker at weekends.
Leafy Lincoln Park, centered around Halsted and Armitage, and home to DePaul University, boasts many substantial houses (including a number of Frank Lloyd Wright designs on pretty streets), plus upscale shopping and dining along Armitage, and several of Chicago’s legendary theaters and improv comedy reviews.

Nestled between the park and Larrabee, Old Town was the Wicker Park of the 1950s and 60s: full of beatniks, artists and musicians. The rebels moved on and Old Town, centered on North Wells Street, has become a genteel and attractive neighborhood, its German and Polish heritage visible in the cobbled streets and 19th-century townhouses around the Old Town Triangle.
Also worth noting is the Chicago History Museum on Clark Street (which offers guided tours), and beautiful Lincoln Park itself, which runs for several miles along the lakeside, and contains Lincoln Park Zoo.