Oak Park is a village in
Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to
Chicago
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. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020
U.S. Census estimate.
Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in 1902, when it separated from
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
. Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife settled in Oak Park in 1889, and his work heavily influenced local architecture and design, including the
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio is a historic house and design studio in Oak Park, Illinois, which was designed and owned by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. First built in 1889 and added to over the years, the home and studio is furnished ...
. Over the years, rapid development was spurred by railroads and street cars connecting the village to jobs in nearby Chicago. In 1968, Oak Park passed the Open Housing Ordinance, which helped devise strategies to integrate the village rather than resegregate.
Today, Oak Park remains
ethnically diverse
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...
, and is known for its
socially liberal
Cultural liberalism is a social philosophy which expresses the social dimension of liberalism and advocates the freedom of individuals to choose whether to conform to cultural norms. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, it is often expressed a ...
politics, with 80% or higher voter turnout in every
presidential election since 2000. Oak Park is closely connected to Chicago with
Chicago Transit Authority
The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...
access via the
Green Line and
Blue Line "L" train lines, as well as the
Metra Oak Park station downtown.
History
In 1835, Joseph and Betty Kettlestrings, immigrants from
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, staked out a farm and built a house near Lake Street and Harlem Avenue, west of Chicago. Once their children were born, they moved to Chicago for the schools in 1843, and moved back again in 1855 to build a more substantial home a bit east on their
quarter section of land. More farmers and settlers had entered the area. Their land was called by several names locally, including Oak Ridge, Harlem, and Kettlestrings Grove. When the first post office was set up, it could not use the name Oak Ridge, as another post office was using that name in Illinois, so the post office chose Oak Park, and that name became the name for the settlement as it grew, and for the town when it incorporated in 1902.
[ Older version at ]
By 1850, the
Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (after that, the
Chicago & Northwestern and now
Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...
) was constructed as far as
Elgin, Illinois, and passed through the settlement area. In the 1850s the land on which Oak Park sits was part of the new Chicago suburb, the town of
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
. The population of the area boomed during the 1870s, with Chicago residents resettling in Cicero following the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and the expansion of railroads and street cars to the area. "In 1872, when Oak Park received its own railroad depot on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, its rapid emergence as a residential suburb of Chicago began. In 1877, the railroad was running thirty-nine trains daily between Oak Park and Chicago; in the subsequent year, more railroads and street car lines, with increased service, came to link Oak Park and Chicago. As Chicago grew from a regional center to a national metropolis Oak Park expanded – from 500 residents in 1872 to 1,812 in 1890, to 9,353 in 1900, to 20,911 in 1910, to 39,585 in 1920. Oak Park thus emerged as a leading Chicago suburb."
A review of Oak Park's history by Wiss, Janny, Elstner Associates in 2006 further explains the importance of railroads and street cars in the development of Oak Park:
The Village of Oak Park was formally established in 1902, disengaging from Cicero following a
referendum. According to the local historical society, "The period 1892–1950 saw the construction of almost all of the housing stock in Oak Park, and most of the village's current buildings."
The village population grew quickly, and "by 1930, the village had a population of 64,000, even larger than the current population",
while cherishing a reputation as the "World's Largest Village."
Chicago
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grew rapidly in the 19th century, recording 4,470 residing in the 1840 Census in the place so recently a fur trading post, reaching 1,099,850 in 1890, and then 1,698,575 in 1900, passing Philadelphia to the number two spot in the US, and in that year, the fifth largest in the world. Chicago was well located on the shores of Lake Michigan for transport; after the fire of 1871, Chicago rebuilt its center and exploded with new ideas; Oak Park grew along with its neighbor to the east, having location and railroad and street car connections in its favor.
After World War II, "Oak Park was affected by larger developmental trends in the Chicago Metropolitan area. The construction of the Eisenhower Expressway cut through the southern portion of the Village in the mid 1950s. Starting in the 1960s and 1970s, Oak Park has made a conscious effort to accommodate changing demographics and social pressures while maintaining the suburban character that has long made the Village a desirable residential location.
Beginning in the 1960s, Oak Park faced the issue of racial integration with effective programs to maintain the character and stability of the Village, while encouraging integration on racial basis. This included passage of The Open Housing Ordinance in 1968 which has helped maintain the ethnically diverse population seen in the village still today.
Oak Park has a history of
alcohol prohibition. When the village was incorporated, no alcohol was allowed to be sold within its village limits. This law was relaxed in 1973, when restaurants and hotels were allowed to serve alcohol with meals, and was further loosened in 2002, when select grocery stores received governmental permission to sell packaged liquor. Today, alcohol, such as beer and wine, is easily accessible with many bars and cocktail lounges around the village.
In 1889, Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife
settled in Oak Park. He built many homes and the Unity Temple, his own church, in the village, before he left in 1911 to settle in Wisconsin. Oak Park attracts architecture buffs and others to view the many Wright-designed homes found in the village, alongside homes reflecting other architectural styles. The largest collection of Wright-designed residential properties in the world is in Oak Park. A distinct focus on historic preservation of important architectural styles began in the 1970s and continues, with many buildings marked as historically significant, and so far, three historic districts defined. Other attractions include
Ernest Hemingway's birthplace home and his boyhood home, the Ernest Hemingway Museum, the three Oak Park homes of writer and
Tarzan creator
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Wright's
Unity Temple,
Pleasant Home, and the Oak Park-River Forest Historical Society.
Oak Park and River Forest High School is a comprehensive college preparatory school, with a long list of alumni who have made major or notable contributions to their fields of endeavor. Among these are Nobel Prize-winning author
Ernest Hemingway, football Hall-of-Famer
George Trafton
George Edward Trafton (December 6, 1896 – September 5, 1971) was an American professional football player and coach, boxer, boxing manager, and gymnasium proprietor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was also selec ...
, McDonald's founder
Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...
, city planner
Walter Burley Griffin, comedian
Kathy Griffin, basketball player
Iman Shumpert, and the voice of cartoon character
Homer Simpson,
Dan Castellaneta.
Geography
Oak Park is located immediately west of the city of
Chicago
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. The boundary between the two municipalities is Austin Boulevard on the east side of Oak Park and North Avenue/
Illinois Route 64 on the village's north side. Oak Park borders
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
along its southern border,
Roosevelt Road/
Illinois Route 38
Illinois Route 38 is an west–east state highway that runs across northern Illinois. It runs from U.S. Route 52 (US 52) in downtown Dixon to US 12/ US 20/ US 45 (Mannheim Road) in Westchester. It runs concurrently with ...
, from Austin to Lombard; and
Berwyn from Lombard to Harlem Avenue. Harlem/
Illinois Route 43 serves as its western border, where between Roosevelt and South Boulevard, it borders
Forest Park and between North Boulevard and North Avenue to the west it borders
River Forest.
The entire village of Oak Park lies on the shore of ancient
Lake Chicago, which covered most of the city of Chicago during the last Ice Age, and was the forerunner to today's
Lake Michigan. Ridgeland Avenue in eastern Oak Park marks the shoreline of the lake, and was once an actual ridge. As with the geographical setup of the
Chicago River, which connects to the present day Lake Michigan just north of the city's Loop, the ancient Des Plaines river once emptied into glacial Lake Chicago, making prehistoric Oak Park a "Plains river Delta" system. One of North America's four
continental divides runs through Oak Park. This divide, a slight rise running north–south through the village, separates the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...
watershed from the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
watershed, and is marked by one plaque on Lake Street at Forest Avenue and another in the northwest corner of Taylor Park.
According to the 2010 census, Oak Park has a total area of , all land.
Transportation
Public transit
Oak Park is accessible from Chicago by service on the
Green Line and the
Blue Line at five CTA stations in Oak Park. Oak Park also has a
station for
Metra's
Union Pacific / West Line. Bus transit service within Oak Park and to other suburbs is also provided by the CTA and
Pace.
Streets, addresses, and expressways
The
Eisenhower Expressway
Interstate 290 (I-290) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that runs westward from the Chicago Loop. The portion of I-290 from I-294 to its east end is officially called the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway. In short form, it is known as "t ...
is the primary expressway between Chicago and Oak Park. The highway also provides connections to
O'Hare International Airport. Major east–west streets in Oak Park continue east into Chicago.
The streets are laid out in a grid pattern, occasionally with local streets ending in a
cul-de-sac to maintain local character. Oak Park has its own street-numbering system that begins, for east–west streets at Austin Boulevard (no east or west designation), and for north–south streets, at the elevated train tracks located just south of Lake Street, which divides the numbers, getting larger going north or south from there, and requiring north or south designation on addresses. The border streets do not follow the Oak Park numbering system; rather, they match the address system with the cities sharing those border streets. For example, addresses on Austin Boulevard match the Chicago system, with the zero line at Madison Street, and along North Avenue, addresses match the Chicago system, with Austin Boulevard at 6000 W and Harlem at 7200 W. Additionally, Elizabeth Court, located within the
Frank Lloyd Wright Historic District, maintains its original numbering. The houses on that
cul-de-sac start at 1 and go up to 12.
Bicycles
Augusta Boulevard through the village is part of the
Grand Illinois Trail; the trailhead of the
Illinois Prairie Path
The Illinois Prairie Path (often called the Prairie Path and abbreviated IPP) is a network of of bicycle trails, mostly in DuPage County, Illinois. Portions of the trail extend west to Kane County and east to Cook County. Most of the trail is ca ...
is less than a mile from Oak Park. With several cycle clubs and groups, Oak Park is considered a
bicycle-friendly
Bicycle-friendly policies and practices help some people feel more comfortable about traveling by bicycle with other traffic. The level of bicycle-friendliness of an environment can be influenced by many factors including town planning and cyclin ...
community, and the tree-lined streets of the community, as well as its proximity to trails in nearby communities, attract cyclists to Oak Park, easily accessed by the Green Line, Blue Line, or Metra. Bicycle lanes are marked on many streets throughout Oak Park, though no fully
segregated cycle facilities have been put in place.
Divvy bike sharing, which serves the city of Chicago, came to Oak Park in 2016. Oak Park's Village Board cancelled the Divvy program in 2017, after the program was determined not to be cost-effective.
Demographics
As of the
2020 census there were 54,583 people, 21,701 households, and 12,774 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 25,953 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 62.02%
White, 19.08%
African American, 0.31%
Native American, 5.46%
Asian, 0.04%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 2.66% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 10.42% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 9.31% of the population.
There were 21,701 households, out of which 53.38% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.56% were married couples living together, 9.89% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.14% were non-families. 35.33% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.35% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.14 and the average family size was 2.38.
The village's age distribution consisted of 23.8% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 27% from 25 to 44, 27.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $96,945, and the median income for a family was $142,785. Males had a median income of $79,284 versus $54,639 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the village was $58,262. About 3.3% of families and 7.0% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 3.7% of those under age 18 and 8.7% of those age 65 or over.
''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''
In the 1960s, Oak Parkers began a concerted effort to avoid the destructive racial housing practices occurring in nearby communities.
Racial steering Racial steering refers to the practice in which real estate brokers guide prospective home buyers towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race. The term is used in the context of ''de facto'' residential segregation in the Unite ...
and block-by-block panic peddling caused rapid racial change on Chicago's west side, including the
Austin Community Area adjacent to Oak Park. Whites left west-side neighborhoods based on concerns of property value losses and crime increases, and some businesses left, as well. The Village of Oak Park passed a
fair housing
Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typical ...
ordinance in 1968 (in the same year as the federal
Fair Housing Act) to ensure equal access to housing in the community. In 1972, the Oak Park Housing Center was founded by Roberta "Bobbie" Raymond to promote
integration in the community, by ensuring equal access and discouraging white flight. Part of this effort included banning "for sale" signs on houses. Although this law became unconstitutional with the decision in ''
Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Township of Willingboro'', use of the signs is still strongly discouraged by local realtors.
An evaluation of the policy in Oak Park to promote integration, written in the early years of the 21st century, noted the gradual increase in the share of village population that is Black, at 22% in 2000, and further observed:
As late as 2000, there were no resegregated census tracts, with tracts ranging from 7% black to 36% black... this was not because the pattern of rapid westward resegregation had run its course, because events in neighboring suburbs showed that segregation trends were still operating. Instead, the pattern in a sense leaped over Oak Park to other suburbs farther west, including Bellwood and Maywood, which resegregated in a relatively short time.
Government
Village
Since 1951, Oak Park has been organized under the
council-manager form of municipal government. The village government includes an elected president and an elected village board, which hires a village manager to conduct the day-to-day affairs of the administration. Oak Park also has five additional governments which levy
real estate taxes. These include the
Oak Park Township, the high school district (which also levies from adjacent River Forest), the elementary school district, the library district, and the park district.
The
United States Postal Service operates the main Oak Park Post Office at 901 Lake Street and the Oak Park South Post Office at 1116 Garfield Street.
Elections
Oak Park's village board, village president, and other elected officials are elected through a two-stage election process. A primary election is used to nominate party candidates, and a general election is used to elect government officials. Oak Park's election turnout varies greatly depending on whether it is a municipal or national election. In the 2012 presidential election, Oak Park had the highest voter turnout in suburban Cook County; 79.8% of registered voters cast a ballot. Municipal elections for the board of trustees and village clerk generally have much lower voter turnout, averaging around 20% and are held in spring, consistent with state law. The municipal elections are considered nonpartisan, as the national political parties do not put up the candidates. Candidates step forward, or are found by a citizens group that works to find people to have new candidates for each election cycle, encourage participation in local issues.
Schools
The public
primary schools (Lincoln, Mann, Longfellow, Beye, Irving, Holmes, Whittier, and Hatch) and the
middle schools,
Percy Julian Middle School (formerly
Nathaniel Hawthorne) and
Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School (formerly
Ralph Waldo Emerson) are operated by the
Oak Park Elementary School District. These ten schools are part of elementary school
District 97, which serves the entire city limits.
Performance of schools in Oak Park as evaluated by standard statewide tests is released periodically, known as the school report cards.
The renaming of the junior high schools, now middle schools, after prominent African-Americans rather than famous American literary figures was done in part to motivate minority students in their educational pursuits. A gap in school performance, referred to as "this intolerable and persistent inequity," remains, as of the date of the report.
Oak Park is the home of two high schools:
Oak Park and River Forest High School, the sole school in educational District 200, which also serves the entire city,
[ and Fenwick High School. Oak Park and River Forest High School is a public school with its district including both Oak Park and neighboring River Forest, and Fenwick High School is a Catholic college preparatory school run by the Dominicans, affiliated with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. Both high schools have a long history of high academic standards. Oak Park and River Forest High School bestows the Tradition of Excellence Award to distinguished alumni, including Ernest Hemingway, ]Ray Kroc
Raymond Albert Kroc (October 5, 1902 – January 14, 1984) was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turnin ...
, Dan Castellaneta, football Hall-of-Famer George Trafton
George Edward Trafton (December 6, 1896 – September 5, 1971) was an American professional football player and coach, boxer, boxing manager, and gymnasium proprietor. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1964 and was also selec ...
, actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (born November 17, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She made her Broadway debut in the 1980 revival of ''West Side Story'', and went on to appear in the 1983 film '' Scarface'' as Al Pacino's character's sist ...
, astronomer Chad Trujillo
Chadwick A. Trujillo (born November 22, 1973) is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and the co-discoverer of Eris, the most massive dwarf planet known in the Solar System.
Trujillo works with computer software and has examined ...
, geochemist Wally Broecker, and environmental leader Phil Radford. Oak Park and River Forest High School is one of seven secondary educational institutions in Illinois with the ability to induct students into the Cum Laude Society.
Park District
The Park District of Oak Park was first organized in 1912 as the Recreation Department of the Village of Oak Park. Under the direction of Josephine Blackstock and her successor, Lilly Ruth Hanson, it embarked on a vigorous program of recreation for villagers. The playgrounds were named by Blackstock after famous children's writers.
In the late 1980s, the Recreation Department was dissolved, and the Park District of Oak Park was created as a separate tax-levying body. It comprises thirteen parks scattered throughout the village, for a total of of parkland, a historic house available for functions with payment of fees, the Oak Park Conservatory, and two outdoor pools. The Park District also provides dog exercise areas where dog owners may bring their pets with payment of fees. A second outdoor pool, an official sized ice rink, a green roof and synthetic-turfed playing fields are at Ridgeland Common at the corner of Lake Street and Ridgeland Avenue, originally built in 1962. It was completely renovated from March 2013 to June 14, 2014.
Public library
Founded as a public library in 1903, after electing its first board of trustees, the Oak Park Public Library has a rich and celebrated history. The library has a main campus overlooking Scoville Park at the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street, and two branches, the Dole Branch Library and the Maze Branch Library. As a member of the SWAN library consortium, the Oak Park Public Library offers its cardholders access to nearly 8 million items.
Fire
Providing fire protection and emergency medical services, the Oak Park Fire Department currently operates from three fire stations, located throughout the village, Fire Station #1 (headquarters), Fire Station #2 (north), and Fire Station #3 (south) under the command of a battalion chief per shift. The Oak Park Fire Department operates three ALS engines, one ALS truck, three ALS ambulances, one ALS paramedic squad, one command unit, and several specialized MABAS divisional apparatus.
Fire station locations and apparatus
Police
The village is protected by the Oak Park Police Department, with 23 sworn officers per 10,000 residents.
Crime
In 2019, Oak Park's reported violent crime rate per 100,000 residents was 298, 28% lower than that of Illinois as a whole. The reported property crime rate, at 3,047, was 50% higher. In 2020 the village experienced a ten percent increase in reported crimes, including more thefts, robberies, and aggravated assaults/batteries, but fewer burglaries, compared to 2019.
Arts and culture
Oak Park has an active arts community, resulting in part from its favorable location adjacent to Chicago (seven miles west of the "Loop") as well as the village's connections to international figures in the visual, literary, and performing arts such as Ernest Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright, Betty White
Betty Marion White (January 17, 1922December 31, 2021) was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of Golden Age of Television, early television, with a television career spanning almost seven decades, White was noted for her vast work i ...
, and Tymoteusz Karpowicz. This tradition continues into the present, as Oak Park is home to numerous theater, music, dance, and fine-arts professionals. The arts district on Harrison, bounded by Austin Avenue to the east and Ridgeland Avenue to the west, features boutique galleries, shops, and restaurants.
Oak Park is home to several professional dance and theatre companies, including Circle Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, an
Momenta
resident dance company of Th
Academy of Movement and Music
Oak Park, with neighboring River Forest, also plays host to the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2009.
Oak Park is also home to WEUR, broadcasting from the former Oak Park Arms Hotel at 1490 AM since 1950. Formerly WPNA and run by the Polish National Alliance
The Polish National Alliance ( pol. ''Związek Narodowy Polski'', PNA) is the largest and one of the oldest Polish fraternal organizations in the United States. The original goal was to mobilize support among Polish Americans for the liberati ...
, the station's programming serves the diverse linguistic and cultural communities in the Chicago metropolitan area (in the late-1960s, WPNA had the only "underground" disc jockey in Chicago, Scorpio). The Oak Park Art League (OPAL), a nonprofit visual arts center founded after World War I (renamed in 1970), provides classes, workshops, lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitions. Since 1921, OPAL has been providing opportunities for arts engagement and cultural enrichment. Over 4,500 artists participate in OPAL's events each year.
Oak Park has been home to numerous festivals and holiday observances. The July 4 celebration featuring fireworks draws thousands to the Oak Park-River Forest High School football stadium. A Day in Our Village, held in June, allows local groups to set up tables to seek members.
Born an Abomination, was an act in the depressive metal genre, originated from Oak Park. It disbanded in 2018. Their album Fires in the Night Hour... from the year 2016 includes a song titled 'Oak Park' in dedication to the band's home.
Architecture and historic districts
Frank Lloyd Wright spent the first 20 years of his 70-year career in Oak Park, building numerous homes in the community, including his own and the Walter Gale House
The Walter H. Gale House, located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1893. The house was commissioned by Walter H. Gale of a prominent Oak Park family and is the first home Wright d ...
. He lived and worked in the area between 1889 and 1909. One can find Wright's earliest work here, such as the Winslow House in neighboring River Forest, Illinois
River Forest is a suburban village adjacent to Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, U.S. Per the 2020 census, the population was 11,717. Two universities make their home in River Forest, Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago. The ...
. Also, examples of the first prairie-style houses are in Oak Park. He also designed Unity Temple, a Unitarian-Universalist church, which was built between 1905 and 1908. Several well-known architects and artists worked in Wright's Oak Park Studio, including Richard Bock
Richard W. Bock (July 16, 1865 – 1949) was an American sculptor and associate of Frank Lloyd Wright.
He was particularly known for his sculptural decorations for architecture and military memorials,Lorado Taft''The History of American Sculptur ...
, William Eugene Drummond, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Walter Burley Griffin.
Many buildings in Oak Park were built by other Prairie School architects, such as George W. Maher, John Van Bergen
John Shellette Van Bergen (October 2, 1885 – December 20, 1969) was an American architect born in Oak Park, Illinois. Van Bergen started his architectural career as an apprentice draftsman in 1907. In 1909 he went to work for Frank Lloyd Wrigh ...
, and E.E. Roberts.
Oak Park's housing stock reflects the decades of its rapid growth while it was part of the town of Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
, and since 1902, when it became a village. Historic preservation has been a priority since an ordinance passed in 1972 and since revised. There are 2,400 historic sites in Oak Park, the majority of which are homes built in the Queen Anne, Prairie School and Craftsman styles of architecture. The Village of Oak Park displays these online on an interactive website. Three historic districts recognize the variety of styles often standing next door to each other. The three districts are Frank Lloyd Wright, Ridgeland-Oak Park, and Seward Gunderson, outlined on a map from the village. A fourth district is under consideration as of 2015, of 176 homes built by Thomas Henry Hulbert.
Ernest Hemingway spent the first six years of his life at 339 N. Oak Park Ave. The house was returned to its original 1890s' Victorian Heritage after restoration in 1992 and is open to the public for tours through The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.
The Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
-style main post office on Lake Street was designed by White and Weber in 1933. It is part of the Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District.
Points of interest
*Birthplace of Ernest Hemingway
The Ernest Hemingway Birthplace is a historic Queen Anne home and museum in Oak Park, Illinois where American author Ernest Hemingway was born. Hemingway lived in the home with his family for the first six years of his life. The house was sold ou ...
*Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio is a historic house and design studio in Oak Park, Illinois, which was designed and owned by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. First built in 1889 and added to over the years, the home and studio is furnished ...
* Unity Temple, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
* Frank Lloyd Wright–Prairie School of Architecture Historic District
* Ridgeland–Oak Park Historic District
* Edgar Rice Burroughs homes
* Oak Park Conservatory
*
Notable people
References
External links
Village of Oak Park official website
Visit Oak Park – Official Tourism Site for Oak Park and Western Cook County Illinois
Oak Park – River Forest Chamber of Commerce
Oak Park Public Library
{{Authority control
Villages in Illinois
Streetcar suburbs
Chicago metropolitan area
Villages in Cook County, Illinois
Populated places established in 1902
1902 establishments in Illinois
Sundown towns in Illinois