The Hyde Park neighborhood is located on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. Hyde Park, which is 7 miles south of Chicago’s Loop, is known for the University of Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry. Other attractions include the DuSable Museum of African American History, the Oriental Institute and the Smart Museum of Art. The Robie House, a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is also located in Hyde Park.
Hyde Park has also been the home of many famous Americans, including boxing world champion Muhammad Ali, novelist Saul Bellow, lawyer Clarence Darrow, comedian Dick Gregory, physicist Enrico Fermi, magazine publisher Hugh Hefner, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and others. Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, as well as Marshall Field, the founder of Marshall Field’s department store, lived in Hyde Park. President Barack Obama also once lived in Hyde Park and maintains a home in nearby Kenwood, which is an adjoining neighborhood.
Hyde Park’s boundaries are Hyde Park Boulevard on the north, Midway Plaisance on the south, Washington Park on the west and Lake Michigan on the east. Hyde Park is one of Chicago’s most racially diverse neighborhoods. Its population is 46.7 percent white, 30 percent African American, 12 percent Asian, 6 percent Hispanic and 4 percent other races or more than one race, according to the 2010 census.
Hyde Park is 1.68 square miles in area. The population is 25,325. The zip codes in Hyde Park are 60615 and 60637. The median household income in 2011 in Hyde Park was $42,757 compared to $43,628 in Chicago as a whole.
Detached homes are considerably more expensive in Hyde Park than in other parts of Chicago. In Hyde Park, the median price of a single-family home was $640,394 in 2010, while in the rest of Chicago the median price for a home was $262,859 during the same year.
Enrollment in private schools is also high in Hyde Park. The percentage of K-12 grade students enrolled in private schools in Hyde Park is 68 percent. That compares to only 12.8 percent in the city as a whole.
Hyde Park is connected to the rest of Chicago by CTA trains, buses and the Metra train line. CTA buses provide express service to Chicago’s downtown.
The area was founded in the 1850s when Paul Cornell, a cousin of Cornell University founder Ezra Cornell, bought 300 acres of land on the south shore of Lake Michigan. Cornell had the goal of developing the area for other businessmen and their families. It was located near the Illinois Central Railroad. Cornell persuaded the railroad to construct a station at what is now 53rd Street. Because the area was easy to reach and located along the lake, Chicago residents used it as a respite from the city’s noise and bustle. In 1891, the University of Chicago was established in Hyde Park through a donation by the industrialist John D. Rockefeller.
Kreisman Law Offices handles Illinois lawsuits for the entire Chicago metropolitan area, including Hyde Park. Chicago's Kreisman Law Offices has over 40 years of trial experience and specializes in a wide range of legal services, including Illinois personal injury law, Illinois product defect/product liability law, Illinois medical malpractice claims, and Illinois nursing home abuse cases. Please call us 24 hours a day at 312.346.0045 or toll free 800.583.8002 for a free and immediate consultation, or complete a contact form online.
Our Chicago loop office is in a convenient location for Hyde Park residents. Kreisman Law Offices is located at the corner of Dearborn and Monroe Streets. There are many convenient modes of public transportation to Kreisman Law Offices, including the Metra and CTA.