Oak Park Illinois Real Estate

Oak Park Illinois Web Site

Oak Park, Illinois
By Julie Farby

Oak Park is a village in the near-western suburbs of Chicago, located in Cook County, Illinois, about 8 miles west of Chicago’s downtown Loop area. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 52,524, while a 2003 census estimate revealed the population dipped to around 50,824. However, despite its slight population drop, within Oak Park’s 4.5 square miles, lives one of the region's most diverse mixes of cultures, races, ethnicities, professions, lifestyles, religions, ages and incomes.

According to VillageProfile.com, the “history of Oak Park began with the 1839 settlement by Joseph Kettlestrings, a native of England, on a section of land now bounded by Lake Street, Chicago Avenue, Oak Park Avenue, and Harlem Avenue.” The home he built on the southwest corner of the territory was the first house in Oak Park, and over time, “Kettlestrings Grove” slowly grew into the small village of Oak Ridge, which is now the northwestern portion of Oak Park. In the mid-1800s, W.H. Scoville “acquired 185 acres of land north of Chicago Avenue between Oak Park Avenue and Austin Boulevard,” and other settlers moved in slowly.

By 1870, the population of the Village was only about 500, but the Chicago Fire of 1871 caused “an exodus of Chicagoans into Oak Park, giving the Village its first population boom.” By the year of its incorporation as a Village in 1902, Oak Park was approximately 50 percent developed, “predominantly by single-family residences mixed with large areas of apartment houses and fringed with commercial development.”

After World War II, Oak Park faced dramatic changes. Shopping malls along new expressways drew business away from Oak Park's downtown, and demographic change posed complementary challenges. According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “By 1958, Oak Park's overwhelmingly Republican, mainline Protestant, white population saw rising numbers of Roman Catholics, Jews, and fundamentalist Christians enter the village.” This shift did not affect the community's high level of educational or economic attainment, but it sparked fears of a departure from Oak Park's traditional conservative values. By the early 1970s, “Italians and Irish outnumbered the Germans, English, and Scandinavians who had long predominated, and Catholicism had become a significant presence.”

Today, Oak Park is a thriving community of about 52,000, known for its proximity and accessibility to the city of Chicago, as well as its distinct architectural heritage and diverse population. In fact, Oak Park is nationally recognized for its policy on diversity, a policy which, according to the Village website, has been “reaffirmed by each new village board of trustees since its creation in 1973.” Oak Park has a rich artistic heritage, is the birthplace of many prominent figures. It is the childhood home of novelist Ernest Hemingway, whose July birthdate is traditionally celebrated in an annual festival.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright lived in Oak Park from 1889 - 1909, and 25 buildings in the community were designed by him, including his first public building, Unity Temple, a Unitarian Universalist church. Wright’s restored home and studio is open for daily tours. Many other architecturally significant homes can be found in Oak Park's three historic districts as well, ranging from Victorian to Prairie style. Other famous Oak Parkers include Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan; chemist Percy Julian whose research led to the development of Cortisone; Joseph Kerwin, an astronaut on the first NASA Skylab team; Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's; and Marjorie Judith Vincent, 1991 Miss America.

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