Kenwood, Chicago

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**Kenwood (Chicago, Illinois)**
Community Area 39 - Kenwood Location within the city of Chicago
Latitude Longitude	41°48.6′N, 87°36.0′W
Neighborhoods	Kenwood
ZIP Code	parts of 60615 and 60653
Area	2.82 km² (1.09 mi²)
Population (2000) Density	18,363 (up 1.02% from 1990) 6,504.6 /km²
Demographics	White Black Hispanic Asian Other	15.9% 75.7% 1.64% 4.27% 2.52%
Median income	$43,728
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

Kenwood, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, is one of the 77 well-defined Chicago community areas.

Kenwood contains some of the largest homes in the city. According to the City of Chicago historical signs found on streetlights throughout the neighborhood, Kenwood was once one of the most elite neighborhoods in all of Chicago. Famous murderers Leopold and Loeb lived in Kenwood, as did their victim Bobby Franks. It includes two Chicago Landmark districts (Kenwood District and North Kenwood District). The official community areas were defined in the early 20th century and the current meaning of the Hyde Park neighborhood includes the area between 47th Street and 51st Street ("E. Hyde Park Blvd.") as a part of Hyde Park,^[1] although this area is officially the south half of the official Kenwood neighborhood.

Kenwood is bisected by 47th Street, which marks a dramatic socio-cultural and architectural boundary. North Kenwood suffered significant depopulation and attendant decline of the housing stock and retail base, bottoming out around 1990, although the area has been gradually redeveloping since then. South Kenwood fared this period rather better, escaping middle-class flight in the 1970s due to the efforts of the Kenwood Open House Committee to have the area zoned single-family homes only, halting a trend then underway to apartment and rooming-house conversion. In the real estate boom of the mid-2000s, houses sold for in excess of two million dollars, and long vacant lots were redeveloped with high-end luxury houses.

Madison Park, one of only three remaining private parks in the City of Chicago, is on the southern end of Kenwood between Woodlawn and Dorchester. Two blocks to the east is the Chicago Public Schools' Kenwood Academy.

It is part of the Hyde Park Township that was annexed by the City of Chicago in 1889. Among its most famous structures is the Blackstone Library, built in 1902, that continues to be part of the Chicago Public Library system.

The tallest building in Kenwood is the South Tower of Regents Park.

1 Notable residents
2 Gallery
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Notable residents

Notable Hyde Park residents have included:

[edit] Gallery

Kenwood neigborhood's buildings as seen from Promontory Point

Front of Blackstone Library

The Chicago Half Marathon is an annual Chicago Marathon tune up that takes place along Lake Shore Drive.

The Rainbow/PUSH Headquarters

[edit] Notes

^ Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce 2007-2008 Member Directory, Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce, pp. 32-33, 2007.

[edit] External links

Official City of Chicago Kenwood Community Map

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