Meekerville Historic District

Meekerville is a small enclave of large early twentieth-century houses on Chicago's north side, near Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park. It occupies three one-block streets, Barry, Wellington and Oakdale Avenues, between Lake Shore Drive West and Sheridan Road. The district includes eight contributing houses, three contributing carriage houses or garages, and several non-contributing resources, built between 1913 and 1930 on landfill along the shoreline. The houses are two and a half to four stories tall and sit close together behind a uniform setback, creating a consistent street wall. Their styles include Georgian Revival, Italian Renaissance Revival, Beaux Arts and Tudor Revival. Architects include Charles A. Platt, who designed the Arthur Burr Meeker Sr. house, and Howard Van Doren Shaw. The first owners were members of Chicago's business elite, including meat-packing families such as the Armours and Mayers. High-rise buildings now surround the district on all sides, and its houses remain in residential use.