Wicker Park Historic District

Wicker Park is an inner-city Chicago neighborhood about three miles northwest of the downtown business district, centered just west of Milwaukee Avenue. Its flat, tree-lined streets hold roughly 853 structures, mostly masonry buildings dating from the late nineteenth century. Most show Italianate or Queen Anne influence, often blended rather than pure, with some later revival styles. The housing mix is unusually wide, ranging from row houses and modest two-flats to large single-family mansions with yards on streets such as Hoyne, Caton and Pierce. Milwaukee Avenue forms a nearly continuous three-story commercial wall, and a small skyscraper marks the six-corners intersection of Damen, North and Milwaukee. The district was drawn around Charles Wicker's subdivision and nearby land still unplatted in 1869. The nomination stresses the value of the unbroken streetscape, where even plain background buildings link the more notable ones. It also warns that demolition, siding and public housing intrusions threaten that continuity.