The neighborhood

The building

• A shared laundry room, with supplies included.
• A shared backyard.
• Storage for bikes and scooters.
• Free street parking, and one garage space per apartment, included.
• I live in the building, so someone is always close by. Vlad is a phone call away.

Where you are

• Andersonville, to the east along Clark Street: Chicago's historically Swedish neighborhood, today full of shops and restaurants from all over the world. The Swedish American Museum is here.
• Ravenswood, to the west along the Metra tracks: one of Chicago's first commuter suburbs, started in 1868 around a railroad stop and part of the city since 1889.
• Lincoln Square, a little farther west: shops and restaurants around Lincoln, Lawrence and Western.
• Uptown, to the southeast: home of the Riviera and Uptown theaters and the Aragon Ballroom, from its days as a 1920s entertainment district.
• Market days: people come here for the local and the neighborly, and the farmers markets are the best of it. Andersonville's takes over Winona Street on Wednesday afternoons from May to October, and Lincoln Square's runs Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons into mid-November, both a short walk. For everything else, Mariano's on Lawrence, eight minutes away, is the full grocery store everyone around here knows.

Getting around

Walking times from home:

Ravenswood Metra station

5 min

Clark Street shops

6 min

Winnemac Park

10 min

Damen Brown Line

16 min

Argyle Red Line

18 min

Lawrence Red Line

21 min

The lake at Foster Beach

35 min

Walk Score 80 (very walkable), Transit Score 77 and Bike Score 93, from Walk Score.

• Metra: the Union Pacific North line runs from Ravenswood to Ogilvie downtown. Times and fares are on metra.com.
• The L: the Lawrence and Argyle Red Line stations were rebuilt and reopened in 2025, with elevators and escalators. The Brown Line stops at Damen.
• Buses: 22 Clark, 9 Ashland (it stops right at the Ravenswood Metra), 50 Damen, 81 Lawrence and 92 Foster.
• Bikes and scooters: Divvy bikes and scooters, and Lime where available. For Divvy, get the Divvy app, buy a pass and scan the code on the bike or scooter; classic bikes can also be rented at a station kiosk. The closest Divvy station is at Ravenswood and Lawrence, by the Metra, about 5 minutes away, with more on Clark Street. Divvy station map and prices.
• By bike: a curb-protected bike lane runs along Ravenswood Avenue, part of a route south to the Leland Greenway.

A little history

• Hermitage Avenue was once called Commercial Street.
• The courtyard buildings. You will see U-shaped apartment buildings all over the neighborhood, with wings wrapped around a planted court. They come from Chicago's 1902 Tenement House Ordinance, pushed for by Jane Addams of Hull House and the City Homes Association, who argued that tenants need "light and air in their homes." The rules said a building could cover only part of its lot, every room people live in needed a window, and any court had to be open to the sky. Builders answered with the courtyard: every apartment gets windows, light and air. They went up quickly after 1902, peaking around 1929. Eight of them, built in 1950, stand just north of Winnemac Park.
• The Swedish American Museum, 5211 N Clark Street, founded in 1976, tells the story of Swedish immigration to Chicago. It also has the Brunk Children's Museum of Immigration, hands-on for ages 3 to 12.

Outside

• Winnslie Parkway, a few minutes' walk: a garden and walking path along Ravenswood Avenue beside the Metra tracks, built by neighbors on what used to be an overgrown strip. Native plants, open lawns and stone seating, cared for by the volunteer group Friends of Winnslie Parkway since 2019. A new stretch south toward Lawrence opened in September 2026. winnslie.org
• Winnemac Park, 10 minutes on foot: 22 acres, a park since 1910, with about three acres of native prairie full of flowers, birds and butterflies, tended by neighbors. There is a running track, tennis, ball fields, a soccer field, a picnic grove and a playground. A neighborhood park where locals walk their dogs. Open 6am to 11pm; the prairie is open dawn to dusk. It is named for Winnemac Street, itself named for Winamac, a Potawatomi chief. Chicago Park District
• More gardens along the tracks: the Bowmanville Gateway Garden at Ravenswood and Balmoral, and the Montrose Metra Community Gardens on Ravenswood between Montrose and Berteau.

Through the year

• The Andersonville Farmers Market, Wednesday afternoons from May through October.
• Midsommarfest in June, Arts Weekend in September, Aville-o-ween on Halloween, Restaurant Week in early November, and the holiday tree lighting and St. Lucia in December. Dates are on the Andersonville Chamber's events page.

The weather ahead