Beverly

Beverly, or Beverly Hills, is the 72nd of Chicago’s 77 neighborhood districts. Situated on the far south of the city, Beverly, along with the surrounding neighborhood districts of Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood, Washington Heights, and the City of Blue Island, is considered part of the Blue Island Ridge. The community is 3.19 square miles in size (8.3 km2).

Beverly is defined by two things above all else: its Irish cultural heritage and its beautiful architecture. Beverly’s deep Emerald Isle origins are evident on Western Avenue, with more Irish bars than anyplace else in the city. Moreover, one of the country’s largest historic districts can be found in the area. One may walk a few streets in any direction and find a diverse range of residential architecture, from sweeping Prairie-style mansions to brick Tudors to Spanish inspired homes.

Various recreational sites and parks surround this formally defined community area. Beverly has 2.0 acres of accessible parkland per 1,000 individuals residing in the area. Many spectacular parks like Barnard, Ridge, Hurley, Cosme, Graver, Munroe, Ridge Wetlands, King-Lockhart and the famous Beverly Park are located within the vicinity.

Beverly is only 11.6 miles (18.8 km) away from the downtown Chicago loop – traveling via subway, and it would take approximately twenty-two minutes to reach the city’s central business district. Furthermore, the I-57 highway runs directly East of Beverly and connects it to the rest of the Interstate system. Thus, Beverly is an ideal zone for commuters.

Map

Beverly is bordered on the north by 87th Street and on the south by 107th Street. Its western border stretches from the northern border to 99th Street along Western Avenue, then to 103rd Street via Fairfield Avenue, and lastly to the southern border along the rail line. Its eastern border goes from 107th to 103rd Street along Vincennes Avenue, then along Beverly Avenue to the northern border.

Located West of Beverly and Morgan Park is Mount Greenwood, the 74th community area in Chicago. It is surrounded by 99th and 103rd Streets, 115th Street, Sacramento Avenue, Crawford Avenue, and Saint Casimir Cemetery.

Beverly Hills community area is a part of the 60643 zip code.

Population

Before European American settlement, the Beverly Hills area was home to the Potawatomi people, who were forcibly relocated west of the Mississippi River by the federal government after the Black Hawk War in 1833. Beverly’s early Caucasian settlement was predominantly English and Protestant, but by the early twentieth century, a large influx of Irish Americans had arrived in the neighborhood, and the construction of several Roman Catholic church parishes and businesses had seen Beverly develop into a refuge of the city’s South Side Irish community.

The Beverly Hills Chicago neighborhood had a total population of around 20,027 people as of 2020. Out of this figure, 96.3% are natives, while the remaining 3.7% are foreign-born.

Beverly is an ethnically diverse region. Even though most of the population residing in the area is white, other races also constitute a significant share of the total population. According to the race and ethnicity statistics 2015 to 2019 by the American Community Survey, whites constitute a total of 57.5% of the populace. Amongst other races, Hispanic and Latinos make up 4.9%; blacks form 34.2%, Asians comprise 0.8%, and others cover 2.5% of the inhabitant structure.

Real Estate

A few decades back, the Beverly neighborhoods and Morgan Park served as retreats for Chicago’s political elite. Even today, the Beverly Hills area is famous for its prestigious architectural structure. One of the most stunning structures in the neighborhood is the Beverly Unitarian Church. The majestic structure, which sits atop a picturesque green hill, was inspired by a medieval castle between Dublin and Belfast.

Furthermore, the Beverly neighborhood features The Beverly Art Center. It is a diverse cultural institution that offers art, music, dance, and drama workshops. The facility organizes art shows and visual and performing arts events in addition to a variety of seminars, talks, and performances. This 42,000-square-foot complex in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood comprises a 425-seat performance hall, training theater, reception room, art gallery, dance studio, choir room, darkroom, music studios, art rooms, retail shop, and cafe, as well as outside garden space and a courtyard. It has been an important aspect of the community for more than 30 years. Beverly also hosts a farmer’s market.

Beverly is also the site of Chicago’s South Side Irish Parade, a big, family-friendly event that’s been held in Beverly for more than 40 years to commemorate St. Patrick’s Day. Moreover, the Beverly Area Planning Association organizes a popular home tour each spring.

The Beverly housing market is somewhat competitive. Around 93.3% of the Beverly households are occupied, and the rest, 6.7%, are vacant. 51.2% of the land area in the Beverly neighborhood comprises single-family residential units, and around 3% covers multi-family residential units. Because of the high quality of the homes, Beverly receives an “A” in housing. The majority of houses, especially newly built ones, tend to have higher square footage. There are, nevertheless, a few vintage homes with stunning architecture with less square footage.

The current average sale price of houses in the neighborhood is $310K. This value experienced a reduction of 15.1% since the previous year. This current market value is lower than the Chicago median price of $335K.

Schools

The stats on the educational levels in Beverly show good figures. According to the American Community Survey’s estimates of 2015-2019, around 14.1% of the population had a high school diploma, 8.4% had an Associate degree, 28.5% held a Bachelor’s degree, and 26.3% possessed a Graduate or Professional degree.

There are a variety of public and private schools in Beverly. Some of the best Beverly neighborhood schools with their ratings are listed below as follows:

1- Morgan Park Academy

Rating: A+

Student population: 423

Teacher-student ratio: 8:1

2- STEM Magnet Academy Elementary School

Rating: A-

Student population: 448

Teacher-student ratio:

14:1

3- Lenart Elementary Regional Gifted Center

Rating: A-

Student population: 282

Teacher-student ratio: 17:1

4- Skinner North Elementary School

Rating: A-

Student population: 537

Teacher-student ratio: 14:1

5- Decatur Classical School

Rating: A-

Student population: 282

Teacher-student ratio: 16:1

6- Beverly Montessori School

Rating: NA

Student population: 73

Teacher-student ratio: 17:1

Crime Ratings

While being in a city where crime figures are frequently inflated, Beverly is rather safe. This family-friendly environment has an A- rating for its safe environment. The murder ratio in District 20 has decreased from 1 to 0 from 2021 to 2022. While robberies remain constant, the reported burglary cases are considerably less than the previous year’s, that is, 11 in 2021 and 7 in 2022.

History

This region, which was originally part of Washington Heights (1874), was annexed to Chicago in 1890 but remained sparsely inhabited for decades. Residents frequently refer to their neighborhood as “Beverly Hills,” a reference to the glacial slope immediately west of Longwood Drive, Chicago’s highest point. Although it is unclear whether the community was called after Beverly, Massachusetts, or Beverly Hills, California, the Rock Island Railroad dubbed its 91st Street station “Beverly Hills” in the 1890s. The telephone company had built a Beverly exchange by World War I. The Beverly district thus grew as a bedroom community thanks to early rail connections, such as the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad, which provided access to and from downtown in the 1850s.

Robert Givins, a real estate entrepreneur, built a limestone castle at 103rd and Longwood Drive in Washington Heights’ Tracy tract in 1886. However, the surrounding area did not reach residential maturity for decades. In the 1890s, Civil War general Edward Young and W. M. R. French, the first director of the Art Institute, built mansions along Pleasant Avenue north of 95th Street. Until the 1940s and 1950s, vast swaths of Beverly remained prairie, particularly south of 99th Street and west of Western Avenue.

This town has always represented social mobility upward, first for white Anglo Saxon Protestants, then for Irish Roman Catholics, and last for African Americans. Beverly, like Morgan Park to the south, has long been a dry neighborhood, with no salons or liquor stores east of Western Avenue. Ridge Park added to the community’s suburban environment with its magnificent fieldhouse (1912) designed by local architect John Todd Hetherington and its proximity to Beverly and Ridge Country Clubs and the Dan Ryan Forest Preserve. Its housing stock remained mostly single-family, with only a few apartment buildings beside the Rock Island Railroad tracks connecting Beverly to downtown Chicago. Despite having a variety of shops and eateries, the 95th Street commercial neighborhood could never compete with Roseland’s Michigan Avenue or 63rd and Halsted. However, the Beverly Theater, located at 95th and Ashland Avenue, was erected outside the community’s bounds in the mid-1930s. Residents did not have their own branch of the Chicago Public Library until 1981.

The development of the community from east to west was reflected in Beverly’s churches and public schools. Originally located on Prospect Avenue, Bethany Union (1872) and Trinity Methodist (1896) erected architecturally important worship halls closer to Longwood Drive in the 1920s. Beyond the post–World War II baby boom, Beverly’s population grew considerably between 1940 and 1960, largely owing to racial transformation in communities like Englewood, Normal Park, and South Shore. The churches in the area witnessed new expansion, and many of them began on large-scale construction projects. The People’s Liberal Church of Englewood, for example, was welcomed by Beverly’s Unitarians, who had purchased the historic castle in 1942. Bethlehem Swedish Lutheran Church at 58th and Wells Street raised funds for a new structure at 94th and Claremont Avenue in 1949.

Beverly is a racially integrated area similar to Hyde Park and Rogers Park in Chicago. One can take advantage of the beautiful parks and architecture and witness a diverse culture in the area. Beverly is now popular as a residential, suburban Chicago neighborhood with wide streets, single-family houses, and plenty of green space.