Washington Park

With roughly half its residential lots deserted, Washington Park waits readily for the rebirth that has transformed the surrounding neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Kenwood and Grand Boulevard.

Washington Park is chiefly a renting community, and almost all renovation efforts address the deterioration of apartment buildings. Single-family houses are largely older red brick and greystone structures, with the high-end constructions being along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and in the eastern part of the neighborhood. Homes in need of substantial renovation sell for between $50,000 and $75,000, while large greystones in good condition go for closer to $150,000.

Residents of Washington Park eagerly look to the opening of a new Hyde Park Cooperative Society supermarket in the new Lake Park Pointe mall at 47th and Lake Park Avenue. The Grand Boulevard Plaza shopping strip is under new management, and the vacancies of a few years ago are filling with retailers and financial service providers.

Washington Park lacks its own high school, but there are many public schools in the bordering regions, including Austin O. Sexton and the area’s premier magnet school, Edward W. Beasley.

The actual park, at 5531 S. Martin Luther King Dr., houses the DuSable Museum of African American History which provides some of the neighborhood’s greatest cultural amenities. The museum’s sunken garden holds five sculptures by African American artists. The park’s annual events include an outdoor summer art fair, a Labor Day African Festival of the Arts, and Durbar L’ Afrique, an indoor bazaar of African arts and wares held in December. The Museum also offers concerts, plays and tours, workshops and classes, a children’s book club, book signings and special exhibits.