Woodlawn House

Cultural Diversity Combined with a Campus Vibe in Chicago’s Hyde Park

In 1853 a real estate speculator, Paul Cornell, bought 300 acres of land between 51st and 55th Streets along Lake Michigan’s shore. The land was a mere seven miles south of Chicago’s downtown. His intent was to convince Chicago businessmen to build homes for their families, and Hyde Park became a suburb for wealthy city dwellers who wanted to leave the noise and overcrowding of a growing city. In 1857 the Hyde Park House was built. It was an extremely high-end hotel built on the shore of Lake Michigan. Mary Todd Lincoln spent the summer of 1865 there with her children. The hotel burned down in 1879 and The Sisson Hotel was built there in 1918, eventually becoming converted to condominiums. In 1889 the City of Chicago annexed Hyde Park and in 1891 the University of Chicago was established with money from John D. Rockefeller, eventually laying claim to 89 Nobel Prize laureates. In 1893 the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Hyde Park. The fair brought an influx of new residents which would give rise to the development of a more urban feel in the community. All but one of the structures built for the fair were temporary. The remaining building is Charles Atwood’s Palace of Fine Arts which has become the Museum of Science and Industry, the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere. The neighborhoods’ 89 Nobel winners include President Barack Obama.