Interest in this once-quiet corner of Chicago surged after Lake Shore Drive was extended from North Avenue to Oak Street. In 1880, Catholic Archbishop Patrick Feehan settled at 1555 North State Parkway. Around the same time, visionary businessman Potter Palmer launched a bold plan to create a refined, architecturally distinguished neighborhood. He led by example, building a dramatic Gothic castle at 1350 North Lake Shore Drive—a clear symbol of the area’s rising prestige.

Palmer’s influence soon spread, as elegant stone townhouses with ornate detailing appeared along Elm Street. Nearby, Bryan and Helen Lathrop commissioned a stately home by famed architect Charles Follen McKim, completed in 1892. The area quickly became a showcase of opulent design, with grand homes lining inner Lake Shore Drive, Astor Street, Schiller Street, and State Parkway.  That same year, James Charnley bought land from Palmer at 1365 North Astor and enlisted Louis Sullivan and a young Frank Lloyd Wright to create what is now the iconic Charnley-Persky House. Not far away, Chicago Tribune founder and former mayor Joseph Medill built a mansion at Burton and Astor, now known as the Patterson McCormick Mansion. The legacy continued into the 20th century, when architect Howard Van Doren Shaw designed a palatial home for the Goodman family at 1355 North Astor, completed in 1914.

Over the decades, the neighborhood evolved as some original homes were replaced by striking Art Deco and sleek Midcentury Modern apartment buildings and condominiums, adding bold new layers to the area’s architectural story. Other homes remained but changed their purpose: the Chanley’s house is now home to the Society of Architectural Historians, the Patterson McCormick Mansion is now a condominium building, the Lathrop House is now home to The Fortnightly of Chicago, and the BA Eckhart home on Lake Shore Drive is now the Polish Consulate.