North Shore (Chicago)

Map of northeastern Illinois showing the North Shore and surrounding areas.

Chicago, as seen from Northwestern University campus at Evanston.

The North Shore is a term that refers to the suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois bordering the shore of Lake Michigan.

History

Many credit Walter S. Gurnee as the father of the North Shore

Europeans settled the area sparsely after an 1833 treaty with local Native Americans. The region began to be developed into towns following the opening of Northwestern University in Evanston in 1855 and the founding of Lake Forest College two years later, and the construction and launch of railroads serving the colleges and their towns.

Electric rail lines were also run from Chicago, parallel to steam commuter lines, and streetcars flourished throughout the suburbs from Evanston on north. The North Shore today is noteworthy for being one of the few remaining agglomerations of streetcar suburbs in the United States.

This area became popular with the affluent wanting to escape urban life, beginning after the Chicago Fire, and grew rapidly before and just after World War II. Large mansions were built, along with less lavish homes.

Socioeconomics and Culture

Today the North Shore remains one of the most affluent and highly-educated areas in the United States. Seven of its communities are in the top quintile of U.S. household income, and three of those (Kenilworth, Winnetka, and Glencoe), are in the top 5 percent. From Evanston to Lake Bluff, only Highwood falls below the national median.

The North Shore is also the home of the Ravinia Festival, a historic outdoor music theater in Highland Park, Illinois. The Ravinia Festival, originally conceived as a weekend destination on the CNS&M line, is now a popular destination on the Metra Union Pacific North Line commuter rail, the North Shore Line's former competitor.

The abandoned right-of-way of the North Shore Line still serves Ravinia as the Green Bay Trail, a popular rails-to-trails bicycle path that begins in Wilmette and runs north all the way to the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion.

Origin and Definition of Term

Early histories of Chicago do not use the term North Shore. The term is believed to have first come into widespread use following the establishment in 1891 of the Waukegan & North Shore Rapid Transit Company, which in 1916, following reorganization, was renamed the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ("CNS&M"), which ran along Lake Michigan's western shore between Chicago and Milwaukee. The "Shore Line Route" of the CNS&M, until 1963, served, from south to north, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, North Chicago,Waukegan, Zion, and Winthrop Harbor. However, the line was popularly referred to, including in the railroad's own brochures and timetables, as the "North Shore Line."

Meanwhile, in 1906, the Sanitary District of Chicago platted the "North Shore Channel" of the sanitary canal from the Chicago River, through Evanston and Wilmette to Lake Michigan.

While the CSN&M ran from Chicago all the way to Milwaukee, the term "North Shore" typically refers only to the communities between Lake Bluff and Chicago. Michael Ebner's scholarly Creating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History, one of the most thorough studies of the area, covers eight suburbs along the lake: Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Illinois, and Lake Bluff. In their North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940, Cohen and Benjamin include not only those eight suburbs but also "the tiny city of Highwood" which is slightly inland, just north of Highland Park.

Use of Term by Others

Subsequent to the more general use of the term North Shore for the above suburbs, and the term's association with those towns' desirable socioeconomic characteristics, it became common for businesses in numerous nearby inland Chicago suburbs to name themselves "North Shore," and for real estate and other marketers to use the term for non-North Shore communities from time to time. The former North Shore magazine had special advertising editions not only for Evanston, Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff but also for Glenview, Northbrook, Barrington, Deerfield, Bannockburn, and Riverwoods. Chicago's North Shore Convention & Visitors Bureau's focus is on Evanston (on the lake) but also covers, from time to time, Glenview, Northbrook, and Skokie.

Movies set or filmed on the North Shore

This area received much exposure in the 1980s as the setting of many teen movies, particularly those of writer/director John Hughes. The most notable movies through the years are:

• Ordinary People (1980) was filmed in Highwood, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook and Wilmette.
• Class (1983) was filmed at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest and other locations in Chicago.
• Risky Business (1983) was filmed in Deerfield, Highland Park, Skokie, Winnetka and Wilmette, in addition to Lake Shore Drive.
• Sixteen Candles (1984) was filmed in Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Skokie and Winnetka.
• Weird Science (1985) was filmed in Highland Park, Skokie and Northbrook.
• Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) was filmed in Highland Park, Winnetka, Northbrook, Lake Forest and Glencoe, in addition to many locations in Chicago itself, with scenes filmed in New Trier High School
• She's Having a Baby (1988) was filmed in Winnetka, Skokie, Glencoe and Northbrook in addition to many locations in Chicago itself.
• Uncle Buck (1989) was filmed in Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Wilmette and Winnetka, in addition to many locations in Chicago itself.
• Home Alone (1990) was filmed in Lake Forest, Winnetka, Wilmette, Highland Park and Evanston.
• Chain Reaction (1996) has scenes at a famous Lake Bluff estate and was largely shot in downtown Chicago
• Shattered Glass (2003)
• Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
• Surviving Christmas (2004)
• Mean Girls (2004) takes place at fictional North Shore High School, which in the film is located in Evanston, Illinois. However, none of the scenes are of Evanston or the North Shore. A scene of the film was filmed at Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie.
• Derailed (2005)
• The Weather Man (2005) was filmed in Evanston and Skokie in addition to many locations in Chicago itself.

Places of interest

Bahá'í House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois.

The first Bahá'í House of Worship in America is located in Wilmette, Illinois.

• Ravinia park in Highland Park hosts the Ravinia Festival each year.
• Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe
• Bahá'í Temple, Wilmette
• Ryan Field stadium in Evanston, is the home field of the Northwestern University Wildcats football team.
• Kohl Children's Museum, Glenview
• The structure of the Crow Island School in Winnetka, which was designed by the European architect Eero Saarinen.
• Willits House in Highland Park, which was designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
• North Point Marina in Winthrop Harbor.
• The Nature preserve Illinois Beach State Park in Zion.
• Illinois Beach State Park
• Grosse Point Light, Evanston.
• Zion Nuclear Power Station.
• Great Lakes Naval Training Center in North Chicago.
• Fort Sheridan in Highwood.
• Lake Forest College, Lake Forest.
• Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago

References

• Cohen, Stuart Earl and Susan S. Benjamin (2004) North Shore Chicago: houses of the lakefront suburbs, 1890-1940, Acanthus Press, ISBN 9780926494268.
• Ebner, Michael H. Creating Chicago’s North Shore. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1988.