Last updated on .
The Gold Coast of Chicago is one of the wealthiest areas in the city. It’s a historic district on the Near North Side comprised of a posh residential area and one of the city’s best entertainment and restaurant zones.
The Gold Coast is bordered by Oak Street to the south, North Avenue to the north, Clark Street to the west, and Lake Michigan to the east. A looser definition of the Gold Coast extends the border further south to Chicago Avenue.
Oak Street
Oak Street, considered by the strict definition to be southern the boundary of the exclusive Gold Coast district, has upscale boutique shops and galleries. It’s a beautiful street lined with trees.
Oak Street Beach
Another hotspot in the Gold Coast of Chicago, at least in the summer, is Oak Street Beach. It’s great location underneath the towering skyscrapers of Michigan Avenue give beachgoers some great scenery to swim, bask in the sun, or enjoy the seasonal restaurant.
Rush and Division
One of the most popular areas within the Gold Coast and all of Chicago is easily Rush and Division. It’s home to some of the best and most well-known restaurants and bars in the city. Rush and Division is bordered on the north by Division Street, on the west by Clark Street, on the south by Chicago Avenue, and on the east by Rush Street.
Mariano Park
The streets around Mariano Park, named for Chicago Daily News reporter Louis Mariano, is the most popular section of Rush and Division. This small triangular area where Rush Street meets State Street is colloquially known as the Viagra Triangle due to the high amount of older men taking younger women on dates at the bars and restaurants.
Despite its name, the Viagra Triangle is an amazing place to hang out in the summer, especially on weekend evenings. Some of the famous restaurants include Gibson’s Steakhouse, Tavern on Rush (reopening at the Thompson Chicago in summer 2024), Carmine’s, and Hugo’s Frog Bar. Sitting outside at Tavern on Rush on a summer day, it wasn’t uncommon to spot celebrities or famous athletes walking by.
Archbishop Quigley Center
A few blocks south on Rush Street is the Archbishop Quigley Center. It was once the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, a seminary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. It was designed by architect Zachary Taylor Davis (1869-1946) and was named for James Edward Quigley (1854-1915), the Archbishop of Chicago from 1903 until his death.
From the time it opened in 1918 until it closed its doors in 2007, over 2,500 priests, two cardinals, and over 40 bishops were educated at Archbishop Quigley. Hall of Fame basketball player George Mikan (1924-2005) also attended. Today, it’s the headquarters for the Archdiocese.
The Archbishop Quigley Center is the home of St. James Chapel and its 28 foot rose window. The glass was modeled after Sainte-Chapelle in Paris.
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park, founded in 1842, sits a couple blocks west down Delaware Place. It’s historically the place where Chicagoans went to speak publicly on soap boxes, gaining it the nickname “Bughouse Square”. It was also the site of the city’s first Gay Pride March in 1970.
Washington Square Park is the oldest small park in Chicago. It was laid out on September 4, 1842, and had once been a cow path with a well. The city improved the park between 1869 and 1890, adding a lawn, trees, diagonal paths, picket fencing, and the first of three fountains to grace the park.
Newberry Library
Newberry Library was founded in 1887 and sits on Washington Square Park. The huge library building opened to the public in 1893. It’s named for Walter Loomis Newberry (1804-1868), who bequeathed the funds to found it should his daughters die without heirs (which they did).
The building itself is gorgeous and worth taking a look at. It was designed by American architect Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931). It stands on the former site of the Mahlon D. Ogden Home, which was the only home in the path of the Great Chicago Fire that didn’t burn to the ground.
Newberry Library boasts a collection of over 1 ½ million books, 5 million manuscript pages, and 500,000 historic maps. There’s an impressive collection of very rare books that wasn’t on display when I visited. I also didn’t feel very welcome when I walked in so I left after a few minutes. Free public tours are offered every Tuesday at 11:30am, Thursday at 1pm, and Saturday at 10:30am (as of April 2024). The exhibition galleries are also free and open daily except Mondays.
Astor Street
The Gold Coast features some of the finest historic homes and buildings in Chicago. Walking up North State Parkway and Astor Street, between Division and North Avenue, there are some amazing structures to be seen. Concentrating on leafy Astor Street will be the most rewarding.
Astor Street is lined with some of the most elegant late-19th and early-20th century mansions in the city. Most of the homes are built in the Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque and the Georgian Revival styles. The street was designated a Chicago Landmark on December 19, 1975.
History of Astor Street
Astor Street was developed after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and is named for John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). At the time of his death, Astor was the wealthiest person in the United States. Using his name attracted Chicago’s high society to the then-undeveloped site north of the city.
Wealthy businessman Potter Palmer (1826-1902) started purchasing plots of land in the area after the Great Chicago Fire, when it was still sparsely populated and mostly swampland. Much of that land was developed into Lake Shore Drive, which opened from Oak Street to North Avenue in 1875. Interest in the area increased and it quickly became a leisure destination on Sundays.
When Palmer built the Palmer Mansion at 1350 North Lake Shore Drive between 1882 and 1885, it essentially established the Gold Coast neighborhood. The focus of Chicago high society quickly shifted from the Prairie District on the Near South Side to the Gold Coast. Astor Street was fully developed by 1895 – just 20 years after Lake Shore Drive opened.
Edwin J. Gardiner House
Starting at Astor and Goethe and continuing north, first is the Edwin J. Gardiner House (1345 N. Astor). It was built in 1887 and contains 14 rooms, including five bedrooms.
Astor Court
Next door is Astor Court (1355 N. Astor), a neo-Classical/Georgian Revival-style mansion built in 1914 for William O. Goodman (1848-1936). Goodman founded the Goodman Theatre, located in the Loop, in memory of his son, playwright Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. He hired American architect Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) to design the mansion as well as a mausoleum for his son.
Charnley-Persky House
At the corner of Astor and Schiller is the most famous house on Astor Street, the Charnley-Persky House. It was designed by Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) and a young Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). It was built in 1892 and was considered to be the first modern home in Chicago at the time.
The Charnley-Persky House was donated to the Society of Architectural Historians in 1995, which was at that time based in Philadelphia. The catch was that to accept the donation, they had to move their offices to Chicago, which they gladly did. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark on August 5, 1998.
Tours of the Charnley-Persky House
The home is available for docent-led tours every Wednesday at noon year-round. From April through October, there are additional tours on Fridays at noon and Saturdays at 10am and noon. Tours are free on Wednesdays and cost US$15 on Fridays and Saturdays (as of April 2024). Reservations are required for all tour times as tours are limited to 15 people.
Architecture of the Charnley-Persky House
The tour of the home starts in the former kitchen on the ground floor. A brief history of the home and its original owners is given before moving outside and across the street to learn about the symmetry of design and masonry methods. The house is completely symmetrical and was built right up to the property line, unlike other houses nearby with several steps leading up to the front door. The brick and mortar used was a very thin Roman style that was very expensive to construct.
The balcony of the house was hand-carved completely out of wood and uses Venetian columns, which feature a round base and a square capital. The woodwork displays elements commonly used by both Sullivan and Wright. Ornamental iron designed by Sullivan adorns the front door.
Ground Floor of the Charnley-Persky House
As soon as you walk in the front door, there are a few more steps leading to another interior wooden door that has incredible hand-carved designs. This door opens into the house where an oddly placed fireplace sits in front of the door and underneath the staircase that leads to the upper floors. Natural light enters the house from a skylight in the roof, which has been attributed to Wright.
To the left and right are arches that lead to the two common rooms of the house, the living room and dining room. The spaces have no doors on them (Sullivan) in order to keep heat in winter and cold air in summer freely flowing through the home. Both rooms have fireplaces surrounded by marble and ornately hand-carved woodwork. Unfortunately, none of the original furniture exists except for a cabinet in the dining room. If you look carefully, it was designed in the shape of the house and carries the same symmetrical features.
Second Floor of the Charnley-Persky House
Walking upstairs, we were taken to the most spectacular feature of the house. The staircase that leads to the third floor has about 100 thin wooden slats that create a screen. The ceilings are lower on the upper floors, so the railing was purposely built much lower than normal in order to create the illusion of a higher ceiling. These features were designed by Wright.
We then walked out onto the balcony to get a closer look at the woodwork and ornamental iron designed by Sullivan. One interesting feature were the windows which allowed natural light into the walk-in closets. In the years the home was built, it was a popular belief that exposing clothing to light and air increased the clothing’s health properties.
Finally, we were shown the bedrooms on the second floor. Both of them are now being used as offices but they still have fireplaces. The south bedroom has a bathroom original to the house. All bedrooms in the house had en-suite bathrooms when it was built.
Perry H. Smith Jr. House
Kitty-corner from the Charnley-Persky House is the Perry H. Smith Jr. House, at Astor and Schiller (1400 N. Astor). It was built between 1887 and 1888 by the son of railroad and real estate magnate Perry H. Smith Sr. (1828-1885). It was designed by American architects Henry Ives Cobb (1859-1931) and Charles Frost (1856-1931). The house has 15,000 square feet of living space and was once owned by Dorothy Wrigley Offield (1886-1979), the daughter of chewing gum tycoon William Wrigley Jr. (1861-1932).
Joseph T. Ryerson
Two houses away is the Joseph T. Ryerson House (1406 N. Astor). It was built in 1921 by Joseph T. Ryerson II, the grandson of the founder of the Joseph T. Ryerson & Son steel company. The house has 22 rooms occupying 16,000 square feet and was designed by American architect David Adler (1882-1949) to fit into late 18th century Paris. In 1965, the house was converted to an 11-unit multi-family apartment. From 1985 to 2000, architect John Regas restored it to a single family home.
Thomas W. Hinde House
Next door is the Thomas W. Hinde House (1412 N. Astor). It was designed by Douglas S. Pentecost for Thomas Hinde, a Kentucky distiller who came to Chicago in 1887. The house was built in 1892 and inspired by Flemish architecture. It was eventually converted into a multi-unit dwelling.
William D. Kerfoot House
About halfway up the block is the William D. Kerfoot House (1425 N. Astor). Kerfoot, a successful real estate agent who helped Chicago build from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, built the house in 1894 and died there in 1918. The house was later broken up into apartments and eventually became a luxury single family home again.
Harry B. Owsley House
A bit further down the block and across the street is the Harry B. Owsley House (1436 N. Astor). Owsley, a bike and toy manufacturer whose parents came to Chicago from Kentucky in the early 1860s, built the home in 1892. It was later divided into apartments.
Horatio N. May House
Crossing the street you’ll see the Horatio N. May House (1443 N. Astor), a granite Romanesque Revival-style mansion built in 1891. May, a successful wholesale grocer, contracted American architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee (1848-1913) to design the house.
Edward P. Russell House
Almost directly across the street is the Edward P. Russell House (1444 N. Astor). It’s an Art Deco townhouse built in 1929 by Holabird and Root for Russell, a senior partner at a major financial institution. The Russell House really sticks out among the more traditional homes on the street. The stone was imported from France and trimmed with black granite. Russell sold the house in 1938, and since then it has served as a technical school, private club, and a 9-unit apartment building.
John L. Fortune House
Back across the street once again is the John L. Fortune House (1451 N. Astor), built in 1910 in the Tudor style. It was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw and has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms spread over 7,000 square feet.
Patterson-McCormick Mansion
One of the most impressive homes is the massive Patterson-McCormick Mansion (1500 N. Astor). It was built between 1890 and 1893 by Robert Patterson (1850-1910), then the managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. The architect was Stanford White (1853-1906). Businessman Cyrus McCormick Jr. (1859-1936) purchased the house in 1914 and had architect David Adler build an addition to double its already 10,000 square feet in 1927.
The building functioned as a small school from 1950 to 1973 and was saved from demolition in 1976 after Astor Street became a landmark district. In 1978, it was converted to a 9-unit condominium.
Wooden Alley
Finally, an interesting feature on Astor Street is Wooden Alley. This is one of the last remaining stretches of Chicago’s wooden paved streets, which ultimately was the greatest cause of the spread of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This section was paved with wood in 1909.
North State Parkway
Walking back towards Division down North State Parkway, you’ll see a few more impressive structures.
1500 North State Parkway
At opposite corners of North State Parkway and North Avenue are two more impressive buildings. 1500 North State Parkway was built in 1912 and was once the most luxurious building in the city. It originally had 1 apartment per floor, at 9,000 square feet each, with 10 rooms for the owner and 5 rooms for servant’s quarters. It overlooks Lincoln Park.
Roman Catholic Archbishop’s Residence
Across the street is the residence of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago. This building with its 19 signature chimneys was built in 1880 on the former site of a Catholic cemetery. Pope John Paul II stayed there on his visit to Chicago in 1979.
Original Playboy Mansion
At 1340 North State Parkway is the original Playboy Mansion. It’s a 70 room French brick and limestone residence built in 1899 for Dr. George Swift Isham (1859-1926). Hugh Hefner (1926-2017) bought the mansion in 1959 and his original grotto was in the basement. A brass sign that used to hang on the front door said “Si Non Oscillas, Noli Tintinnare”…or “If you don’t swing, don’t ring” in Latin. Hef packed up and moved permanently to California in 1974, after being harassed by federal prosecutor and future Illinois Governor Jim Thompson (1936-2020) about alleged cocaine use. Four very expensive condos are now located in the building.
International Museum of Surgical Science
The International Museum of Surgical Science, located on Lake Shore Drive between North Avenue and Burton Place, is an unexpected surprise in the Gold Coast of Chicago. It’s one of those museums that’s fascinating but borderline creepy. Seeing modern medical equipment is enough to scare me, but historic equipment is over the top.
The museum is housed in a 1917 mansion designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) and was built for Eleanor Robinson Countiss (1887-1931). It was modeled after Le Petit Trianon at the Palace of Versailles in France. The museum was founded by Dr. Max Thorek (1880-1960) in 1935 and opened to the public on September 9, 1954. In addition to its collection of medical equipment, it has an extensive collection of medicine and surgery related artwork on display. Visitors are greeted by a sculpture called Hope and Help by Edouard Chaissing.
Visiting the International Museum of Surgical Science
Adult admission is US$25 (as of April 2024) and it’s open daily. There are several excellent exhibits on various topics ranging from childbirth to x-rays, anesthesia to amputation, and nursing to stapling. Information is very thorough.
As I mentioned, many historic tools and artifacts were on display, including an iron lung, amputation kits, and wheelchairs. I also got to see jars of huge gallstones and kidney stones which wasn’t a good idea before lunch.
I enjoyed the hall of statues. Each statue represented a person who had made a significant contribution to medical history, including Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC), Wilhelm Röntgen (1845-1923), Marie Curie (1867-1934), and Louis Pasteur (1822-1895).
A highlight was the collection of 4,000 year old Peruvian skulls with holes in them. The holes were created with simple tools to release evil spirits while the patients were still alive! Bone tissue growth proves the patients survived the procedure.
Where to Eat in the Gold Coast of Chicago
The Gold Coast features many of the best restaurants in Chicago and I’ve visited several over the years. This post includes only a handful of restaurants I’ve visited since 2017. If I visited a restaurant before 2017, I’ll go back in the future and add it here.
Francesca’s on Chestnut
For lunch one afternoon, we visited Francesca’s on Chestnut. It’s an Italian restaurant on the ground floor of an apartment building near both Water Tower Place and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
For starters, we had a very good bruschetta alla romana. Marisol tried the gnocchi mantovana, which is gnocchi stuffed with spinach and topped with wild mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and pine nuts in a gorgonzola cream sauce. I had the linguine con vongole, which is linguine sautéed with manilla clams, olive oil, red chili flakes, garlic, white wine, and fresh parsley. Everything was great, service was friendly and efficient, and the prices were reasonable.
Cafecito
When our original breakfast choice had a half-hour wait, we popped around the corner to Cafecito. This Cuban café offers coffee drinks, breakfast, lunch, and sandwiches as well as several cocktails.
Marisol had the pobrecito, which is two fried eggs served with plantain and rice and beans. I had the huevos habaneros, which is two fried eggs served with grilled ham and rice and beans. Both dishes were excellent and I look forward to returning one day for lunch.
Truluck’s (Permanently Closed)
One of the best meals I’ve ever had in Chicago was at Truluck’s. This privately-owned Houston-based restaurant with branches around the country serves amazing seafood, with fresh stone crab flown in from Florida as their seasonal specialty. Reservations are highly recommended and you must follow their strict upscale dress code. The restaurant is located in the Rush and Division area, just across from the Sofitel.
We visited Truluck’s for our anniversary dinner and it couldn’t have been a better choice. For starters, we ordered the crab cake and taramasalata, which is mixed with blue crab and olives and is served with flatbread. I also had a lobster bisque. All three were excellent.
As a main course, Marisol had the Maine lobster tail and I had the Ōra King salmon, which is considered the Wagyu beef of the salmon world. It represents less than 1% of the salmon stock in the world and is caught off some of the cleanest waters on earth near New Zealand. Both were delicious, but the salmon had such a rich flavor and texture I could have eaten it plain. To top things off, our amazing waiter paired some perfect wines for both the starters and our main course.
As a grand finale to our incredible experience, the waiter brought out a Baked Alaska with “Happy Anniversary” written on the plate. There couldn’t have been a better way to finish the meal.
