The Gold Coast Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Part of Chicago's Near North Side community area, it is roughly bounded by North Avenue, Lake Shore Drive, Oak Street, and Clark Street. The Gold Coast neighborhood grew in the wake of the

Great Chicago Fire The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned in the American city of Chicago during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed roughly of the city including over 17,000 structures, and left more than 10 ...

. In 1882, millionaire

Potter Palmer Potter Palmer (May 20, 1826 – May 4, 1902) was an American businessman who was responsible for much of the development of State Street in Chicago. Born in Albany County, New York,Prairie Avenue Prairie Avenue is a north–south street on the South Side of Chicago, which historically extended from 16th Street in the Near South Side to the city's southern limits and beyond. The street has a rich history from its origins as a major trail ...

neighborhood on the city's south side. He filled in a swampy area which later became Lake Shore Drive, and built the

Palmer Mansion The Palmer Mansion was a large private home constructed 1882–1885 at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois. Once the largest private residence in the city, it was located in the Near North Side, Chicago, Near North Side neighborhood, fac ...

, a forty-two room castle-like structure designed by

Henry Ives Cobb Henry Ives Cobb (August 19, 1859 – March 27, 1931) was an architect from the United States. Based in Chicago in the last decades of the 19th century, he was known for his designs in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Victorian Gothic style ...

and

Charles Sumner Frost Charles Sumner Frost (May 31, 1856 – December 11, 1931) was an American architect. He is best known as the architect of Navy Pier and for designing over 100 buildings for the Chicago and North Western Railway. Biography Born in Lewiston, Main ...

. Other wealthy Chicagoans followed Potter into the neighborhood, which became one of the richest in Chicago. In the late 1980s, the Gold Coast and neighboring Streeterville comprised the second most-affluent neighborhood in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, behind

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

. Today, the neighborhood is a mixture of

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...

s, and high-rise apartments. Highlights include the

Astor Street District The Astor Street District is a historic district in , Illinois. Constructed over a period of more than 100 years, the buildings along Astor Street reflect the fashionable styles favored by their original high-society residents. The numerous 19th ...

and the

James Charnley House The James Charnley Residence, also known as the Charnley-Persky House, is a historic house museum at 1365 North Astor Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1892, it is one of the few surviving residential works ...

. The district was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1978. The nearby

East Lake Shore Drive District The East Lake Shore Drive District is a historic district in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois. It includes eight buildings at 140 E. Walton, 179-229 E. Lake Shore Drive, and 999 N. Lake Shore Drive designed by Marshall a ...

and parts of northern Streeterville and the

Magnificent Mile The Magnificent Mile, sometimes referred to as The Mag Mile, is an upscale section of Chicago's Michigan Avenue, running from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side. The district is located within downtown, and one block ...

near the lake also may be considered part of the Gold Coast (such as the area around the

860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments 86 may refer to: * 86 (number), a natural number * 86 (term), a slang term for getting rid of something Dates * 86 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar * AD 86, a common year of the Julian calendar * 1986, a common year of the Gregorian ...

), even if not technically in the historic designation. The mayor's office map extends the Gold Coast south to the area of Northwestern University's Chicago campus. As of 2011, Gold Coast ranks as the seventh-richest urban neighborhood in the United States with a median household income of $153,358.

Photos

Historical images of Chicago's Gold Coast can be found i
Explore Chicago Collections
a digital repository made available by

Chicago Collections ttp://chicagocollections.org/ Chicago Collections Consortiumis a membership organization of more than 45 libraries, museums, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations collaborating to preserve and promote the history of the Ch ...

archives, libraries and other cultural institutions in the city.

Education

Chicago from North Avenue Beach June 2015 panorama 2

Chicago Public Schools Chicago Public Schools (CPS), officially classified as City of Chicago School District #299 for funding and districting reasons, in Chicago, Illinois, is the third-largest school district in the United States, after New York and Los Angeles. ...

(CPS) operates public schools serving the community.Map
" Gold Coast Neighbors Association. Retrieved on December 21, 2016.

Ogden International School of Chicago Ogden International School of Chicago is a public K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is a part of Chicago Public Schools (CPS). It maintains three campuses: East Campus with elementary grades, Jenner Campus with middle school and preschool grades ...

has its East Campus, which houses elementary school, in the Gold Coast. Residents of the Gold Coast are zoned to Ogden School for grades K-8, while for high school they are zoned to Lincoln Park High School. Any graduate from Ogden's 8th grade program may automatically move on to the 9th grade at Ogden, but students who did not graduate from Ogden's middle school must apply to the high school. The

Latin School of Chicago Latin School of Chicago is a selective private elementary, middle, and high school located in the Gold Coast neighborhood on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The school was founded in 1888 by Mabel Slade Vickery. Latin S ...

is also located in the Gold Coast and is one of the nation's most prestigious K-12 private schools.

Notable residents

Gold Coast has a long tradition of being home to some of the nation's wealthiest and influential residents. These include: *

J.B. Pritzker Jay Robert "J. B." Pritzker (born January 19, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and politician serving as the 43rd governor of Illinois since 2019. A member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the worldwide ...

– businessman, venture capitalist, politician and current Governor of Illinois. *

Lori Greiner Lori Greiner is an American television personality and entrepreneur. She is an investor on the reality ABC TV series '' Shark Tank''. Greiner has hundreds of inventions and holds 120 patents. She became known as the "Queen of QVC" as a result of ...

– inventor, entrepreneur, and television personality *

Vince Vaughn Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor. Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...

– actor * Lee Miglin - real estate developer

References

External links

Gold Coast Neighbors Association
{{Authority control Central Chicago Neighborhoods in Chicago Historic districts in Chicago Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago 1882 establishments in Illinois Populated places established in 1882 Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois