The Pattington was designed by David E. Postle and built in 1902 at 660-700 Irving Park Rd. It was the first open-court, luxury suburban apartment to be constructed north of the Loop. Others soon followed suit: the Kellshore Apartment Hotel built in 1915 at 718-756 Irving Park Rd., the Buena Terrace Apartment Hotel built in 1917-1918 at 4242 N Sheridan Rd., the Stirling apartments built in 1916 at 4101-4123 N Sheridan and the Crescent apartments built in 1911 at 839-851 Belle Plaine.
Although these apartments served the needs of the middle class, the wealthy found these apartments appealing, also. The Pattington offered 7, 8 and 9 room dwellings, and a 3-flat at 4318 N Sheridan appealed to people of money with 11 rooms and 3 baths.
Between 1910 and 1930 small one room and two room kitchenette apartments were offered to those seeking more affordable rents, like the apartments buildings at 707 Junior and 728-732 Bittersweet.
Buena Park’s varied residential mix provided benefits for everyone and began a long tradition of diversity. The landfill of the 1910s expanded the parks and created space for Lake Shore Drive; the 1914 opening of Clarendon Beach and its 10,000 locker (the largest in Chicago at the time) was a huge recreational benefit; and the flowering retail district and movie palaces at its northern border meant that shopping and entertainment were was close by and easily accessible.
Our residents live on 326 acres in roughly 400 buildings that are mostly three-story or four-story apartment buildings which were built in the 1920s and 1930s. Buena Park is also dotted with stretches of single-family homes, including Hutchinson Street, Hazel Street and Junior Terrace which form a renowned showcase of residential homes that were built between 1890 and 1915.
Our residences are unique.
Most of Buena Park’s residences were built with brick, although there are a few wood-frame and rock-faced homes. Much of the neighborhood was built with common Chicago red brick, but it differs from many of its neighboring communities due to our heavy use of white, buff, tan, red, orange, gray, gold and mottled brick
The Illinois Historic Sites Survey lists 39 buildings from Buena Park. The Pattington courtyard apartment building is on the National Register and Hutchinson Street is listed on the Commission on Chicago Historical and Architectural Landmarks.
Renowned architect George Washington Maher designed five homes that were built on Hutchinson Street (formerly Kesesaw Terrace) from 1894 to 1912 and have become Buena Park’s signature architecture. Maher’s diverse skill is displayed in these Queen Anne, Prairie and European modernism styles. Add Hazel Street and Junior Terrace and you have an even wider range of architecture: Romanesque, Shingle, Classical and Renaissance Revival.
In 2014 the average sold price of a home in Buena Park is $262,879. The average home price per square-foot in Buena Park is $156, according to the national Association of Realtors.
The average rental rate for a one-bedroom unit in Buena Park is $1,490. For a two-bedroom unit the average rental rate in Buena Park is $1,917.
If you walk down most streets here, you will notice façade bays, swell fronts and sun parlors that create an undulating line. These gentle waves of building lines seem appropriately placed along our lakefront community. Other communities to the north and south have more modern and intrusive buildings that interrupt the wave-like flow that is so familiar in Buena Park. The curved streets of Belle Plaine, Cuyler and Gordon Terrace add to the feeling of waves along the shores of Lake Michigan.
