[3] The area has a mix of commercial and residential development, and includes a well-established entertainment district of clubs and concert venues, and was a center for early film making.
The Aragon Ballroom, Riviera Theater, Uptown Theatre, and Green Mill Jazz Club are all located within a half block of Lawrence and Broadway.
In the mid-1920s, construction of large and luxurious entertainment venues resulted in many of the ornate and historic Uptown Square buildings which exist today.
Residential hotels which had housed wives of sailors attached to the Great Lakes Naval Station during World War II now served low-income migrants from the South and Appalachia.
[8] Large-scale urban renewal projects like Harry S. Truman College eliminated much low-cost housing, and the low-income Southern white residents dispersed.
Beginning in the 1950s, Native Americans came to Chicago in increasing numbers as part of a relocation program initiated by the federal government, although those sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs may have constituted a minority of arrivals, who often came to the city independently in search of economic opportunities.
[9][10] With supportive neighborhood institutions such as the American Indian Center, availability of social services, and low housing costs, Uptown established itself as the central hub for the growing community.
[9] Latinos forced out from other near downtown and lakefront areas by urban renewal settled close to the border with Lakeview at Sheridan, near Irving Park Rd.
In 1975 Young Lords founder Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez joined with a broad coalition of whites, blacks and Latinos and ran unsuccessfully against Daley-sponsored Christopher Cohen but still garnered 39% of the vote.
[12] In 2008, a group of residents sued the City of Chicago over its designation of the Wilson Yards lot as a Tax Increment Financing ("TIF") district.
[13][14][15] In December 2009, a Chicago Tribune story reported on the problem facing eastern sections of Uptown where several nursing homes clustered in the area house the mentally ill, including felons.
Many of these residents have committed a variety of serious crimes including murder, and 11 nursing homes in the area house 318 convicted felons and 1350 mentally ill people.
At the core of the neighborhood is the Hutchinson Street Historic District, a tree-lined stretch several blocks long featuring mansions that make up "one of the best collections of Prairie-style architecture in the city.
Sheridan Park is a neighborhood roughly bounded by Lawrence Avenue on the north, Clark Street on the west, Montrose on the south, and Broadway on the east.
According to the National Park Service, the district is roughly bounded by Lawrence Avenue on the north, Clark Street on the west, Montrose on the south, and Racine on the east.
[24] Asia on Argyle hosts Asian eateries, cafes, and grocery stores, including Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, and Chinese restaurants.
Its tree-lined streets, historic mansions, and gilded mid-rises reflect the area's development in the bustle of Uptown's entertainment industry from the early 1900s, now undergoing a burgeoning revitalization.
On Margate Park's western edge is also one of the city's longest running gay bars, Big Chicks, owned and operated for the past 30 years.
Designed in 1937 by architect Charles Kristen, its asymmetrical facade, clearly influenced by the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, features dazzling decoration, with yellow vertical piers on a backdrop of cobalt blue, as well as splashes of aqua.
Hotels quickly sprang up in the Uptown area, and it became a mecca for young adults who visited Chicago to dance to the Big Bands of the 1940s and 1950s.
Frank Sinatra, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Lawrence Welk, Guy Lombardo, Wayne King and other famous bandleaders often played there.
In decades to follow, a very diverse selection of "big name" groups have performed, including The Rolling Stones, U2, The Smiths, The Doors, Snoop Dogg, Green Day, Gwen Stefani, The B-52s, Capital Cities, Talking Heads/David Byrne, B.B.
King, Robert Plant, Metallica, Tommy Bolin, Morrissey, Queens of the Stone Age, The Clash, Tangerine Dream, deadmau5, Tiësto, Nirvana, and The Ramones.
In November 2019, the Chicago Tribune reported that the start of the renovation was still stalled due to slow private fundraising needed for the project.
It also featured a dining room which was later converted to the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge during construction of the Uptown Theatre on the former site of the outdoor music gardens.
The club was once owned by "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, a right-hand man of Al Capone, who was a regular patron at The Green Mill.
Starring Frank Sinatra, the movie is the story about how Lewis tried to leave his gig at the Green Mill and was attacked and left for dead in his apartment.
Tommy Sutton, the Theater Cafe's choreographer, went on to work with Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole, among others.
The residents developed a close-knit community they named the "Winthrop Family"[43][44] Uptown is full of parkland, chiefly Lincoln Park, providing ample opportunity for sports, leisure, and nature exploration.
The Chicago Transit Authority's #92 Foster, #81 Lawrence, #78 Montrose, #80 Irving Park, #22 Clark, #36 Broadway, #146 Inner Drive Express & #151 Sheridan bus lines serve the neighborhood.