Old Town
Bounded by Division on the south, North Ave on the north, Clark Street on the east and Clybourn Avenue and Larrabee Street on the west. It's called Old Town for a reason -the neighborhood is one of the first parts of Chicago to be settled in the 1800s, and it still includes many homes built in the years following the great fire that destroyed much of the city in 1871. That said, the Old Town moniker itself is old. It doesn't reflect the waves of new construction that changed parts of the neighborhood beginning in the 1960s, or the dining and retail revival that began in the 1980s and appears on the verge of accelerating. Old Town begins just a mile-and-a-half north of the heart of Chicago's Loop. Its neighbors include the Gold Coast on the east, River North on the south and Lincoln Park to the north. The eastern stretches of Old Town have excellent proximity to Chicago's greatest park, Lincoln Park, and to Oak Street and North Avenue beaches. Wells Street is a vibrant, visually interesting, pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare whose broad sidewalks are lined with a wide mix of restaurants, bars, nightlife, boutiques, theater and low and high-rise residences.
