Chicago's Beverly Neighborhood: A Tourist Destination? Who Woulda Thunk It?

My web browser is Microsoft Edge, and its home page is filled with articles and news items that continuously change throughout the day. One of the sites they frequently use is an online travel magazine called Islands.com, which recently featured an article featuring the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Beverly. Beverly is located just to the west of the Brainerd neighborhood, where I grew up, and I am very familiar with Beverly. The article calls it one of the most historic and beautiful neighborhoods in Chicago, which I have to agree with, but a destination for tourists? Seriously? Back in 2010, I returned to Chicago for a visit for the first time in 30 years and found both Brainerd and Beverly still very nice. The article hypes the historic homes located there, as well as the Irish roots of the neighborhood. The photograph on the left that I took back in 2010 shows Beverly's train stop, with the business district on 103rd Street in the background. What used to be the Rock Island when I lived in Chicago, which takes you downtown, is now called Metra.

To me, the nicest part of Beverly is Longwood Drive, a beautiful tree-lined street which runs along a hillside, on which are located big houses with large, beautifully landscaped lots. The first buildings date from 1873, and in 1887 a real estate developer named Robert C. Givins built Givins Castle, as seen in the photograph on the right, a replica of a castle Givins had visited in Ireland. The Chicago Architecture Center gives tours of the neighborhood, including a stop at this building. I considered taking this tour when I returned to Chicago in 2010, but there were none available at the time. I checked their web site just recently, and there are still no tours available, and so definitely check well in advance if you want to take one. The article also hypes the Irish pubs and microbreweries in the neighborhood, most of which were established long after I moved to Colorado. What I do remember is the Original Rainbow Cone, which has been in business since 1926 and which our family went to when I was a kid. I also remember the Dan Ryan Woods, which I used to bike through during the summer.

Beverly also has 4 Frank Lloyd Wright homes, one of which is the Raymond W. Evans House, located on Longwood Drive and seen in the photograph on the left. I also remember Longwood Drive as the location of the annual Memorial Day Parade. I played the trumpet back when I attended Fort Dearborn Grammar School, and every year our band would take part in that parade, marching down the street past all those big homes. And not too far away was Ridge Park, where my sister Susan took swimming lessons at the pool there, and where I attended day camp one summer. I even think they might have given me a few swimming lessons, too, but memories of that specific summer are sketchy.

The Morgan Park neighborhood borders Beverly, and right around the corner from Longwood Drive is the Morgan Park Library, in front of which I am posing in the photograph on the right. This was the library our family patronized, well known to both my sister Susan and me. I remember my father getting large stacks of books each time we went there. He would set them on a table next to his chair in the den, put a bunch of Fannie May candies in a circle on the smoking stand in front of him, and go through the books one by one. It is still a library, at least the last time I visited, but was closed the day I was there. Just down the street from there was (and possibly still is) the church that my Grandmother and Grandfather Hoyt attended every Sunday. And so, as you can tell, to us Beverly, and of course Brainerd, was just a place where we went about the business of living our lives, not a tourist destination. But like I said, it is indeed a very nice place to visit if you happen to be in the area. Especially now that they have an Irish bar and restaurant with an outdoor beer garden called Cork and Kerry, and a microbrewery called Open Outcry Brewing Company. I'll definitely check them out the next time I am in town. Be sure to check out the most recent article about Beverly at https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/a-lively-chicago-neighborhood-brims-with-irish-culture-art-craft-beer-and-historic-homes/ar-AA1w1oKc?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=44aa822099fb423b8670db97827fff59&ei=44 and a Chicago Magazine article about Beverly at https://classicchicagomagazine.com/exploring-the-best-of-beverly-in-chicago-il/. Hell, perhaps it really is a tourist destination.