CHICAGO | Lincoln Avenue

[Thundertubs]

As major diagonal streets of Chicago's North Side go, Lincoln Avenue definitely plays second fiddle to Clark Street. I happen to prefer Lincoln, though. It's a good street.

Let's take a walk. (December 9th, 2009)

We will go from Lincoln Park up through western Lake View to North Center.


Looking south towards Fullerton, in Lincoln Park


North




6-point intersection of Lincoln, Diversey, and Racine. Great urban fabric.




At Wellington Ave


Famous church, who's name I am blanking on...






Looking south, in western Lake View












West on Belmont


The 6-way intersection of Lincoln, Ashland, and Belmont. It looks great, but thanks to Ashland has way too much traffic to be pleasant, unfortunately.






Great flatiron building at Lincoln and Marshfield


Same building as it looked in 2002




The street gets quieter for a bit around Addison


Looking back at Paulina Station on the Brown Line


Into the North Center neighborhood




Lincoln at Grace






At the 6-point intersection of Lincoln, Irving Park, and Damen




Looking east on Irving Park








After this comes the busy stretch of Lincoln Square, but that's for another day...

[STLgasm]

You really captured the feel of the neighborhoods. My ex-girlfriend lived in the brown building on the left in this pic (that's Barry/Greenview/Lincoln, right?):



Lots of memories in this area. There was a great Latin restaurant called Agave right up the street- I wonder if it's still there?

[ethereal_reality]

Thanks for the tour Thundertubs. It brought back some memories for me as well.

[Kingofthehill]

From the cold to the cold..Obamastan.

Love it. Never stop doing these kind of threads. By chance, next time can we get some Bronzeville in 'da house? I remember seeing all sorts of goodies on King Dr. and Indiana.

[the urban politician]

Awesome. Makes you wanna sip some hot cocoa. More please

[UrbanSophist]

Chicago looks best in this kind of weather.

[tallboy66]

I hate these intersections especially on bike Lincoln, Halsted and Fullerton is another one.
But Delilahs is just a step away

[harryc]

"famous church" is St Al's - spectacular interior also.

Thanks for the tour, brought back many memories (not all of them clear).

[dktshb]

Very nice neighborhood and outstanding pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[fflint]

Cool tour. Chicago rawks.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Awesome set. Brave man. The streetscape along Lincoln in that stretch you covered is so dense, rich and massive. Few other cities in this country are as well developed.

You also get to see the way in which the diagonal streets break the grid and in so doing create unique opportunities for developers and architects. This is one of my favorites:

Originally Posted by Thundertubs

The 6-way intersection of Lincoln, Ashland, and Belmont. It looks great, but thanks to Ashland has way too much traffic to be pleasant, unfortunately.

There was a huge residential addition planned for the northeast corner. I forget what it was called but the sign is still up. I'm guessing it has been shelved, which is too bad; it would really have given this intersection the feeling of an outdoor room.

I think the best (funniest?) part of Lincoln is the portion north of Foster and south of Peterson with all the neon and seedy motels. Hope you're able to cover it one day.

[flar]

These Chicago tours get better and better. The diagonal intersections make some great street scenes. This street looks more substantial than the long commercial streets in Toronto for some reason.

[new.slang]

^
sure does. TO has seems to have more 2-3 story buildings while, it looks like Chicago has more 4 story buildings.
Great tour by the way...

[jcchii]

the city looks like itself in these. nice job

[Rizzo]

That is Lincoln at Barry as someone pointed out. I like this street too. What I noticed lately though as you get closer to Belmont heading away from downtown, it's been feeling a little weak. I'd be wiling to bet ground floor vacancy is running at 35% right now, which is frightening for the fact that the residential areas are doing so well. Damn the recession

[pablosan]

Great thread.

[SuburbanNation]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Awesome. Makes you wanna sip some hot cocoa. More please

funny. we just got some chicago style winter weather in saint louis and i drained near a fifth of gin through a liter of flat dr. pepper directly into my liver.

love the thread!

[ColDayMan]

Fantastic thread!

[jodelli]

Love this thread of the Avenue going north. I used to be familiar with the area where your tour started out down near Fullerton.

[Thundertubs]

Thanks folks!

Originally Posted by Hayward

That is Lincoln at Barry as someone pointed out. I like this street too. What I noticed lately though as you get closer to Belmont heading away from downtown, it's been feeling a little weak. I'd be wiling to bet ground floor vacancy is running at 35% right now, which is frightening for the fact that the residential areas are doing so well. Damn the recession

I know, it sucks. A lot of commercial streets, even in nice neighborhoods, are hurting. Montrose and Lawrence up here in Ravenswood have a ton of vacant storefronts.

Originally Posted by Ch.G, Ch.G

The streetscape along Lincoln in that stretch you covered is so dense, rich and massive. Few other cities in this country are as well developed.

I think the best (funniest?) part of Lincoln is the portion north of Foster and south of Peterson with all the neon and seedy motels. Hope you're able to cover it one day.

That's absolutely my favorite thing about Chicago, the great urban districts outside of downtown.

There are some pretty sweet motels up there.