Tour of Irving Park 2009 Poster

Tour of Irving Park 2011 Poster

Irving Park, Chicago Community Area #16 sits 7 miles northwest of the Loop. Prior to being annexed to Chicago, the suburban communities that make up today’s Irving Park Community Area fell outside the city’s post-fire ban on wood-frame construction. The result is a present-day community rich with some of the oldest surviving construction in the city. Between 1895 and 1914 more than 5,000 new buildings, including 1,400 multifamily buildings were erected in this period of significant architecture development creating one of the greatest built environments in all of Chicago. It features comfortably nestled neighborhoods such as the Villa, (a registered National and City Historic Landmark), Old Irving, Independence Park and Grayland. On the tour, we will take in beautiful works of architecture such as Dwight Perkins’ Carl Schurz High School, the Henry V. Peters House by Walter Burley Griffin, St. Viator by Charles Wallace and dozens of other truly special buildings.