Many creditWalter S. Gurnee as the father of the North Shore.[1]One of the earliest known monographs to be devoted to the North Shore,The Book of the North Shore (1910), and its companion volume,The Second Book of the North Shore (1911), were written byMarian A. White, whose husband J. Harrison White had established a weekly newspaper inRogers Park in 1895 called theNorth Shore Suburban.[2] The image above is the title page of the first volume and shows the front door of the S.H. Gunder house at 6219 N. Sheridan Road, which today serves as the main building for the North Lakeside Cultural Center in Chicago. The canopy has been removed.
Europeans settled the area sparsely after an 1833 treaty with localNative Americans. The region began to be developed into towns following the opening ofNorthwestern University in Evanston in 1855 and the founding ofLake Forest College two years later, and the construction and launch of railroads serving the colleges and their towns.[citation needed]
Electric rail lines were also run from Chicago, parallel to steam commuter lines, and streetcars flourished throughout the suburbs from Evanston on north. The North Shore today is noteworthy for being one of the few remaining agglomerations ofstreetcar suburbs in the United States.[citation needed]
This area became popular with the affluent wanting to escapeurban life, beginning after theGreat Chicago Fire, and grew rapidly before and just afterWorld War II with a growing Jewish population migrating out of various neighborhoods in Chicago. The major Jewish suburban communities include Highland Park. Jews, however, were barred from living in Kenilworth and Lake Forest.[7] The number of Jews in the north suburbs increased to 40% by the early 1960s.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, most of the northern suburbs were almost entirely white. One informal 1967 poll suggested that of 2,000 real estate listings, only 38 (around 2%) were open to African-Americans.[8]
The term North Shore began to come into use in the early 1880s, and by 1889, with the creation of the North Shore Improvement Association, the name was officially established.[9]
In 1890, Joseph Sears used the term several times in a brochure that was written to promote the newly-forming community of Kenilworth.[10] It is believed[who?] to have come into widespread use[citation needed] following the establishment in 1891 of the Waukegan & North Shore Rapid Transit Company, which in 1916 following reorganization was renamed theChicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ("CNS&M"), popularly known as the North Shore Line. This railway ran alongLake Michigan's western shore betweenChicago andMilwaukee. The Shore Line route of the CNS&M until 1955 served, from south to north, the Illinois communities ofChicago,Evanston,Wilmette,Kenilworth,Winnetka,Glencoe,Highland Park, Highwood, Fort Sheridan,Lake Forest,Lake Bluff,North Chicago,Waukegan, Zion, andWinthrop Harbor as well as Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee (the "KRM") in Wisconsin. After 1924, the Skokie Valley line of the CNS&M opened land further west to the North Shore.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, in 1906, the Sanitary District of Chicago platted the "North Shore Channel" of the sanitary canal from the Chicago River, through Evanston and Wilmette to Lake Michigan.[11]
While the CNS&M ran from Chicago all the way to Milwaukee, the term "North Shore" today typically refers only to the communities between Lake Bluff and Wilmette. Michael Ebner's scholarlyCreating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History, one of the most thorough studies of the area, covers eight suburbs along the lake: Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff.[12] In theirNorth Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940, Cohen and Benjamin include not only those eight suburbs but also "the tiny city ofHighwood" which is slightly inland, just north of Highland Park.[13]
The North Shore is also the home of theRavinia Festival, a historic outdoor music theater inHighland Park, Illinois. The Ravinia Festival, originally conceived as a weekend destination on the CNS&M line, is now a popular destination on theMetraUnion Pacific North Line commuter rail, the North Shore Line's former competitor. It hosts many concerts throughout the year that attract over 600,000 people.[citation needed] Highwood became home of the annual Pumpkin Festival which saw thousands of people every year flock to the small town for a week of music, food, community, and the lighting of 32,000 Jack o' Lanterns. The town used to hold the world record for most carved and lit Jack o' Lanterns but lost the title toKeene, New Hampshire.[citation needed]
Despite being very nearly an enclave within Highland Park,[15]Highwood has very different demographic characteristics than its neighbors. While its median income is close to the average for the state of Illinois, it has a much lower median income than neighboring municipalities.[16][17] It is more densely populated,[18] and is the only community on the North Shore where non-Hispanic whites do not constitute a majority of the population.[19][20]
It has become common for businesses in nearby inland Chicago suburbs to associate themselves with the "North Shore". Real estate agents and other marketing strategists notably use the term for Maine, New Trier, Niles, Northfield, and Norwood Townships, as well as those of southern Lake County and northern Cook County communities.
TheCentral Suburban League public high school system contains several North Shore oriented schools. The Central Suburban League is anIHSA-recognized high school extracurricular conference comprising 12 public schools located throughout the northern suburbs of Chicago. A variety of private schools are also located throughout the North Shore suburbs.
Lake Forest College is a prominent higher education institution located within the primary bounds of the North Shore community. Other notable higher education institutions nearby includeNorthwestern University located in Evanston, andOakton College located in Des Plaines, with a satellite location in Skokie.
Films and television set or filmed on the North Shore
This area received much exposure in the 1980s as the setting of manyteen films, particularly those of writer/directorJohn Hughes, who grew up in Northbrook and attended Glenbrook North High School. The most notable films through the years are:
A Wedding (1978) was filmed at a house in Lake Forest.[21]
Ordinary People (1980) was filmed in Highwood, Highland Park, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook and Wilmette.
Class (1983) was filmed at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest and other locations in Chicago.
Risky Business (1983) was filmed in Deerfield, Highland Park, Skokie, Winnetka and Wilmette, in addition to Lake Shore Drive.
The Razor's Edge (1984) had portions of the film set in Lake Forest
Sixteen Candles (1984) was filmed in Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Skokie and Winnetka.
Weird Science (1985) was filmed in Highland Park, Skokie and Northbrook.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) was filmed in Highland Park, Winnetka, Northbrook, Lake Forest, Des Plaines, and Glencoe, in addition to many locations in Chicago itself, with scenes filmed at Glenbrook North, New Trier High School and Maine North High School.
She's Having a Baby (1988) was filmed in Winnetka, Skokie, Glencoe and Northbrook in addition to many locations in Chicago itself.
Uncle Buck (1989) was filmed in Evanston, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Skokie, Wilmette and Winnetka, in addition to many locations in Chicago itself.
Home Alone (1990) was filmed in Lake Forest, Winnetka, Wilmette, Highland Park and Evanston, and featured a Maine South High School letterman's jacket.
Ocean's 12 (2004) has filmed in the Chicago area and has a few North Shore filming locations: the home of Danny and Tess Ocean is in Winnetka, in the 600 block of Walden.[23] Dimitrios Jewelers in Lake Forest is also in one of the scenes.[23] One of the opening scenes in which Virgil Malloy is having his rehearsal dinner where Terry Benedict shows up was filmed in Lincolnwood, Illinois.
The school inMean Girls (2004) is called North Shore High School, and references several locations throughout the area such as Walker Brother's Pancake House and Old Orchard Mall. Filming took place inOntario.[24]
^Ebner, Michael H. (1989).Creating Chicago's North Shore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 22.ISBN0-226-18205-3.
^White, Marian A. (1910).The Book of the North Shore. Chicago: J. Harrison White. p. 106.
^Grossman, James R.; Ann Durkin Keating; Janice L. Reiff (2004).The Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 285, 338, 380,444–445, 452, 455, 881,882–3.ISBN0-226-31015-9. RetrievedNovember 15, 2011.
^Ebner, Michael H. (1989).Creating Chicago's North Shore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. xvii.ISBN0-226-18205-3.
^Cohen, Stuart; Susan Benjamin (2005).North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940. New York: Acanthus Press. p. 44.ISBN0-926494-26-0.
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