Inspired by the memory of author Ernest Hemingway who was born and raised in Oak Park, the District adjoins historic Scoville Park, a central town square at the corner of Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue. The park itself is a classic square, and conveniently adjacent to many restaurants and one-of-a-kind local stores.
Within a stone's throw of the park, you’ll find:
The Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum, at 339 N. Oak Park Ave. In this Victorian home you’ll discover the youthful poems and love letters that inspired his seminal novel, A Farewell to Arms. Learn about his first 20 years as an Oak Park youth and World War I survivor and the many other adventures that make this man such a compelling, polarizing legend.
Scoville Square, a rare Frank Lloyd Wright retail building
The contemporary Oak Park Public Library
Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021 after a multiyear, $25-million restoration.
The Oak Park Post Office, designed by architects White and Weber (Charles E. White Jr. and Bertram A. Weber) and completed in 1936, is an Art Deco and Art Moderne style building.
You're also only a 5- to 7-minute walk west on Lake Street to downtown Oak Park and the Pleasant District. A 5-minute walk due east will take you past historic Oak Park and River Forest High School (better known as OPRF), which Ernest Hemingway and his siblings attended.
Maya Del Sol Offers Valet Parking Service
Maya Del Sol has opened its valet parking service to customers of all neighboring businesses throughout the Hemingway District. Valet entrance is located in the alley behind St. Edmund’s Church with a flat fee of $5 per car.
Hours of operation are 4-9 pm Tuesday through Thursday and 4-10 pm Friday and Saturday.
As a longtime anchor in the Hemingway District, Maya Del Sol knows the benefits of showing up for each other and that all businesses are better when the neighborhood is busy, thriving, and full of people supporting local.
Hemingway District Restaurants
Almost any time of day you can travel the globe with the world-class cuisine choices to be found throughout the Hemingway District. Meet friends for breakfast. Pick up warm baked goods for a meeting or dinner for the family. Unwind over craft cocktails after work. Tuck into a down-home meal at your favorite restaurant.
Restaurants, bakeries, caterers, and bars are lined up (literally) to welcome you along the Lake Street corridor, up and down Oak Park Avenue, even around the corners on North and South Boulevards.
Oak Park Avenue Trivia
Throughout the 2026 Renew The Avenue project, we’ll share vintage photos and facts about the businesses, people, news events, and points of pride of this historic corridor. We thank the Oak Park River Forest Museum for access to its extensive research and photography archive.
-
From 1969 to 1993, the Green Line was called the Lake-Dan Ryan, reflecting that it traveled Chicago’s west and south sides. On Feb. 4, 1977, a Lake-Dan Ryan train was involved in the worst accident in CTA history when a train operator ignored a cab signal and rear-ended a Ravenswood train parked at the State/Lake station. Eleven people were killed and more than 200 were injured.
On February 23, 1993, the Lake-Dan Ryan was renamed the Green Line by the CTA as part of a systemwide color-coding of all its commuter train lines.
-
Starting to the south off Interstate 80 in Tinley Park near the Cook/Will County border, Oak Park Avenue runs north approximately 35 miles through 15 communities (including Oak Park, of course, and parts of the city of Chicago’s south and northwest sides). It ends near Golf Road in northwest suburban Morton Grove, by Frank Hren Park.
Unlike Harlem Avenue, Oak Park Avenue is not continuous and is disrupted by several parklands, expressways and industrial corridors.
Still curious? The 15 communities welcoming Oak Park Avenue are:
Tinley Park
Oak Forest
Worth
Chicago Ridge
Bridgeview
Burbank
Bedford Park
Chicago
Stickney
Forest View
Berwyn
Oak Park
Harwood Heights
Niles
Morton Grove
-
Of the 14 viaducts below the Union Pacific/Green Line train embankment in Oak Park, Harlem Avenue’s has the highest vertical clearance in Oak Park: at 14’ 0” on the nose. The next highest clearance is Austin Boulevard at 13’ 8”.
The lowest clearances are at Ridgeland and Oak Park avenues, which tie at 11’ 7”. The current construction project will try to add a few more inches to that clearance by lowering the grade of Oak Park Avenue through the viaduct.
To be fair, the predecessor of today’s Green Line came through Oak Park first, in 1896—a full eight years before Chicago saw its first vehicles.
While there is no official record of how many trucks have had their tops ripped off in Oak Park, back in May 2018, three trucks collided with the Ridgeland viaduct the same week that a CTA bus driver had to deflate the tires of his bus to wedge out from the Austin Avenue viaduct.
-
The short answer is ancient geography.
The USA is separated into three basins flowing to the Atlantic, the Pacific, or to the Mississippi River feeding into the Gulf of Mexico.
The continental divide running through Oak Park (it zigzags through Scoville Park near Lake Street) meant water flows either to the Gulf (via the Des Plaines River) or to the Atlantic (via the Chicago River to Lake Michigan and out through the St. Lawrence Seaway).
But things change. In 1900, the city of Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River, which now flows down to the Gulf via the Illinois River. So all the water flowing west and east from Oak Park today drains to the Gulf.
Enjoy the detailed explanation at the Oak Park River Forest Museum website.
-
Two separate train lines use the elevated embankment through Oak Park, so there are two answers to the question: 1910 and 1962.
The elevation of today’s Union Pacific Railroad (which purchased the Central & North Western Railroad) was completed around 1910.
The elevated CTA Green Line (formerly known as the Lake Street ‘L’) through Oak Park opened in 1962.
According to The Trolley Dodger website, ongoing thanks are due the Village of Oak Park and its informed process of working with all partners so that the dangerous, slow, street-level Lake Street L line wasn’t truncated at Laramie Avenue. The final plan resulted in the elevation of the outer 2.5 miles of train track from Laramie to Harlem Avenue and benefited all parties:
Oak Parkers continued to enjoy fast, convenient and a much safer commute to and from downtown Chicago.
The Village of Oak Park improved services, tempered traffic flows, and avoided construction costs by using the C&NW embankment.
The CTA cut costs and reduced risk by eliminating 22 unsafe crossings.
The C&NW welcomed new revenue from renting out its embankment, which was wide enough to accommodate the Green Line.
-
Tony’s Shoe Clinic, on the lower level of 115 N. Oak Park Avenue, has been in business at two different locations along Oak Park Avenue since opening its doors on December 3, 1946. This shoe and leather goods repair stalwart is a ‘tale of two Tonys.’ The current owner, Tony Muñoz, bought the business from his longtime boss – Tony José – more than 30 years ago. (Muñoz first began working at the shoe clinic back in 1979.) Today, Tony’s family helps the Mexico native and competitive cyclist repair just about anything for the Oak Park community. Find more information and photos in this Wednesday Journal article.
-
Gilmore’s Department Store was located at 137 N. Oak Park Ave. in the historic Masonic Block Building from 1917 until its closing in 1976. Its elegant Art Deco façade occupied the southwest corner of the Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue intersection. Buying wedding dresses and formal gowns there was a rite of passage for many Oak Park women, who also appreciated its second-floor tearoom. You’ll find more information and photos from its colorful history in this article reprint from 1976.
