Oak Park, Illinois

Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago (the Chicago Loop) due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines, CTA buses, and Metra commuter rail. As of the 2000 census, the area had a total population of 52,524. A census estimate for 2003 showed that the population had dipped to 50,824. The 2010 census showed that the population had dropped by 1.2 percent since the last census, to 51,878.

History
In 1837, Joseph Kettlestrings purchased 172 acres of land just west of Chicago. By 1850, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was constructed as far as Elgin, Illinois, and passed through what would later become Oak Park. In the 1850s the land on which Oak Park sits was part of the new Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois. The population of the area boomed during the 1870s, with Chicago residents resettling in Cicero following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

The Village of Oak Park was formally established in 1902, disengaging from Cicero following a referendum.

Oak Park had a history of alcohol prohibition. From the time of its incorporation, no alcohol was allowed to be sold within its village limits. But this law was relaxed in 1973, when restaurants and hotels were allowed to serve alcohol, and was further loosened in 2002, when select grocery stores received governmental permission to sell packaged liquor.

Oak Park's enviable location, the closest suburb to downtown Chicago, the availability of multiple modes of high-speed transportation to downtown Chicago, and its location between the Loyola Medical Center to the west and the University of Illinois at Chicago and multiple medical centers to the east attract university, legal, and health-care professionals to its aging housing stock. Recently, Oak Park demographics have shifted from long-term, more conservative residents, with a large middle class, to younger, urban, highly-racially-diverse, more liberal residents. The division between old and new residents was demonstrated by a formal survey of residents taken in 2004, which found that more than half of its current residents had lived in Oak Park for less than ten years, and one-third had lived in the village fewer than five. This results at least in part from families moving from Oak Park to avoid its property tax burden once their children have been graduated from the local schools.

The village has had questionable success in its attempts to balance historic preservation and economic development. For example, a pedestrian mall on Marion Street in the center of the village was opened to traffic in 2007, to great controversy, using brick pavers similar to the original early 20th century street and bluestone sidewalks, intended to highlight the historic character of the area, along with the extravagance of heated sidewalks and the bemoaned destruction of numerous mature shade trees and flower gardens. Although the effort to remove the mall from downtown Oak Park has won design awards, the loss of public space and the failure of the $7 million project to attract business leaves its ultimate evaluation in limbo.

Nonetheless, Oak Park embarked on a similar project in 2011 on the stretch of south Marion Street, adjacent to the north Marion Street project. This will cost another estimated $6 million and includes the same type of expensive decorative brickwork that is crumbling on north Marion Street. Despite publicizing itself as concerned about green issues, Oak Park’s project began with the destruction of twenty old-growth shade trees with their many dozens of squirrel and birds nests.

In 2011, two of Oak Park's native, old growth tree species, the ash and the elm, thoughtfully planted by early settlers and town visionaries from past eras, will be lost to history, as Oak Park officials decided to let trees die, cutting them down and removing the stumps with subsequent replanting. Most of the ash trees lost still had 150 more years to live from a possible 300 year life span. Officials place low priority on preventive treatment, citing cost, and obtain funding from the State of Illinois' Department of Agriculture to only cut down and replace.

Oak Park’s Park District is particularly cavalier, with no plans to save old growth park trees.

Assistance is needed immediately for homeowners who choose to treat ash trees during this historic natural disaster. The most effective treatment choice, treatment on a three-year cycle with ArborTek, must be performed professionally. Cheap over the counter applications available to homeowners are not as effective.

Ironically the City of Chicago, which borders Oak Park along the north and east borders, has injected most of their parkway ash trees, successfully. Treatment will be need to be repeated every two years till the “Emerald Ash Borer” departs our area, but only after its one food source is depleted. Arborists estimate this near-total destruction could occur within 5 to 10 years.

In Oak Park, by contract, officials state that they would get caught in a cycle of treatment for the life of the tree. The native ash tree losses just in 2011 alone had 6 trees to a block felled with ages of 90 to 120 years old. The oldest, a group of four with 136 years of service, planted in the 1870's at Linden and Augusta.

Introduction of Dutch Elm Disease started in the 1930’s out of Cleveland, and it is once again back with a vengeance, killing native elms which are being lost, sometimes five trees to a block. In 2011, dendrochronology of tree stump indicated that major planting programs by Oak Park occurred around 1890, 1910, 1925, and 1945. The disease affected elm trees cover every part of town, but the biggest losses occurred on blocks south of the Eisenhower Expressway. In 2011 it's quickly becoming hard to find any elms in good shape, and treatment succeeds only if elm is not yet infected. As with the ash tree population, unless treated by citizens, these species will disappear from Oak Park in the near future.

A diseased elm tree in the northwest corner of Lindberg Park was allowed to stand by the Oak Park Park District for nearly one year, until the disease had progressed to such an extent that the tree was completely bare of leaves. A study showed that that tree was the source of infection that decimated the northwest part of Oak Park, killing about 150 trees at a cost to taxpayers of about $500,000.

Even a good number of Frank Lloyd Wright built houses had or still have 120 year old parkway Ash’s that have grown up in front of the historic prairie style structures, though not part of Mr. Wright’s planning. And now property owners have an additional burden of having to treat their own private trees and the Ash & Elm's on their parkway. The final irony is many of the younger Ash trees, 40 years and newer, were replacements after original Elms succumbed to Dutch elm disease in past battles. This time choices of new plantings includes arboretum grown trees from Oak's gathered by children under a 300 year old Oak tree at Chicago & Kenilworth ave.

Oak Park attracts architecture buffs and others to view the many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings found in the village. The largest collection of Wright-designed residential properties in the world is in Oak Park. Other attractions include Ernest Hemingway's birthplace home and his boyhood home, the Ernest Hemingway Museum, and the three Oak Park homes of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Oak Park is home to the well-regarded Oak Park and River Forest High School, which is also the public high school for the bordering village of River Forest. A comprehensive college preparatory school, Oak Park-River Forest High School has had a long history of not only turning out alumni who have made contributions in a wide variety of fields, but have been notable in their fields. Among these are Pulitizer Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway, football hall-of-famer George Trafton, McDonalds founder Ray Kroc, city planner Walter Burley Griffin, comedian Kathy Griffin, and the voice of iconic cartoon character Homer Simpson, Dan Castellaneta.

Geography
Oak Park is located immediately west of the city of Chicago. The boundary between the two municipalities is Austin Boulevard on the east side of Oak Park and North Avenue on the village's north side. Oak Park also borders Cicero along its southern border, Roosevelt Road, from Austin to Lombard; and Berwyn from Lombard to Harlem. Harlem also serves as its western border, where between Roosevelt and South Blvd, it borders Forest Park and between North Blvd and North Ave to the west it borders River Forest.

The entire village of Oak Park lies on the shore of ancient Lake Chicago, which covered most of the city of Chicago during the last Ice Age and is today called Lake Michigan. Ridgeland Avenue in eastern Oak Park marks the shoreline of the lake, and was once an actual ridge. One of North America's four continental divides runs through Oak Park. This divide, a slight rise running north-south through the village, separates the St. Lawrence River watershed from the Mississippi River watershed, and is marked by a plaque on Lake Street at Forest Avenue.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 4.7 square miles (12.2 km²). None of it is covered by water.

Transportation
Oak Park is accessible from Chicago by both Chicago Transit Authority Green and Blue line trains as well as Metra UP-West Line trains at Oak Park station. Service within Oak Park and to other suburbs is also provided by the suburban bus system Pace. It is also one of over 20 neighborhoods served by I-GO Cars.

The Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate-290)--formerly the Congress Expressway—is the primary highway between Chicago and Oak Park. Oak Park has its own street numbering system that is similar to, but distinct from, Chicago's system, due to the fact that Oak Park is in the Chicago grid system of streets. Although Oak Park has been fully developed for more than sixty years and possesses no nature trails, hills, prairie, bodies of water, which would also be conducive to bike paths, or forests or wooded areas, the old growth trees in the parks having been removed in the last decade for ball fields, it is home to numerous bicyclists. Augusta Boulevard through the village is part of the Grand Illinois Trail; the trailhead of the Illinois Prairie Path is less than a mile from Oak Park. With several cycle clubs and groups, Oak Park is considered a bicycle-friendly community and the tree-lined streets of the community as well as its proximity to trails in nearly communities attract cyclists to Oak Park, easily accessed by the Green Line, Blue Line, or Metra. Oak Park also has a small pedicab business, owned and operated by a local who provides guided tours and a taxi service with his bicycle pedicabs or rickshaws. A free shuttle service transports riders between tourist attractions in the village.

Neighborhoods
Though located within a small geographical area, the village of Oak Park contains several distinct neighborhoods. Some regions of northern Oak Park, commonly defined as being north of Lake Street, contain such areas as the historical Frank Lloyd Wright District. Various mansions are found in northern Oak Park, especially along tree-lined Chicago Avenue and north Oak Park Avenue. The area between Lake Street and Madison Street, or the mid section of Oak Park, is home to various architectural styles, with 19th-century Victorian mansions located beside smaller homes of the post-World War 2 era. Southern Oak Park, south of Madison Street, contains the Seward Gunderson Historic District, and some of the first homes in the area from the 1900s.

There are several business districts within Oak Park, such as the fledgling Harrison Street arts district along the I-290 expressway and Chicago Avenue at Harlem, but some consider downtown Oak Park as the main business district, bordered at the west by Harlem Avenue, at the east with Oak Park Avenue/Euclid Avenue, south by South Boulevard/Pleasant Street, and north by Ontario Street. However, there is a growing vacancy rate within downtown Oak Park, as well as in smaller business districts within the village. Many of the independent, family-owned small businesses have failed, and some small frontage chains such as Cold Stone Creamery and Starbucks have opened up outlets. There has been a great deal of heated discussion and debate within the village as to the cause of these vacancies, with a substantial decrease in population from 64,000 to its current 51,000 and a lack of industry leading to burdensome property taxes among the most likely causes of the economic malaise.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 52,524 people, 23,079 households, and 12,970 families residing in the village. The population density was 11,173.4 people per square mile (4,314.8/km²). There were 23,723 housing units at an average density of 5,046.6 per square mile (1,948.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 68.78% White American, 22.44% African American, 0.15% Native American, 4.15% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.63% from other races, and 2.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.52% of the population. 14.5% were of Irish, 11.3% German, 6.8% Italian and 5.5% English ancestry according to Census 2000. 88.1% spoke English and 4.2% Spanish as their first language.

There were 23,079 households, out of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.1% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.8% were non-families. 37.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.06.

In the village the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 35.2% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.2 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the village was $74,614, and the median income for a family was $103,840. Males had a median income of $51,807 versus $40,847 for females. The per capita income for the village was $36,340. About 3.6% of families and 5.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.8% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over.

Since the 1970s, in the face of a rapidly changing demographic in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago to its east, Oak Park has encouraged racial and ethnic diversity, much of which was started in conjunction with the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement. The village operates a Diversity Assurance Program within its housing programs department to ensure a stable, diverse, and integrated population. Years ago, Oak Park eliminated the use of "For Sale" signs in front of houses, widely considered one of the keys of success to maintaining the high diversity. However, this law was declared unconstitutional, being overturned by the Supreme Court's 1977 decision in the Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Willingboro case.

Oak Park public officials publicize its being an integrated community, but de facto integration has been difficult to achieve. Although African-Americans live in neighborhoods throughout the village, most in the community live either in apartment buildings, notably along the Washington Blvd. corridor, or in homes on the east side of the village near the Austin neighborhood of Chicago.

With Austin to its east, and with its own demographic change, the once-serene Oak Park has experienced an increase in crime in the last several decades. Among the slightly more than 100 communities in Cook County, Oak Park's per capita crime rate is consistently among the highest ten. To combat the crime, although Oak Park has the 25th largest population of communities in the state of Illinois, Oak Park's police department is the third largest in the state.

Village
Oak Park since 1951 has been organized under the village manager form of municipal government. Coterminous with the Village of Oak Park are five additional governments each of which levy real estate taxes. These include the Oak Park Township, the high school district, the elementary school district, a library district, and a park district. Periodically, each unit of government presents to the residents tax-increase referenda or fee increases. The passing of such, along with the lack of any significant tax-generating industry, has led to Oak Park being one of the most highly taxed municipalities in the state of Illinois.

The United States Postal Service operates the Oak Park Post Office at 901 Lake Street and the Oak Park South Post Office at 1116 Garfield Street .

The village government comprises an elected village board who hires a village manager to conduct the day-to-day affairs of the village administration.

School districts
The public primary schools (Lincoln, Mann, Longfellow, Beye, Holmes, Whittier, Irving, and Hatch) and the middle schools, Percy Julian Middle School (formerly Nathaniel Hawthorne), and Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School (formerly Ralph Waldo Emerson), are operated by the Oak Park Elementary School District. These schools are part of elementary school District 97, which regularly adopts medium-term strategic plans.

The renaming of the two junior high schools, now middle schools, after prominent African-Americans rather than giant American literary figures was motivated in part by the desire to motivate minority students in their educational pursuits. A severe grade gap, referred to as “this intolerable and persistent inequity,” however, remains.

Oak Park is the home of two high schools: Oak Park and River Forest High School, the sole school in educational District 200, and Fenwick High School. Oak Park and River Forest High School is a public school which is jointly run by Oak Park and neighboring village River Forest, and Fenwick High School is a Catholic college preparatory school run by the Dominicans. Both high schools have a long history of high academic standards. Oak Park and River Forest High School, for example, bestows an award upon select, distinguished alumni (the Tradition of Excellence Award), with an emphasis of celebrity, including Ernest Hemingway, Ray Kroc, Dan Castellaneta, football Hall-of-Famer George Trafton, actress Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and astronomer Chad Trujillo. Oak Park and River Forest High School is one of seven in Illinois with the ability to induct students into the Cum Laude Society. Fenwick's notable alumni include Heisman winner Johnny Lattner, Pulitzer winner Philip Caputo, former Sears CEO Edward Brennan, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Sun-Times general manager John Barron, Procter & Gamble CEO A. G. Lafley and notable professionals in the NBA, such as Corey Maggette, as well as NFL and NHL players.

Park district
Oak Park is home to a park district, first organized in 1912 as the Recreation Department of the Village of Oak Park. Under the direction of Josephine Blackstock and her successor Lilly Ruth Hanson, it embarked on a vigorous program of recreation for villagers including theatrical productions in the fieldhouses, support of Village Classics Shakespeare productions on the then wooded hill at Field playground, an all-village track meet, a distance balloon competition, children’s dance classes, and the culmination of the summer, a  two-day children’s circus in Stevenson playground featuring a grand parade, costumed children acts from each of the recreation centers, clown acts under the direction of Francis “Bud” Corry, superintendent of  buildings and grounds and later park board president, a live circus band under the direction of the Golden twins, a tuxedoed professional ringmaster, and the featured performers, Willy Necker’s Dalmations, a professional animal act.

The playgrounds, named by Blackstock after famous children’s writers, were the gathering grounds of children during the summer. Ping-pong and nok hockey tournaments, games of capture the flag, tether ball, and four-square, impromptu softball and football games, as well as daily rehearsals and costume preparation for the end-of-summer children’s circus attracted dozens of children from morning to dusk.

In the late 1980s the Recreation Department was dissolved and the Oak Park Park District, a separate tax-levying body, was created. It comprises thirteen parks scattered throughout the village, for a total of 80 acre of parkland, two historic houses, the Oak Park Conservatory, two outdoor pools, a gymnastics center, and a seasonal ice rink. These facilities as well as climate-controlled buildings, or "centers," at many of the parks host programs and events for all ages. The Park District also operates a dog park, where dog owners, with a paid permit, may bring their pets to play off-leash.

The 2000s have seen repeated controversy erupt under the management of the new executive director. The popular pool/ice rink facility, a work of noted architect Jens Jensen, was allowed to decay, leading to the park district suggesting multiple renovation plans costing from $39 to $100 million. The figures presented by the executive director excluded debt service, which was estimated to add nearly 10% to the price tags. This led the local newspaper to editorialize the park district public input process as a “sham” and the park district budgeting process as “irresponsible.” The plan to cover the largest park in the community with synthetic turf led to another major outcry until the plan was finally shelved under public pressure.

After passage of a $15 million tax-increase referendum in 2005, the park district applied for a $399,000 matching grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for so-called renovation of popular, heavily-wooded Field playground. The weekend before the construction was to begin, a local environmentalist discovered that the park district plan was to destroy each of the dozens of old-growth trees in the center of the expansive park, and that the park district had not notified the DNR in its application materials nor the state senator who shepherded the plan through the state of the impending destruction. The ensuing public uproar led to a large rally convened only 48 hours later in the park, with front page coverage in the local press and additional coverage on Chicago television and the Chicago Tribune. The DNR, being notified of the circumstances by the local state senator, put the grant “on hold pending review,” two public meetings were held with state officials, and a compromise plan was adopted, in which three trees were to be saved, of which only one has survived to 2011.

A contentious relationship between the executive director and a long-term employee, a popular African-American manager, soured the park district. The director had fired the manager in November, 2005, and the fired manager sued the director personally for $2.3 million alleging racial discrimination. All other African-American managers had also been fired by the manager since his taking his position. The director then filed a lawsuit against the former manager in December, 2008, seeking at least $50,000 for soiling his good name in a 2006 e-mail, the lawsuit, however, being filed immediately after the former employer had appeared in court to testify on behalf of a park district whistle-blower who had been arrested under order of the executive director for allegedly “trespassing in the park.”

Township
Although initially created to maintain roads and adjudicate property disputes, the township form of government in Illinois reinvented itself as a middle-man in providing federal, state, and county health and welfare services. Oak Park Township delivers meals on wheels to seniors, has a modest subsidy program for the indigent, and has a youth intervention service. The most heavily used service is that providing aid in preparing property tax appeals to beleaguered homeowners.

Libraries
The Oak Park public library has its main branch in the Oak Park Avenue-Lake Street central district as well as two small branch libraries.

Municipal services and non-property taxes and fees
With no industrial base and shopping districts under economic stress, the municipal government imposes taxes and fees on many services to provide revenue. A 4.7% tax is imposed on electric bills, a 5.1% tax is imposed on natural gas bills, and a 6% tax is imposed on telephone bills. When an enhanced 911 system was implemented, a temporary doubling of the 911 fee was imposed to pay for the new equipment. That fee, however, quietly became permanent after the installation was completed and remains on the telephone bills.

Unlike Chicago, Oak Parkers must pay separately for their water consumption, sewer service, and refuse collection. The fees are approximately $7 for 1000 gallons of water, including sewer service, and $50 quarterly for refuse collection. The water charge of $4.97 per 1000 gallons (2011 rate) is 2 1/2 times as much as is charged by the source of the water, the City of Chicago. In the Chicago water quality report for 2011, the water rate is quoted as $2.01 per 1000 gallons, “the same for all metered accounts, both for Chicago residents and the 48 direct suburban connections.”

Disposal of yard waste requires purchase of a village sticker and proper bags, a total cost of about $5 per bag. Dog licenses range from $10 to $13 and automobile village stickers cost $48 per year. A transfer of property incurs a real estate transfer tax of $8 per $1000 of sales price, paid by the seller. Until the 1970s, the village provided snow-plow service to clear the public sidewalks during the winter. Residents now have that responsibility, and if sidewalks are not cleared within 24 hours after a 3-inch or greater snowfall the homeowner can be ticketed and fined. The local governments have the responsibility of clearing the sidewalks adjacent to their buildings, but the park district is particularly lax in doing so. For parks adjacent to elementary schools, this has caused a hazard for children who walk to school.

Although the village owns the sidewalks and parkway trees, homeowners are responsible for their maintenance. If a village inspector determines that a sidewalk square must be replaced, the homeowner must pay half the cost, or about $100 per five-foot square. Unlike other Chicago suburbs, no cost-sharing exists with inoculation of parkway trees against disease. If a homeowner wishes to protect a parkway elm tree or ash tree against Dutch elm disease or ash borer, respectively, the homeowner must incur the cost. For a sizable elm tree, the cost approaches, depending on the vendor, $1000 for a three-year treatment. Ash trees must be inoculated annually at a cost of about $200. Because of the cost, the majority of homeowners do not incur these expenses and the village parkway elm and ash populations have been ravaged. As a result, the once majestic tree-lined cathedral-like canopy of trees for which Oak Park was known no longer exists.

Arts and culture
Oak Park has an active arts community, the result of its favorable location as the closest suburb to Chicago, leading to it being the home of numerous theater, music, dance, and fine arts professionals. The fledgling arts district on Harrison, bounded by Austin Avenue to the east and Ridgeland Avenue to the west, is currently experiencing a revival with boutique galleries, shops and two restaurants providing shopping and nightlife. Oak Park is home to several professional dance and theatre companies, most notably Oak Park Festival Theatre which, under the stewardship of Joyce Porter, reversed the precarious financial and artistic state created by the former administration and which currently offers year-round professional productions in several venues. A continuing but to date unsuccessful effort to create a cultural arts center is occasionally discussed. Oak Park, with neighboring River Forest, also plays host to the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2009. Oak Park is also home to WPNA, broadcasting from the former Oak Park Arms Hotel at 1490 on the AM dial since 1951. Run by the Polish National Alliance, the station's programming serves the diverse linguistic and cultural communities in the Chicago metropolitan area (in the late-1960s WPNA had the only "underground" disc jockey in Chicago, Scorpio). There is also the Oak Park Art League (OPAL), which is a nonprofit community-based visual arts center providing classes, workshops, lectures, demonstrations, and exhibitions. Since 1921, OPAL has been providing innovative opportunities for arts engagement and cultural enrichment. Over 4,500 artists participate in OPAL’s events each year.

Oak Park has been home to numerous festivals and holiday observances. The most popular was the Hemingway Festival, held over a weekend in Scoville Park. Food stands, bands, dancing, a mock “Running of the Bulls,” and picnicking drew hundreds in the summer to celebrate Oak Park’s famous writer. That festival, resulting from lack of volunteers, was canceled in the 1990s. "Midnight Madness" was a short-lived one day evening music festival held during the 1990s. Although popular among youth, it was cancelled when property damage and increasingly violent altercations occurred between Oak Park youth and Austin youth. The July 4th celebration featuring fireworks draws thousands from not only Oak Park but also neighboring communities to the Oak Park-River Forest High School football stadium. From the 1960s onwards live music funded by the park district preceded the fireworks. In the early years, concert music under the direction of John Robertson, a retired Navy band leader, and beginning in the 1980s jazz and popular music under the direction of long-time residents, twins Bruce Golden and later Les Golden, celebrated our nation’s birth. The current park district administration cancelled the funding for the live music presentations in the early 2000s. No Labor Day parade or Memorial Day parade exists, after many years of presentations in the 20th century. Hiroshima Day, commemorating the devastation of Japanese cities by the U.S. military in World War II, is observed in Oak Park. A Day in Our Village held in June allows local groups to set up tables to seek members. The Art Fair in Mills Park was held for many years, but was discontinued by the current park district administration.

Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright spent the first 20 years of his 70-year career in Oak Park, building numerous homes in the community, including his own. He lived and worked in the area between 1889 and 1909. One can find Wright's earliest work here, like the Winslow House in neighboring River Forest, Illinois. There are also examples of the first prairie-style houses in Oak Park. He also designed Unity Temple, a Unitarian-Universalist church, which was built between 1905 and 1908. There were several well-known architects and artists that worked in Wright's Oak Park Studio, including Richard Bock, William Eugene Drummond, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Walter Burley Griffin. Many buildings in Oak Park were built by other Prairie School architects such as George W. Maher, John Van Bergen, and E.E. Roberts. Additionally, there are various architectural styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries located throughout the town, including the Seward Gunderson Historic District.

Points of interest

 * Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio and his Unity Temple
 * Ernest Hemingway homes and museum
 * Edgar Rice Burroughs homes
 * Oak Park Conservatory
 * Oak Park-River Forest Historical Society
 * Oak Park and River Forest High School
 * Fenwick High School

Notable people

 * Joseph Aiuppa, mafia crime boss
 * Lee Archambault, astronaut
 * A. O. L. Atkin, mathematician
 * John Avildsen, film director, Rocky, The Karate Kid
 * David Axelrod, political strategist and current White House official
 * Richard Bach, writer
 * Bruce Barton, author and advertising pioneer
 * William Eugene Blackstone, 19th century evangelical Christian and Zionist.
 * Dmitri Borgmann, logologist
 * Lane Brody, musician
 * Wallace Broecker, geochemist
 * Edgar Rice Burroughs, author, creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars
 * Daws Butler, voice artist of animated characters, such as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, etc.
 * Dan Castellaneta, actor and voice of cartoon character Homer Simpson.
 * Joe Corvo, NHL defenseman
 * Anna Chlumsky, actress, My Girl
 * Bruce Davidson, photographer
 * Jon Deak, New York Philharmonic bassist and composer
 * James Dewar, baker, inventor of the Twinkie—an American junk food.
 * Donald Duncan, Yo-Yo and parking meter manufacturer
 * Edward Egan, retired Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of the Diocese of New York [City]
 * Rev. William R. Emerson, formerly rock and roll singer Billy "The Kid" Emerson
 * Leslie Erganian, artist
 * Carol Feeney, Olympian
 * Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger of the indie rock band The Fiery Furnaces
 * Johnny Galecki, actor, The Big Bang Theory, Roseanne
 * Mason Gamble, actor, Dennis the Menace, Rushmore
 * Sam Giancana, mafia crime boss
 * Les Golden, astronomer, actor, international blackjack writer, The Golden Diagram; musician, a founder of the University of California Jazz Ensembles
 * Kathy Griffin, comedian
 * Gene Ha, comic book artist
 * Adolph Herseth, principal trumpet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, charter member Trumpet Hall of Fame
 * Ernest Hemingway, author, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea
 * Leicester Hemingway, writer, younger brother of Ernest Hemingway
 * Doris Humphrey, internationally acclaimed choreographer and dancer
 * Steve James, documentary filmmaker
 * Percy Julian, chemist
 * Joseph Kerwin, astronaut
 * E. E. Knight, writer
 * Alex Kotlowitz, journalist and writer
 * John Frush Knox, memoirist
 * Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's
 * Johnny Lattner, Notre Dame football player, 1953 Heisman Trophy winner
 * Thomas Lennon, actor
 * Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics
 * Ludacris, rapper
 * Charles MacArthur, journalist and filmwriter
 * Corey Maggette, basketball player
 * John Mahoney, actor, Frasier co-star
 * Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, actress, Scarface, The Color of Money
 * Rick Morrissey, Chicago sportswriter
 * Edith Nash, writer
 * Lois Nettleton, actress
 * George Robert "Bob" Newhart, comedian and actor, The Bob Newhart Show
 * Agnes Newton Keith, writer
 * Caroline Myss, author
 * Martin Pearlman, classical musician and composer
 * Landon Pigg, singer/songwriter
 * Rick Plastina, actor and screenplay writer, A Fable About Gable
 * Pat Quinn, Governor of Illinois
 * Carl Rogers, psychologist, author and researcher
 * Peter Sagal, host of NPR's "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!"
 * George Schaefer, television director, most honored in television history
 * Bruce Schneier, cryptographer
 * Richard Sears, businessman
 * Mike Shanahan, NFL head coach, Denver Broncos, Washington Redskins
 * Carol Shields, author
 * Charles Simic, Poet Laureate of the United States
 * John C. Slater, American pioneer in quantum theory
 * Marv Staehle, major league baseball 2nd baseman, 1964–1971
 * Tony Spilotro, alleged mafia enforcer
 * Hannah Storm, sports journalist, ESPN
 * John Sturges, filmmaker, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape
 * Judy Tenuta, comedian
 * Dorothy Thompson, journalist
 * Joe Tinker, Baseball Hall of Fame member
 * George Trafton, Football Hall of Fame member
 * Chad Trujillo, astronomer
 * Evan Turner, basketball player
 * Len Tyrrell, chancellor/founding father of Maguire University
 * Norm Van Lier, professional basketball player (Chicago Bulls) and sports radio personality
 * Marjorie Vincent, 1991 Miss America
 * Bob Vogel, trumpet player with Dukes of Dixieland
 * Edward Wagenknecht, author and educator
 * Robert Wahl, two-time All-American and former president of Valmont Industries
 * Chris Ware, cartoonist
 * Frank Lloyd Wright, architect and writer
 * Felix Wurman, classical musician
 * Mary Agnes Yerkes, American Impressionist painter
 * Bob Zuppke, head football coach, University of Illinois
 * Milo Smith Hascall, Union general in the Civil War
 * Ross Hauser, Prolotherapy physician, researcher
 * Betty White, actress, comedian