Norwood Park, named after Henry Ward Beecher’s novel Norwood, or Village Life in New England, was incorporated into Chicago in 1893, having earlier been part of nearby townships and become a village in 1874.
It is historically significant, containing the Norwood Park Historical District and containing the oldest extant house in Chicago, the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House.
Upon its incorporation the Village of Norwood Park prohibited the sale of alcohol with eight dry precincts in the community area as recent as 2014. Since then, the first liquor store fifty years opened in 2016.
Norwood Park is also identified with the musical Grease. Jim Jacobs, who created it, studied at Taft High School, which served as the backdrop and inspiration of the musical. Many of the characters from the film were based on actual individuals Jacobs went to school with at the time.
