Grand Boulevard was originally forest and prairie, until the South Parks Commission lined a road with trees in 1874, calling it Grand Boulevard (it has since been renamed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive). The area was made part of Hyde Park township in 1861, and incorporated into Chicago in 1889.
Mansions were built by prominent residents along this road. Excellent transportation and the accessibility of Chicago’s Loop further encouraged settlement.
Grand Boulevard is one of two areas that include the Bronzeville neighborhood (the other being Douglas). In its heyday, from the 1920s to the 1950s, the neighborhood was the stomping ground of famous African-American musicians, intellectuals and artists such as Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis. Today, Bronzeville is enjoying large-scale renewal as a new generation of residents rediscovers the neighborhood.
Grand Boulevard also includes the Washington Park Court District neighborhood, which was declared a Chicago Landmark in 1991. It has row houses constructed between 1895 and 1905 in different architectural styles, which include Romanesque and Classical Revival.
The I-90 Dan Ryan interstate highway follows the western edge of the area, as well as the CTA’s Red Line and Green Line which passes through the center of the area.
