What’s That Building? Politicians in Hyde Park
Mayors, senators, ambassadors and presidents have all spent time living or studying in the South Side neighborhood.
What’s That Building? Politicians in Hyde Park
Mayors, senators, ambassadors and presidents have all spent time living or studying in the South Side neighborhood.
By Dennis RodkinTwo mayoral candidates will be in Hyde Park on Thursday for the second day of forums from WBEZ, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Institute of Politics.
Hyde Park has long been a place to see politicians — with mayors, senators, ambassadors and presidents having lived or studied in the neighborhood.
Because of the Feb. 28 mayoral election, we’ll start with locations connected to past and present mayors. Beyond the mayor, both the Cook County president and the Illinois attorney general have had long residencies in Hyde Park. Then we’ll take a look at other local and national figures like Barack and Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and more.
Former Mayor Ed Kelly: 4821 S. Ellis Ave.
Kelly and his wife, Margaret, lived here when he was elected the 46th mayor of Chicago in April 1933. Kelly was initially appointed by the City Council in the wake of the assassination of Mayor Anton Cermak. Kelly went on to win three more terms in popular elections.
Former Mayor Harold Washington: 5300 S. Shore Drive
Washington lived at the Hampton House shortly before he was elected in April 1983 as the 51st mayor of Chicago — and the city’s first Black mayor.
The park immediately north of 53rd Street is now named for Washington.
But Washington wasn’t the first political figure to live on the corner of 53rd and South Shore Drive. In 1865, Mary Tod Lincoln and her two sons, Robert and Tad, moved to the Hyde Park House hotel at the intersection after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The hotel was on the site now occupied by Hampton House.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot: 1111 E. 60th St.
The University of Chicago’s law school was Lightfoot’s point of entry into Chicago in the 1980s. She was later elected Chicago’s 56th mayor and its first Black woman mayor in 2019.
Several other noteworthy political figures have ties to the law school. Among them are Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, who taught there 1991 to 1995, and late Justice Antonin Scalia, a professor from 1977 to 1982. The school’s alumni include three U.S. attorneys general, 10 U.S. senators and a prime minister of New Zealand.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle: 5018 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Preckwinkle has stayed in Chicago/Hyde Park since attending UChicago. Preckwinkle and her daughter Jennifer sold a three-bedroom condo in this building in 2021.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul: 855 E. Drexel Square
Kwame Raoul, who was elected attorney general in 2018 and reelected in 2022, had a condo in this building for 33 years. He bought it in 1989, when he was 25 years old, and sold it with his wife Lisa Moore last February.
Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun: 1229 E. 56th St. and 5555 S. Everett Ave.
Moseley Braun, a U.S. senator from 1993-99, the ambassador to New Zealand from 1999-2001 and briefly a Democratic candidate for president in 2004, lived on 56th Street from 2006-12 and on Everett Avenue from 2012-18.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders: 5411 S. University Ave.
Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont and two-time presidential candidate, lived in an apartment in this building in 1964, when he was a senior at the University of Chicago, during which time he was arrested for protesting segregation in Chicago Public Schools.
In January 1962, Sanders was one of the leaders of a group of about 200 students who staged a three-day sit-in outside the office of UChicago President George Beadle at 5801 S. Ellis Ave. to protest racial discrimination in rental properties the university owned.
Former President Barack Obama: 5450 S. East View Park and 1418 E. 53rd St.
Although Barack and Michelle Obama are rarely in Chicago nowadays, the former president and first lady have a deep connection to Hyde Park. Both worked for the University of Chicago, the couple had their first kiss outside a Baskin Robbins on 53rd Street and bought their first home, a first-floor condo in the semi-private street East View Park, in 1993.
The couple sold the condo in April 2005 when they moved to 5046 S. Greenwood, just over the border in Kenwood.
Former U.S. Paul Douglas: 5658 S. Blackstone
Douglas, a U.S. senator from 1949 to 1967, lived here. He’s best known for leading the effort to save the Indiana Dunes, which is now a national park with an environmental education center named for Douglas.
Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens: 1314 E. 58th St.
Stevens, born in 1920, grew up in this house. He later served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1975 until 2010.
Former Czech President Tomas Garrigue Masaryk: 1130 Midway Plaisance
Masaryk, a leader in the independence movement for Czechoslovakia and the country’s first president, lived in Hyde Park and lectured at the University of Chicago as a visiting professor in the first few years of the 20th century. After he died in 1937, his supporters in Chicago’s Czech community commissioned this sculpture of a 10th-century knight as a monument to Masaryk.
Dennis Rodkin is the residential real estate reporter for Crain’s Chicago Business and Reset’s “What’s That Building?” contributor. Follow him on Twitter @Dennis_Rodkin.
K’Von Jackson is the freelance photojournalist for Reset’s “What’s That Building?” Follow him on Instagram @true_chicago.