Slot Machines for Bars in Beverly, Chicago

History

The ridge came first. Early settlers called it the "blue island" for the mist that hung over it, and it marks the old shoreline of glacial Lake Chicago. The land first belonged to Washington Heights, then a village, and Chicago had annexed it by 1890, though it filled in slowly. Developer Robert Givins put up a limestone castle on Longwood Drive in 1886, and the Rock Island Railroad labeled its 91st Street stop "Beverly Hills" in the 1890s. Building reached the vast stretches southwest of 99th and Western only in the 1940s and 1950s. Between 1940 and 1960 the population rose from 15,910 to 24,814, and the parishes of St. Barnabas (1924), Christ the King (1936) and St. John Fisher (1948) were organized as the blocks filled in. In 1981 Chicago landmarked Longwood Drive, part of Seeley Avenue and the Prairie-style houses on what is now Griffin Place.

The area today

Longwood Drive still follows the ridge, and the landmark blocks along it hold Italianate, Queen Anne, Prairie School and Renaissance Revival houses, including one by Frank Lloyd Wright at 9914 South Longwood. Griffin Place, a landmark district since 1981, has the city's largest group of small Prairie-style houses. Ridge Park, at 1817 West 96th Street, sits on land along Longwood Drive that the Ridge Park District, established in 1908, acquired in 1911 and 1912; it has a gym, an indoor pool and theater programs. The Metra Rock Island line links Beverly to downtown, and its landmarked stations at 91st, 95th and 99th Streets sit at street level instead of on viaducts. The South Side Irish Parade, which first marched down Western Avenue in 1981, still draws families to the curb in March.

Bars and restaurants here

Western Avenue carries the scene, from the 9900 block south toward 107th Street: taverns, pizza kitchens and restaurants, some with patios. A 2017 account called it a long run of pubs and pizza parlors, with craft-beer rooms following a brewpub that opened in 2013. Some establishments here have applied with the state for video gaming licenses.