Lincoln Square located on the North Side of
Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 well-defined Chicago
community areas. Greater Lincoln Square encompasses
the smaller neighborhoods of Ravenswood Gardens,
Ravenswood Manor, Bowmanville and Budlong Woods.
Although it is sometimes known by these other names
the City of Chicago officially designated it as
Lincoln Square in 1925. About 44,000 people live in
the neighborhood along with over 1,000 small and
medium sized businesses. It is accessible through
the Brown Line of the 'L'. It is also one of over 20
neighborhoods served by I-GO Cars. It is bounded by
Peterson Avenue and Bryn Mawr Avenue on the north,
Montrose Avenue on the south, Ravenswood Avenue on
the east and the Chicago River on the west. It is
somewhat trendy and its housing stock consists of
private residences and small apartment buildings.
The commercial heart of Lincoln Square is located at
the intersection of Lawrence, Western and Lincoln
Avenues. Lincoln Avenue south east of this
intersection is home to a wide variety of
restaurants and shops. Lincoln Square is
historically known as a heavily German influenced
and populated neighborhood, but now one is just as
likely to see shops catering to Thai or Middle
Eastern cultures. Still, the neighborhood is home to
a number of German businesses, notably the Chicago
Brauhaus, Merz Apothecary and Lutz Continental Café,
and is the home of the Chicago branches of DANK (the
German-American National Congress) and the
Niedersachsen Club. The German-language weekly
newspaper Amerika-Woche was born in Lincoln Square
in 1972, though its original headquarters above the
Brauhaus is now only a bureau.
