Chicago’s Gold Coast name comes from the wealth of the Chicago residents who first settled there. In the 1800’s, Chicago’s famed Gold Coast housed the city’s elite, including the famous architects and Real Estate moguls who built the Columbian Exposition, aka Chicago’s World’s Fair. Millionaire and famed Chicago businessman, Potter Palmer, started the trend with the construction of his castle on Lake Shore Drive. Over the next several decades, the city’s aristocrats followed him, and homes in the Gold Coast became some of the most desired real estate in Chicago.
Today, not much has changed, as this elegant neighborhood continues to be called home by the city’s upper class. While some single-family homes still exist, the most coveted Real Estate consists of beautiful vintage buildings that overlook the lake. Further inland, you’ll also find a number of high-rise apartment buildings along Lake Shore Drive, facing Lake Michigan, and low-rise residential blocks.
Gold Coast is also known as an architectural jewel box. The Astor Street District features rows of 19th-century homes designed in various historical revival styles. Among the neighborhood’s other notable buildings are the Charnley-Perksy House, designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Former Playboy Mansion, legendary for Hugh Hefner’s star-studded parties
Properties in this neighborhood are considered to be among the most prime Real Estate in the city, with condo and home values in the Gold Coast ranging from $135,000 for a studio condominium to $18 million for an estate on Dearborn Parkway.
Gold coast is considered North Avenue, to the north, Chicago Avenue, to the south, and Clark Street, to the west.