Uptown & Andersonville

Uptown and Andersonville share the 60640 ZIP code and the Red Line, and not much else in character. Uptown, along Broadway from Montrose to Foster, was the North Side’s entertainment district in the 1920s, and the Uptown Theatre, the Aragon Ballroom, the Riviera and the Green Mill are still on the corner of Lawrence and Broadway. Argyle Street is the Vietnamese and Chinese restaurant strip. Andersonville, west along Clark Street from Foster to Bryn Mawr, grew from a Swedish farming settlement into the city’s most independent-minded main street: bakeries, bookstores, resale shops and taverns, with the Swedish American Museum in the middle. Residents are a mix of longtime renters in Uptown’s courtyard buildings, families and LGBTQ couples in Andersonville’s bungalows and two-flats, and newcomers priced out of Lakeview.

Where it is

Uptown is its own community area, from Montrose Avenue north to Foster Avenue between Ravenswood Avenue and the lake. Andersonville is the western half of the Edgewater community area, north of Foster along Clark Street to Bryn Mawr. The Red Line stops at Wilson, Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr, and the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr stations reopened in July 2025 after a four-year rebuild with elevators. Metra’s Union Pacific North line stops at Ravenswood on the west edge. The 22 Clark, 36 Broadway, 81 Lawrence, 92 Foster and 146 and 147 Sheridan buses do the rest. Drivers use the Lawrence, Wilson or Bryn Mawr exits off DuSable Lake Shore Drive. The Red Line ride to the Loop is 25 to 30 minutes.

What to know if you’re moving here

Uptown is dense, varied and still cheaper than the neighborhoods south of it. Andersonville is quieter, more residential and increasingly expensive.

• Housing is 1900s to 1920s courtyard apartment buildings and large vintage rentals in Uptown, and bungalows, two-flats and greystones with a few condo buildings in Andersonville; as a broad editorial estimate for September 2026, condos run from about $200,000 for a one-bedroom in Uptown to $900,000 for a renovated single-family house on an Andersonville side street.
• Most side streets in both neighborhoods are in permit parking zones, and Clark Street in Andersonville is metered; the blocks near Lawrence and Broadway fill up on concert nights at the Aragon and the Riviera.
• Public schools fall under Chicago Public Schools, with Andersonville families zoned to Peirce and Uptown families to McCutcheon, Goudy and Brennemann, and Senn and Uplift the neighborhood high schools.
• Uptown has a large stock of subsidized and supportive housing, shelters and social service agencies, which keeps the neighborhood mixed in a way that some buyers value and others do not.
• Andersonville’s Clark Street is a business district with a strong chamber, Midsommarfest in June and a stated preference for independent shops over chains.
• The drawback a local would mention is the Red Line commute, which is long, and the lakefront stretches of Uptown near Wilson that still feel rough late at night.

What to do if you’re visiting

Visitors end up on Clark Street in Andersonville or on Argyle Street in Uptown, and each strip is walkable from its Red Line stop.

• Eat Beijing duck at Sun Wah BBQ on Broadway, a block from the Argyle stop, or pho across from the Argyle station at Hai Yen, then take a banh mi to go from Nhu Lan Bakery on Sheridan.
• Hear jazz at the Green Mill at Lawrence and Broadway, and eat birria next door at Birrieria Zaragoza before the show.
• Drink a Belgian beer and eat the mussels at Hopleaf Bar on Clark, an Andersonville anchor since 1992.
• Get cardamom buns at Lost Larson on Clark, then browse the racks at the Brown Elephant Andersonville a block north, a resale shop that funds Howard Brown Health.
• Eat Southern cooking at Big Jones on Clark, where chef Paul Fehribach has cooked from historic regional recipes since 2008.
• Walk out to Montrose Harbor and the Montrose Point bird sanctuary, the best birding spot on the city lakefront during spring and fall migration.