Wilmette & Kenilworth

Wilmette and Kenilworth are the first two North Shore villages north of Evanston, and they set the tone for the rest: big houses on quiet streets, a lakefront park with a beach, the Bahá’í House of Worship’s white dome on Sheridan Road, and New Trier High School, whose reputation drives home prices across both villages. Wilmette is the larger of the two, with a small downtown around the Metra station and Plaza del Lago’s shops on the lake. Kenilworth, at about 2,500 people, is the smallest and wealthiest village on the North Shore, laid out in the 1890s by Joseph Sears with lots that were never allowed to be subdivided.

Where it is

On the map, Wilmette runs from the Evanston line at Isabella north to Kenilworth and from the lake west past the Edens Expressway; Kenilworth is a one-square-mile village between Wilmette and Winnetka along Sheridan Road. Metra’s Union Pacific North line stops at Wilmette and Kenilworth, about 30 to 35 minutes to Ogilvie. The Purple Line ends at Linden in downtown Wilmette. Sheridan Road and Green Bay Road are the north-south streets, Lake Avenue is the main east-west road, and the Edens has exits at Lake and Old Orchard Road.

What to know if you’re moving here

Buyers come for New Trier and the lake, and pay for both.

• Housing is large single-family homes, from 1890s Shingle-style houses near the lake to 1960s ranches west of the Edens, with typical prices of roughly $700,000 to $4 million and up as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Every house has a driveway, and parking is only an issue at the Metra stations and Gillson Park in summer.
• Public schools are Wilmette District 39, Kenilworth’s Joseph Sears School (District 38) and New Trier Township High School District 203.
• Property taxes are high even by Cook County standards, and Kenilworth’s per-house bills are among the highest in the state.
• Both villages have their own Metra stops, and the Purple Line at Linden reaches Evanston and, with a transfer at Howard, the Loop.
• The drawback is a quiet that borders on empty after dark, with most restaurants and nightlife in Evanston or Winnetka.

What to do if you’re visiting

The lakefront and the temple are the two sights, both on Sheridan Road a few blocks from the Linden stop, and downtown Wilmette along Central Avenue has the food.

• The Bahá’í House of Worship at Sheridan and Linden, finished in 1953, is open daily and free, and Gillson Park a few blocks north has a beach, a sailing center and lake views along its bluff; nonresidents pay for beach access in summer.
• Breakfast at Walker Bros. The Original Pancake House on Green Bay Road means the baked apple pancake in the 1960 original of the family’s seven locations, and a line on weekends.
• Plaza del Lago on Sheridan, a 1920s Spanish-style shopping plaza, is where Convito Café & Market has cooked Italian food and packed a take-home case since 1980.
• Downtown on Central Avenue, a 1913 movie house, The Wilmette Theatre, runs new releases and old classics next to the Neapolitan pies at Napolita Pizzeria & Wine Bar, open since 2014.
• Riders on the Green Bay Trail can get a flat fixed or a new bike at Wilmette Bicycle & Sport Shop, a Green Bay Road store open since 1932 and a block from the trail.
• Kenilworth’s one restaurant, Great Coast Commons, sits across from the Kenilworth Metra stop with fried chicken and biscuits, and the streets between Sheridan and Green Bay are the walk for the architecture, including several George Maher houses.