Avalon Park’s borders and its three neighborhoods
Avalon Park is a compact community area. It runs from 76th Street south to 87th Street, with South Chicago Avenue on its east side and the Metra Electric tracks on the west, where it meets Chatham. Inside those lines are three neighborhoods: Avalon Park, Marynook and Stony Island Park. Addresses split between two ZIP codes, 60619 and 60617, in roughly equal shares, so the ZIP alone won’t tell a driver which side of the area you’re on. A street and a cross street will.
The name comes from its main park, which the Chicago Park District lists at 1215 East 83rd Street. That park is the easiest landmark in the area. If your car is within a few blocks of it, say so.
Avalon Park, from Mud Lake to bungalow streets
Before it was Avalon Park, this was low, wet ground. German and Irish railroad workers who settled here in the 1880s built their houses on stilts to keep them above the flooded marsh, and some old maps show a Hog Lake where the park now sits. The Park District’s own history mentions a city dump, swamps and a fishing spot called Mud Lake. The area went by Pierce’s Park, and for a while Pennytown, after a store owner named Penny. A local church pushed for a new name, and in 1910 it became Avalon Park.
A sewer system finally drained the land, and the neighborhood filled in around the park. If your car is in a rear garage, the alley is usually how the truck gets to it.
Flood and fire damage on Avalon Park cars
Cars that sat through water damage, or caught fire in a garage, usually aren’t worth repairing. They still have value as scrap and parts, and we buy them as they are. Tell us the details honestly on the call:
- how high the water reached, or which part of the car burned,
- whether it has been started since,
- and if it’s still on the property where it happened.
Our page on selling a flood- or fire-damaged car explains what we look at. You don’t need to clean out the car or tow it anywhere first. The tow is free, and you’re paid when it’s loaded.
The route from West Pullman to Avalon Park
Our trucks start on South Yale Avenue in West Pullman. For Avalon Park the driver goes up Princeton Avenue to 115th Street, east to Michigan Avenue, then over on 111th Street to the Bishop Ford Freeway. Heading north, the Bishop Ford turns into the Stony Island Expressway and then into Stony Island Avenue, which runs straight up through Avalon Park. It’s about six miles, mostly on that one corridor, which keeps the trip simple.
79th Street across the top of Avalon Park
79th Street crosses Avalon Park near its northern end, and it’s one of the city’s Winter Overnight Parking Ban streets for its whole length from Cicero Avenue to South Shore Drive. Between December 1 and April 1 nobody can park on it from 3 am to 7 am, and the rule applies whether it snows or not. A car that won’t start can’t be moved out of the way, so a dead car on 79th is better sold in the fall than left for the city tow trucks. Cars towed for the ban on this side of the city end up at Pound 2, 10301 South Doty Avenue.
Checking out a buyer before an Avalon Park pickup
Any time you sell a car to someone who shows up at your door, it’s fair to check who they are first. Our guide on how to vet a junk car buyer lists the questions worth asking, such as how and when you get paid and whether the tow really costs nothing. With us the answers are simple: no tow fee, and payment at pickup in cash, Zelle or Cash App. You can request your offer online and compare.
Communities around Avalon Park
West across the Metra Electric tracks is Chatham, which shares 79th and 83rd Streets with Avalon Park. South across 87th Street is Calumet Heights, home to Pill Hill and the old Stony Island ridge. East of South Chicago Avenue, South Chicago runs out to the lake and the Calumet River. Our trucks cover each of them too.