South Shore from 67th Street to the lake
South Shore runs along Lake Michigan between 67th and 79th Streets, with Stony Island Avenue on its western side and the lake on the east. Before it was one community, it was a set of small settlements: Essex, Bryn Mawr, Parkside, Cheltenham Beach and Windsor Park. Some of those names live on as Metra stops. The area was annexed to Chicago in 1889 along with the rest of Hyde Park Township.
Most addresses use the 60649 ZIP code, with smaller shares in 60619 and 60637.
Apartment buildings, co-ops and bungalow streets
South Shore has apartment buildings and co-ops from its interwar housing boom alongside long bungalow blocks, and that affects where a dead car ends up. It might be in a shared lot behind a building, or in a garage on the alley behind a bungalow.
A few parts of South Shore are protected districts:
- Jackson Park Highlands, sixteen blocks between 67th and 71st Streets from Cregier Avenue to Jeffery Boulevard, made a Chicago Landmark in 1989.
- The Jeffery-Cyril Historic District, six apartment buildings from 1927 to 1929 on Jeffery Boulevard, 71st Place and Cyril Avenue.
- The South Shore Bungalow Historic District, with 229 bungalows built between 1911 and 1930.
For an apartment or co-op lot, the main thing is access. Sort out the gate, the space number and who holds the key before the truck arrives. For a bungalow, the car is usually in the rear garage or on the pad beside it, and the alley is how the driver gets in. Our guide on getting a car ready for pickup covers personal items, plates and the papers to have on hand.
Getting there along Stony Island Avenue
Our trucks start on South Yale Avenue in West Pullman. The driver heads up Princeton Avenue to 115th Street, east to Michigan Avenue, then over on 111th Street to the Bishop Ford Freeway. Going north, the Bishop Ford turns into the Stony Island Expressway and then Stony Island Avenue, which runs along South Shore’s west side. For the middle of the area, the turn is east on 75th Street. The whole trip is about eight miles.
71st Street trains and the 79th Street ban
Two streets need a little extra care in South Shore.
The first is 71st Street. The Metra Electric South Chicago Branch runs right down its median, with stops at Stony Island, Bryn Mawr and South Shore, before turning southeast along Exchange Avenue to Windsor Park. A car parked on 71st can still be picked up, but the driver needs the exact block and side.
The second is 79th Street, South Shore’s southern edge. It’s on the city’s Winter Overnight Parking Ban list from Cicero Avenue all the way east to South Shore Drive, so the ban stretches nearly to the lake here. Between December 1 and April 1, no parking is allowed on it from 3 am to 7 am, even with no snow on the ground. If a dead car is sitting on 79th, move it or sell it before December.
South Shore landmarks that help a driver
South Shore has a few places that nearly everyone knows:
- The South Shore Cultural Center, once the South Shore Country Club, which the Park District took over in 1972.
- Rainbow Beach Park at 3111 East 77th Street, named for the Army’s 42nd Rainbow Division from World War I.
- Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam’s national center, at 7351 South Stony Island Avenue.
- The Metra stops along 71st Street, which work well as cross-street markers.
If your street is near one of these, mention it. It saves time on long blocks.
A South Shore car that doesn’t run
A car doesn’t have to run to sell. Dead batteries, seized engines, failed transmissions, missing keys: none of that stops a sale. Our page on selling a non-running car covers the common cases, and you can read about our free junk car towing to see what the pickup involves. When you’re ready, ask for your offer.
Close to South Shore
West of Stony Island, Greater Grand Crossing shares 71st and 75th Streets with South Shore. South across 79th Street is South Chicago, the old steel-mill neighborhood by the Calumet River. To the southwest, Avalon Park touches South Shore between 76th and 79th Streets.