Bronzeville / Kenwood

Bronzeville, one of the nation's most significant African American communities, sits just a short ways from Downtown. During the Great Migration, the area became a hotspot for blues and jazz music. It is linked to cultural and social advances such as the Civil Rights Movement, Negro League Baseball, and Black History Month. Due to its affluent past, Bronzeville contains some of Chicago's most distinguished residential architecture, with one of the largest concentrations of historic mansions in the city. Bronzeville’s culturally rich legacy was recently honored by the creation of a new Bronzeville Black Metropolis National Heritage Area, which will help fund and promote preservation efforts, tourism, cultural programming and historic interpretation. The Kenwood neighborhood just south of Bronzeville offers a surprising suburban feel in the city. A striking collection of 19th century mansions and picturesque coach houses stand as testament to the numerous industrialists that once called the area home. Frank Lloyd Wright also designed three houses here, and President Barack Obama maintains a residence from simpler years in Chicago.