Humboldt Park is community area number 23 and sits four miles west of the Loop. Humboldt Park is a community area, a neighborhood and a huge city park, all three named for Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist. The neighborhood extends from Western to Pulaski and from Armitage to Chicago leaving half of the total neighborhood, and half of park in the community area of West Town. The community area begins at Sacramento/Humboldt on the east and is otherwise bordered by rail-lines; the Bloomingdale Line and Street on the north, the Union Pacific at Kinzie on the south and the Belt Railway on the west, just east of Cicero avenue. The area known as West Humboldt Park extends from Pulaski west to the other borders of the community area.

The area is also home to some of the greatest work of some of the most heralded figures in Chicago and American architecture and landscape design, including William Le Baron Jenney, Jens Jensen, William Carbys Zimmerman, Dwight Perkins and Schmidt, Garden & Martin. The area is resplendent with a vibrant palette of murals and community gardens. The tour will explore all of Humboldt Park; the neighborhood, the park, and the community area. We will visit the National Landmark namesake park and all of its buildings and major sculptures, Dwight Perkin’s Moos and Nobel schools, the Paseo Boriqua, and the home-sites of some of Chicago’s most famous figures.

We’ll meet up at 11:00 AM this Saturday September 3, 2011 at the intersection of California and Division in Humboldt Park, the same starting spot as the Tour of West Town, which explores only as far west as Kedzie.  By comparison, we will hit the outer western stretches of the community by the railroad borders.  The tour is about 19 miles lasting roughly 4-5 hours and with about 16-20 stops.

This is the route.

Here is the starting spot.

You can see the 2010 Tour Poster  by Ross Felten here.

You can register for the tour for $9 here.

You can register for the tour and get the poster for $12 here.

Or you can buy the poster for $5 here.

Hope to see you there.