Lake View · Chicago
Lake View house history: what records exist for your Chicago home, and what's missing
Lake View was its own town before it was a Chicago neighborhood. That one fact shapes the paper trail for a Lake View house: where to look, which address to look under, and why some records you'd expect aren't there.
A town before it was a neighborhood
In 1857 the land north of Fullerton Avenue, from the lake west to Western Avenue and north to Devon Avenue, was organized as Lake View Township. It was celery country: farmers from Germany, Sweden and Luxembourg made celery its most important local crop. In 1854 James Rees and Elisha Hundley had opened the Lakeview House hotel near today's Lake Shore Drive and Byron Street.
Lake View received a town charter in 1865, built a town hall at Halsted and Addison in 1872, and became a city in 1887. Its population grew from about 2,000 in 1870 to 45,000 in 1887. Then, after an election on June 29, 1889, Chicago annexed it along with several neighbors, effective July 15, 1889. In one stroke the city gained 125 square miles and 225,000 people.
Before that, Fullerton Avenue was the line: Chicago to the south, Lake View to the north. Today's Lake View community area is only part of the old town, which also took in land that now belongs to other neighborhoods.
Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago, entries for Lake View, Lake View Township and Annexation; A. T. Andreas, History of Cook County (1884); City of Chicago Bureau of Maps annexation map.
The records that exist for a Lake View home
Not every house has every record. Here is what there is, and what each one can tell you.
- Chicago building permits, 1872–1954Digitized by the UIC Library: 90 handwritten ledgers and an index by address. A permit can name the owner, the type of building and its cost, and after 1912 usually the architect. A house built before Lake View joined Chicago in 1889 usually won't appear. After annexation, Lake View permits show up in the city's ledgers, starting with one titled "Hyde Park and Lakeview: Mar 1890 – Dec 3 1891."
- The 1909 renumberingIn 1909 Chicago renumbered nearly every address. The city's printed Plan of Re-Numbering links old numbers to new, so older records can be searched under the number your house had then.
- Sanborn fire-insurance mapsDrawn building by building, colored by brick, frame or stone. The Chicago Public Library's index lists Lake View editions from 1894 (volume 9 south of Irving Park Road, volume A north of it), 1905 (volume 17), 1923 (volume 9) and 1928 (volume 17), with updates into 1950.
- Chicago Historic Resources SurveyA citywide survey of buildings put up before 1940, carried out between 1983 and 1995. It recorded 605 buildings in Lake View. It gives an exact year for about half of them, and a decade for many others.
- Census and city directoriesWho lived at the address, decade by decade, including the original 1940 and 1950 census sheets at the National Archives.
- Cook County ClerkRecorded deeds can be searched online from 1985 to the present. Older deeds are in tract books, available only in person at the Clerk's downtown office.
- Cook County AssessorProperty characteristics and an estimated year built. It's an estimate, and we label it that way.
- Sulzer Regional LibraryThe Chicago Public Library's Northside Neighborhood History Collection includes a small Ravenswood and Lake View Abstracts of Title Collection, with original documents, many from the nineteenth century, for some properties.
What's often missing, and what we do about it
An original permit. For a house built before 1889, there usually isn't a Chicago permit, because the house wasn't in Chicago. When that happens we say so plainly, and we look at the permits for the buildings around yours, which often show when the block was built up or rebuilt.
Early owners. The county's online deed index starts in 1985. For earlier years we piece the ownership history together from permits, old newspaper notices, directories and the census's owned-or-rented column, and we mark where it has gaps.
An exact construction date. The assessor's year built is an estimate. When a permit, a map edition or the survey narrows it down, we show you which record says what.
A Lake View example: 2845 N. Clark St.
Our full sample report is for a storefront building in Lake View.
The assessor estimates it was built about 1883, when it stood in the town of Lake View, and there's no Chicago permit card for it. Before 1909 it was No. 1414 N. Clark. The report found it on the 1894 Sanborn map. It also used the permits for the buildings next door, issued in 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1928, to show the block being rebuilt. Then it followed the people at old No. 1414 through directories, newspapers and the census.
See the neighbors' permits on p. 5 of the sample (PDF, new tab) →
How the $47 report uses these records
What goes in depends on what the records hold for your address. For a Lake View house, that often means working around a missing permit.
- Your address, then and nowwe look up the pre-1909 number in the city's renumbering plan and search older records under both numbers.
- The original building permit, if one is on filetranscribed from the handwritten ledger and checked against the index card. If there isn't one, we say so and explain why.
- Your block on a fire-insurance mapwhenever an edition covers it, with the map cited by volume, year and sheet.
- Who lived hereheads of household from the census and city directories, decade by decade.
- Who owned itfrom the Clerk's online index for 1985 on, and for earlier years from permits, old notices, directories and the census. Gaps are marked.
- Your neighborswhen the buildings around yours went up, from their permits and the city's survey.
- Every source listedplus a checklist of every record set we searched, including the ones that came up empty.
Every fact is footnoted. Anything we couldn't confirm is marked unverified. The report is historical research, not a title search. One price, $47, for everything we find.
Questions
Why can't I find a Chicago building permit for my Lake View house?
Lake View was a separate town until Chicago annexed it, effective July 15, 1889. Chicago's permit records run from 1872 to 1954 and cover buildings inside the city at the time, so a house built in Lake View before 1889 usually won't have a Chicago permit card. Permits for Lake View begin to appear in the city's ledgers after annexation; the earliest ledger UIC lists for the area is titled “Hyde Park and Lakeview: Mar 1890 – Dec 3 1891.”
Where was the line between Chicago and Lake View before 1889?
Fullerton Avenue. Chicago's limits reached Fullerton along the lakefront in 1853 and all the way west by 1869, and the town of Lake View ran from Fullerton north to Devon Avenue, between Western Avenue and the lake. That is why some blocks north of Fullerton that are now called Lincoln Park were once part of Lake View.
Did my house have a different address?
Very likely, if it was built before 1909. That year Chicago renumbered nearly every address in the city. The building in our sample, today's 2845 N. Clark St., was No. 1414 before 1909, and every record of it before then is filed under the old number.
Can I look up old deeds for a Lake View house online?
Only from 1985 on. The Cook County Clerk's online index covers 1985 to the present. Earlier deeds are in the Clerk's tract books, which are only available in person at the Clerk's downtown office, and the Clerk does not do historical research for the public. For earlier years, our reports build the ownership history from permits, old notices, directories and the census, and mark the gaps.
How much does a Lake View house history cost?
$47 for a fully cited PDF, delivered within 72 hours. If the records for your address are too thin for a real report, we refund you in full.
Who lived in your Lake View house?
$47 · one fully cited PDF · within 72 hours
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