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Montrose Beach

Jim Newberry

March 30, 2007

Chase Park
This well trafficked Chicago Park District facility has an outdoor pool, a gymnasium, two baseball fields, a football/soccer field, four tennis courts, a 1/5 mile track, and a playground. It hosts basketball, volleyball, and softball leagues as well as a walking club and a popular theater program (see Theater). | 4701 N. Ashland | chicagoparkdistrict.com | 312-742-7518

Clarendon Park
The site of a popular beach in the early 20th century, Clarendon Park lost its lakefront access when Lincoln Park was extended north. It’s now home to a baseball diamond, a gymnasium, a boxing ring, and a fitness room and hosts aerobics classes and a Saturday morning walking club. | 4501 N. Clarendon | 312-742-7512.

Chicago Architecture Foundation walking tours
The CAF conducts two-hour Saturday tours of architecturally significant buildings, including the Aragon, the Riv, and the Uptown Theatre, as well as what Jason Neises, director of tours and volunteer services, calls “many wonderful and unusual terra-cotta ornamental installations.” No reservations are required. All tours leave from in front of Truman College at 10:30 AM. | 1145 W. Wilson | 312-922-3432 | architecture.org | $10 for adults, $5 seniors and students

Heat and Spice
For the last seven years, individuals, couples, and small groups have been gathering in Joe Sochor’s kitchen to learn how to make Thai, Indian, and Mexican food. Sochor trained as a chef at CHIC; in the 1990s he ran a floating restaurant called FoodRave and a catering company, Rave Reviews. He’s traveled abroad extensively to study other cuisines. Sochor tells his students to come prepared to eat what they cook—which he says means enjoying full meals rather than just sampling. Classes are limited to five students each. | 925 W. Cullom | 773-742-2331 | heatandspice.com | $70-$115

Lillstreet Art Center
In a huge warehouse on Montrose and Ravenswood (yes, it’s still technically Uptown), Lillstreet offers classes for both adults and kids in ceramics, drawing, painting, screen printing, jewelry making, and more. The Lillstreet gallery showcases one-of-a-kind ceramics, sculpture, and jewelry by national and local artists. | 4401 N. Ravenswood | 773-769-4226 | lillstreet.com

Montrose Beach
The Montrose Beach area of Lincoln Park boasts a soccer field, a skate park, and the city’s biggest off-leash dog area (aka the dog beach), but it’s also a huge draw for boaters and bird-watchers. The Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club (601 W. Montrose) offers racing programs, sailing clubs, and instruction in small boat handling; the 15-acre Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary, aka the Magic Hedge, is the most popular place in the state for bird-watching according to Robert Hughes, creator of The Orniphile (theorniphile.info), a Web site devoted to Chicago-area birding. Every morning in the warm months, Hughes can be found at the point, where he and other birders have tallied 320 different species. The black-headed gull is “the best bird lately,” he says. “It’s the first time it’s ever been seen at Montrose. It’s everywhere in London, but extremely rare here.” | Montrose and Lake Shore Drive | 312-742-5121

People’s Music School
Founded in 1976, the People’s Music School offers free group classes and private lessons to students of all ages in voice, woodwind, piano, percussion, string instruments, and music theory. In exchange the students—or if they’re too young, their parents—volunteer at the school for two hours a month. | 931 W. Eastwood | 773-784-7032 | peoplesmusicschool.org

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