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Local Landmarks & Heritage

  • Hutchinson Street Historic District
  • St. Mary of the Lake Church
  • Buena Circle Park
  • Graceland Cemetery

Neighborhood History

Buena Park takes its name from Buena, the country estate real estate developer James B. Waller built here around 1860, reportedly in honor of a New Jersey borough from his home state. Development stayed sparse until the late 1880s, when Waller began subdividing the surrounding land as an upscale suburb; Chicago's 1889 annexation folded it into the city just as the neighborhood's building boom was getting underway.

That boom left behind one of Chicago's finest architectural collections. The Hutchinson Street Historic District, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, preserves a run of Prairie School mansions designed largely by George W. Maher. St. Mary of the Lake Church has stood on the site of Waller's original home since 1917, and Buena Circle Park, gifted to the city by the Buena Avenue Citizens Association in 1908, still anchors the neighborhood's western edge near Graceland Cemetery.

MY-NHD's Buena Park collection draws on that same sense of quiet distinction — a small, tree-lined corner of the city that has held onto its original character for well over a century.

MY-NHD

Buena Park - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee

Buena Park - Chicago - Unisex Cotton Tee

Regular price $29.95 CAD
Regular price Sale price $29.95 CAD
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Buena Park is named for Buena, the country home James B. Waller built on this land around 1860. Subdivided as an upscale suburb in the late 1880s, it keeps a run of Prairie School homes in the Hutchinson Street Historic District.

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