Month: October 2020

Oz Park is located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, at 2021 North Burling Street, which is at the corner of Lincoln and Webster. The park features statues from the Wonderful Wizard of Oz book written by Chicago reporter L. Frank Baum. He was a resident of the Lincoln Park neighborhood in the 1890s. Fans of the Wizard of Oz would gather in the park for an Oz festival annually and in 1974 the park was officially named Oz Park. The Oz Park Advisory Council raised money for the creation and placement of sculptures of Dorothy and Toto, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion by sculptor John Kearney.

The Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago is bounded by Bryan Mawr and Peterson on the North, Montrose on the South, Ravenswood on the East and the Chicago River on the West. The commercial hub of Lincoln Square is at the intersection of Lincoln, Lawrence and Western. It is a traditionally German area founded by Lyman and Joseph Budlong who arrived from Germany in 1857. In 1925, to honor Abraham Lincoln, it was named Lincoln Square. There are many German shops and restaurants still in the area, but it is a diverse area with an Asian presence as well. The Lincoln Square neighborhood is special to me because my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins lived there, so I spent a lot of my younger years there and have great memories of the area!

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Paseo Boricua is a section of North Division Street between Western and California Avenues in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. The area is more commonly known as Little Puerto Rico. The gateways to Paseo Boricua are at each entrance and are Puerto Rican Flags that are 59 feet tall! Many businesses are named after Puerto Rican towns and many building facades are made to look like they’re from San Juan with Spanish Colonial architecture. There are many murals paying tribute to Puerto Rican heroes. I will be doing a series of posts showing photos of Paseo Boricua, because it’s impossible to show them in one post. I took over 100 photos when I went there!