What Was the Lincoln Village at Chicago and Kimball?

          Brought up in conversation, like most items of conversations, I hear what we are talking about, and look into it for myself to better understand what I was asked, or acted like I knew what this person was describing to me. The topic of conversation was the Lincoln Village in the Peterson Park neighborhood bordering north Chicago.

          Opening in 1951, with what appears as Wieboldt's, possibly Goldblatt's, two local Chicago department store chains, various other small stores, and a grocery store, was a nice little shopping center away from the open air centers of Old Orchard and the Evergreen Plaza, which proved distant from this location, and was constructed a few years before the "official" mall opened around 1955.

          Further reading into this article from Me & My Shadow: A Life in Chicago, the story about the Lincoln Village depicts great advancements in architectural design, choices of brick and colors, and how it was designed to fit an organic flow, and meant to feel like it was always there, came with the natural land, not built to fit, if that makes sense.

          Other than what I stated above, like Old Chicago in Bolingbrook, and Kiddleland in Melrose Park, I guess you had to be there to fully understand the idea set by the creator of this place, as not a lot of history is said at this time of this shopping center, and unless you have your own memories or photos, going by what is only on the Internet for now is the closest you will get knowing what is the Lincoln Village.

          The plaza seen today...or in the case of this photo, a few years ago, but nothing has really changed other than some small stores, like Dot's, or Quizno's.

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