Chicago, IL·Chicago Public Schools
Homes in the
Bowen HS district.
Lakefront value on Chicago's historic Southeast Side, where steel-town roots meet Rainbow Beach and a quick Metra ride downtown.
- Homes for sale
- 13
- Typical list
- $239,500
- Most expensive
- $449,500
- Most affordable
- $139,900
8232 Calumet Avenue →
7919 Wabash Avenue →
Boilermakers · Purple & Gold · 261 students · Chicago Public League
Active listings
13 homes on the market
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Market snapshot
The Bowen HS area, by the numbers
Live MRED data, refreshed daily. What this market is actually doing right now, sales included, not a portal estimate.
Homes for sale now
14
Typical list price
$234,250
Avg time on market
25 days
Sold in the last year
8
Typical sale price · last 90 days
$160,000
Living near Bowen HS
The area, not just the school
South Chicago is one of the city's true lakefront neighborhoods, sitting about ten miles south of downtown right where the land meets the southern rim of Lake Michigan. Life here is anchored by the water. Rainbow Beach Park gives residents a wide sandy beach, tennis and handball courts, ball diamonds, and the Rainbow Beach Victory Gardens, the oldest community garden in Chicago. Just up the shoreline, the enormous former U.S. Steel South Works site is slowly becoming the city's newest lakefront open space, with Steelworkers Park and its prairie restoration already open to the public.
For buyers, the appeal is real value close to the water. South Chicago is a working neighborhood of solid, affordable bungalows, two-flats, and workers' cottages built to house generations of steel and mill families, so your dollar stretches much further here than it does in the pricier lakefront communities to the north. The Calumet industrial heritage is stitched into the street grid, and there is a strong sense of community rooted in the families who built the area up around the mills.
Getting downtown is easier than people expect. The Metra Electric South Chicago branch runs from the 93rd Street station straight into Millennium Station, a ride of roughly 35 minutes, and it is the only outbound Metra terminus located within Chicago's own city limits. Several CTA bus routes connect at 93rd Street and knit the neighborhood into the wider South Side.
🎓Grades 9-12
A Chicago Public Schools neighborhood high school in South Chicago.
🏫Founded 1882
Bowen dates to 1882, with its current Dwight Perkins building opened in 1910.
🏈Boilermakers
Teams compete in the Chicago Public League in purple and gold.
🏖️Lakefront living
Rainbow Beach and the emerging South Works lakefront parks sit minutes from the school.
🚆Metra access
The 93rd Street Metra Electric branch reaches downtown in about 35 minutes.
🏠Affordable character
Well-built, budget-friendly bungalows and two-flats near Lake Michigan.
The school
About James H. Bowen High School
James H. Bowen High School was established in 1882 as South Chicago High School, holding classes for fourteen students inside the Bowen Elementary School in the then-independent community of South Chicago. Both schools were named for Colonel James Harvey Bowen, first president of the Calumet and Chicago Canal Dock Company and a figure known as the father of South Chicago. In 1910 the high school became its own institution when the current building rose at the northeast corner of Marquette and 89th Street, designed by Dwight Perkins, the Chicago Public Schools supervising architect. By the 1930s Bowen had grown to roughly 4,600 students, driven by the wave of Polish and Slavic immigrants who came to work the mills of South Chicago.
Bowen operates as a neighborhood open-enrollment high school serving grades 9 through 12 within Chicago Public Schools, with a small student body of about 261 as of the 2023-24 year. From 1993 until 2011 the campus was split into four smaller schools before being reconsolidated back into a single Bowen High School, and today the Bowen building continues to host CPS programs on the South Chicago campus.
Bowen competes in the Chicago Public League as the Boilermakers and is a member of the IHSA. The school's strongest historic runs came in baseball and soccer: the boys baseball team won Public League championships in 1954 and 1971, and the boys soccer team took three straight Public League titles from 1980 through 1982.
- District
- Chicago Public Schools
- Founded
- 1882
- Principal
- Priscilla Horton
- Conference
- Chicago Public League
- Address
- 2710 E. 89th Street, Chicago, IL 60617
Notable alumni
- Gene Krupa. Legendary jazz drummer and bandleader.
- Joni James. MGM Records star who sold more than 100 million singles and albums worldwide.
- Andrew Davis. Film director known for The Fugitive.
- Marc Smith. Poet credited as the creator of slam poetry.
Facts on this page sourced from Wikipedia and the District website. Last verified 2026-07-02.
Listings filtered by the school the MRED listing agent assigned. Roughly 7 in 10 active listings have this field populated; the remaining listings will surface once the school-district boundary pipeline ships. School assignment is not a guarantee. Always verify with the district before writing an offer.
The questions buyers actually ask
Bowen HS FAQ
The questions I get most from buyers shopping the Bowen HS district. If yours isn't here, text 224-385-8779, same-day reply.
- Is Bowen a public high school, and what grades does it serve?
- Yes. James H. Bowen High School is a Chicago Public Schools neighborhood high school serving grades 9 through 12 in the South Chicago neighborhood.
- What neighborhood is Bowen High School in?
- Bowen sits in South Chicago, a lakefront community on the city's Southeast Side about ten miles south of downtown, near 89th Street and Marquette.
- How is the commute to downtown Chicago from around the school?
- The Metra Electric South Chicago branch runs from the 93rd Street station to Millennium Station in roughly 35 minutes, and several CTA bus routes connect at that stop.
- What is the housing like near Bowen High School?
- South Chicago is a working, affordable neighborhood of classic Chicago bungalows, two-flats, and cottages, offering strong value close to Lake Michigan and Rainbow Beach.
- How do I find homes near Bowen High School?
- The listings here are filtered to homes whose MRED listing agent assigned Bowen as the high school. For alerts on new homes in the area, text 224-385-8779.
Thinking of selling?
What's your home actually worth?
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This representation is based in whole or in part on data supplied by Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC for the period July 21, 2025 through July 21, 2026. Midwest Real Estate Data, LLC does not guarantee nor is it in any way responsible for its accuracy. Data maintained by Midwest Real Estate Data LLC may not reflect all real estate activity in the market.