Homes for sale in
Rush & Division.

Rush Street is one of Chicago's oldest thoroughfares, dating to the city's original 1837 incorporation and named for Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Early Rush Street was a desirable place to live, and after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 the Near North Side became a refuge prized for its high ground, wide streets, and lakefront proximity. Cyrus McCormick built a mansion at 675 Rush in the late 1870s, drawing so many relatives nearby that the area became known as McCormickville. Well into the twentieth century, residential buildings faced the street until the demands of expanding commerce, especially restaurants and nightclubs, consumed its real estate.

By mid-century the strip had become a nightlife capital. Mister Kelly's, a club on Rush Street that ran from 1953 to 1975, became a springboard to fame for jazz singers and comedians and was one of the few integrated venues in town. During the 1960s and 1970s, Rush Street was billed as one of the most vibrant nightlife destinations in the country outside Las Vegas. By the 1980s many of those establishments shuttered, and as the street gentrified much of the bar scene migrated north toward Division Street, where the late-night energy continues today.