Beverly

Beverly continued...

It's the houses that dazzle visitors and are the pride of the community. Most are atop or on either side of the Ridge, a glacial leftover that was once an island (on a long-gone lake) and is now a six-mile-long wooded hill. Four were designed by Wright, three of them Chicago landmarks (and there's another Wright not far south, in West Pullman's Beverly-like Stewart Ridge district); seven more houses are the work of Walter Burley Griffin, a onetime Wright colleague also influenced by the Prairie School.

All are within the Ridge Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Within that district are three more Chicago landmark districts: one named for Griffin, plus the Beverly/Morgan Park Railroad Stations and Longwood Drive -- all of which, except the Griffin, overlap into Morgan Park community, Beverly's neighbor to the south.

And there's The Castle, built in 1886 for real estate developer Robert Givins. Modest in size as castles go, it nonetheless certainly has the look of an impregnable Irish country stronghold as it sits royally above Longwood Drive.

"We have a very strong Irish Catholic population, and the [unknown] designer supposedly came from Ireland," says Linda Lamberty, historian for the Ridge Historical Society. "So it has kind of gelled into something that stands for the community."

The Beverly Arts Center, which is actually in Morgan Park (a reality that matters little to anyone), is home to live performances, film series and classes in visual and performing arts, and occasional exhibits of oils, watercolors and photographs.

And there's this little hidden jewel . . .

In the Ridge Park Fieldhouse on Longwood Drive is something few Chicagoans have ever heard of: the Vanderpoel Art Collection.

"You'd be surprised," says Sidney Hamper, who shows folks around the free gallery , "the number of people in the neighborhood who don't know about it."

Here, covering almost every inch of available wall space, are selected works by the likes of Maxfield Parrish, Mary Cassatt and Martha Susan Baker, as well as John H. Vanderpoel, a distinguished late-19th and early 20th-Century artist and teacher who lived in the community. Among his students: Georgia O'Keeffe, who called him "one of the few real teachers I have known."

Also on display (the gallery is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) are etchings by Grant Wood, sculptures by Daniel Chester French and Lorado Taft, and intriguing works like a 1936 painting of nightlife in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood by Joseph Tomanek, a local artist better known for his nudes.

Beverly has its fine dining, notably Koda Bistro and Cafe 103; the Top Notch Restaurant, a popular diner, has been satisfying locals with its beefburgers since 1954. The Original Rainbow Cone - its five-flavor cone is its signature delight - began here on Western Avenue in 1926 and is still scooping away.

But in Chicago, it's impossible to think of Beverly without its Irish pubs. From 103rd to (and even a wee tad across) 111th Street along the west side of Western Avenue, a city mile, reside a succession of establishments capable of quenching the most stubborn of thirsts, pubs with names like O'Rourke, Keegan, McNally and O'Leary.

Some, like the Beverly Arts Center, are actually within the Morgan Park neighborhood -- but again, such distinctions matter little to anyone here.

"For the Irish, the pub was more than just a place to drink," says Carol Flynn of the Ridge Historical Society, whose siblings include a Catholic priest and a policeman. "The church and the pub were where they got together, got news and kept in touch with everybody else, and to rally for the cause, whatever the cause might be. The Irish were always into some kind of cause."

Today, she concedes, it's not quite the same -- "the young people now, they're all so integrated into everything else" -- but the pubs here thrive nonetheless and, especially on St. Patrick's Day, draw customers from the bordering Morgan Park and Mount Greenwood neighborhoods as well as nearby suburbs.

Your pint is waiting. Remember to toast Mr. Wright.

For more information about Beverly, contact the 95th Street/Beverly Hills Business Association (773.238.4094) or the Beverly Area Planning Association (773.233.3100).