University Village Apartments

In the past decade, thousands of new construction apartments, townhouses for rent, mid-rises, and single-family homes for rent have emerged in the University Village neighborhood and warehouses and industrial plants have been rehabbed into impressive residential lofts for rent. The frenzied pace of development has brought droves of new residents to University Village.

Situated next to University of Illinois at Chicago campus, University Village is a Chicago neighborhood born from the renowned Maxwell Street neighborhood.  Along Maxwell Street was an open-air market that is recognized for being one of the initial incubators of the Chicago Blues throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s.  Here, musicians would play for tips, including the “father of modern Chicago Blues” Muddy Waters.  

UIC is the largest university in the Chicago area, with 25,000 students, 15 colleges, and the nation's largest medical school. The University Village UIC community encompasses more than 100 buildings located on somewhere around 240 acres and lends the "University Village" neighborhood of Chicago its name.  The Illinois Medical District with Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Jesse Brown VA medical Center and Rush Hospital, is just to the west along the Eisenhower Expressway.  This Chicago neighborhood is just a short walk from the West Loop, Pilsen and South Loop.

The prodigious new University Village development has transformed South Halsted Street into a thriving retail strip, replete with restaurants, coffee, delis, and sandwich shops, grocers, and boutiques.

University Village includes Little Italy, which is on the northwest side of the neighborhood, above, on, and below Taylor Street, where you can find Italian restaurants and other casual hang-out spots. Buildings in Little Italy generally tend to be older than the other parts of University Village, with many buildings having been built over a century ago. Many professors and their colleagues from the adjacent Rush-Presbyterian / St. Luke's Medical Center, as well as from UIC, live in this area, which is replete with traditional Greystone two- and three- flats, townhouses for rent, courtyard apartment buildings, and single-family homes for rent.

Parks in University Village include Addams/Medill Park, Les Miller Field at Curtis Granderson Stadium, Giuseppe Garibaldi Park, Arrigo Park, Vernon Park, and Sheridan Park.

The CTA Blue line traces the northern border of the University Village Chicago neighborhood, and the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways circumscribe the northern and eastern boundaries.

Schools at University Village Chicago include: 

John M Smyth Public School

Chicago Tech Academy

Whitney Young Magnet High School

University Village Montessori School

Skinner West Elementary School

St Ignatius College Prep School

Urban Prep Academy

Urban Prairie Waldorf School

Pilsen Academy

Simpson Academy for Young Women

Moses Montefiore Public School

Andrew Jackson Language Academy School

St Patrick School

DeVry University Advantage Academy

Allen School

Medill Intermediate and Upper School

STEM Magnet School

Explore University Village Apartments by Size

Refine your search for University Village apartments to find your ideal apartment based on the number of bedrooms.  Search University Village studio apartments, 1-bedroom apartments, 2-bedroom apartments, 3-bedroom apartments, and 4-bedroom apartments for rent.

The Soul Food Cafe, a name invented for the movie, was originally known as Lyon's Deli and was operated for many years as a cozy Jewish delicatessen a few steps below grade at 807 West Maxwell Street in University Village Chicago, with a small lunch counter and seating for six patrons at three tables. Nate Duncan, a tall, imposing, but tender-hearted giant, had worked for the Lyon family since his teenage years in the early 1940s and had learned to cook traditional Jewish fare. Nate acquired the restaurant from the Lyon family in 1973 and promptly renamed it "Nate's Deli." Nate lived upstairs in the building with his mother and sister and continued to serve "Jewish soul food" until 1994 when the state exercised its eminent domain powers to accommodate the expansion plans of the University of Illinois-Chicago. Nate was apparently never the same, as the delicatessen was the center of his universe. He passed away on Tuesday, July 18, 2006, at the age of 76.

By the way, Nate's mother and daughter made a cameo in the Blues Brothers movie, peeking down at the Soul Food Cafe from their upstairs window.

Address: 
807 West Maxwell Street
Neighborhood: 
University Village

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