Running tour · Chicago

Lincoln Park and the Lakefront

6.5 mi run

Open in Stride Stories

The stories on this route

1. Oak Street Beach

   Look at the sand here, where Oak Street meets Lake Shore Drive, and the sharp S-bend the Drive makes right beside you. This shore wasn't always here.

2. North Avenue Beach

   Look at the beach house on the sand: blue and white, shaped like a ship, with portholes and a deck up top. It fits, because this whole beach was built on purpose.

3. The Standing Lincoln

   Look up the flower beds to the bronze Lincoln, head bowed, as if he's just risen from his chair. The sculptor Saint-Gaudens made him larger than life, about eleven and a half feet tall. A friend lured him to Cornish, New Hampshire, promising 'many Lincoln-shaped men' as models.

4. The Couch Tomb and The Chicago History Museum

   Look among the trees for a small, windowless grey stone vault behind a low fence. It's the Couch Tomb, the last remaining marked grave in Lincoln Park. From 1843 this was the City Cemetery. Fear of cholera spreading through groundwater into the lake got the graves cleared for the park.

5. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre site

   Look for the plain patch of lawn with a few trees, at 2122 North Clark Street. There's nothing else to see. But on February 14, 1929, a garage stood here.

6. The Biograph Theater

   Look for the BIOGRAPH marquee, the red brick and white terra cotta. On July 22, 1934, John Dillinger came out of this theatre, and FBI agents shot him down.

7. Lincoln Park Zoo

   Look at the zoo gates: they stand open. Lincoln Park Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the country, and one of only a few that are free.

8. The Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool

   Look for the low wall of layered limestone and the oak gate with its Prairie-style lantern. Behind it is the Lily Pool.

Stories researched October 2026 · every fact checked against a source