North Shore (Chicago)
The North Shore consists of many affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois, bordering the shores of Lake Michigan. These communities fall within suburban Cook County and Lake County. The North Shore's membership is often a topic of debate, and it includes some Chicago suburbs which do not border Lake Michigan. However, Deerfield, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield and Lake Bluff are generally considered to be the main constituents of the North Shore. Communities and their years of settlement and incorporation. Source: History. Europeans settled the area sparsely after  an 1833 treaty with local Native Americans. The region began to be developed into towns following the opening of Northwestern University in Evanston in 1855 and the founding of Lake Forest College two years later, and the construction and launch of railroads serving the colleges and their towns. Electric rail lines were also run from Chicago, parallel to steam commuter lines, and streetcars flourished throughout the suburbs from Evanston on north. The North Shore today is noteworthy for being one of the few remaining agglomerations of streetcar suburbs in the United States. This area became popular with the affluent wanting  to escape urban life, beginning after the Great Chicago Fire, and grew rapidly before and just after World War II with a growing Jewish population migrating out of various neighborhoods in Chicago. The major Jewish suburban communities include Evanston, Skokie, Glencoe, Northbrook, and Highland Park. Jews, however, were barred from living in Kenilworth and Lake Forest. The number of Jews in the north suburbs increased to 40% by the early 1960s. In the 1960s, most of the northern suburbs were almost entirely white. One informal 1967 poll suggested that of 2,000 real estate listings, only 38 (around 2%) were open  to African-Americans. Origin and definition of term. The term North Shore began to come into use in the early 1880s, and by 1889, with the creation of the North Shore Improvement Association, the name was officially established. In 1890, Joseph Sears used the term several times in a brochure that was written to promote the newly-forming community of Kenilworth. It is believed to have come into widespread use following the establishment in 1891 of the Waukegan & North Shore Rapid Transit Company, which in 1916 following reorganization was renamed the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad ("CNS&M"), popularly known  as the North Shore Line. This railway ran along Lake Michigan's western shore between Chicago and Milwaukee. The Shore Line route of the CNS&M until 1955 served, from south to north, the Illinois communities of Chicago, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Fort Sheridan, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, North Chicago, Waukegan, Zion, and Winthrop Harbor as well as Kenosha, Racine, and Milwaukee (the "KRM") in Wisconsin. After 1924, the Skokie Valley line of the CNS&M opened land further west to the North Shore. Meanwhile, in 1906, the Sanitary District of Chicago platted the "North Shore Channel" of  the sanitary canal from the Chicago River, through Evanston and Wilmette to Lake Michigan. While the CNS&M ran from Chicago all the way to Milwaukee, the term "North Shore" today typically refers only to the communities between Lake Bluff and Chicago. Michael Ebner's scholarly "Creating Chicago's North Shore: A Suburban History", one of the most thorough studies of the area, covers eight suburbs along the lake: Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff. In their "North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940", Cohen and Benjamin include not only those eight  suburbs but also "the tiny city of Highwood" which is slightly inland, just north of Highland Park. Socioeconomics and culture. Today the North Shore remains one of the most affluent and highly educated areas in the United States. Seven of its communities are in the top quintile of U.S. household income, and five of those (Lake Forest, Glencoe, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Highland Park) are in the top 5 percent. The median household income is $127,000. The North Shore is also the home of the Ravinia Festival, a historic outdoor music theater in Highland Park, Illinois. The Ravinia Festival, originally conceived  as a weekend destination on the CNS&M line, is now a popular destination on the Metra Union Pacific North Line commuter rail, the North Shore Line's former competitor. It hosts many concerts throughout the year that attract over 600,000 people. Highwood became home of the annual Pumpkin Festival which saw thousands of people every year flock to the small town for a week of music, food, community, and the lighting of 32,000 Jack o' Lanterns. The town used to hold the world record for most carved and lit Jack o' Lanterns but lost the title to Keene, New Hampshire . The abandoned right-of-way of the North Shore Line still serves Ravinia as the Green Bay Trail, a popular rails-to-trails bicycle path that begins in Wilmette and runs north all the way to the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. Despite being very nearly an enclave within Highland Park, Highwood has very different demographic characteristics than its neighbors. While its median income is close to the average for the state of Illinois, it has a much lower median income than neighboring municipalities. It is more densely populated, and is the only community on the North Shore where  non-Hispanic whites do not constitute a majority of the population. The Greater North Shore. Subsequent to the more general use of the term North Shore for the above suburbs, and the term's association with those towns' desirable socioeconomic characteristics, it became common for businesses in numerous nearby inland Chicago suburbs in the Maine, New Trier, Niles, Northfield, and Norwood Townships, as well as in southern Lake County, Illinois, to name themselves "North Shore", and for real estate and other marketers to use the term for non-North Shore communities from time to time. The former "North Shore" magazine  had special advertising editions not only for Evanston, Winnetka, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff, but also for Skokie, Glenview, Northbrook, Barrington, Bannockburn, and Riverwoods. Chicago's North Shore Convention & Visitors Bureau's markets the City of Evanston and the Villages of Skokie, Glenview, Northbrook and Winnetka. More recently, a community newspaper known as "What's Happening" began mailing out its publication to what it characterizes as the "16 affluent North Shore suburbs": Bannockburn, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Fort Sheridan, Skokie, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Northbrook, Northfield, Riverwoods, Vernon Hills, Wilmette, and Winnetka. Overall, the general usage of the  term "North Shore" may at times be applied to the following suburbs:Bannockburn; Buffalo Grove; Deerfield; Des Plaines; Evanston; Glencoe; Glenview; Golf; Green Oaks; Harwood Heights; Highland Park; Highwood; Kenilworth; Lake Bluff; Lake Forest; Libertyville; Lincolnshire; Lincolnwood; Mettawa; Morton Grove; Mundelein; Niles; Norridge; Northbrook; Northfield; Park Ridge; Riverwoods; Rosemont; Skokie; Vernon Hills; Wheeling; Wilmette; and Winnetka. This geographic area favored by marketeers extends from Chicago’s northern boundary into southern Lake County and from Lake Michigan to O’Hare Airport. Education. Mostly the Central Suburban League public high schools serve the North Shore. The Central Suburban League is an IHSA-recognized  high school extracurricular conference comprising 12 public schools located in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Comprising 12 relatively large high schools, it is among the larger high school conferences (by student population) in Illinois. The Central Suburban League high schools include: Deerfield High School (Deerfield, IL), Evanston Township High School (Evanston, IL), Glenbrook North High School (Northbrook, IL), Glenbrook South High School (Glenview, IL), Highland Park High School (Highland Park, IL), Maine South High School (Park Ridge, IL), Maine East High School (Park Ridge, IL), Maine West High School (Des Plaines, IL), New Trier High School (Winnetka, IL), Niles West  High School (Skokie, IL), Niles North High School (Skokie, IL), and Vernon Hills High School (Vernon Hills, IL). Lake Forest High School, Libertyville High School, and Stevenson High School, are in the North Suburban Conference. The Lake Forest High School district serves Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, while the Stevenson High School district serves Lincolnshire and most of Buffalo Grove. Stevenson also takes in students from smaller parts of other North Shore suburbs such as Deerfield, Mettawa, Lake Forest, Riverwoods, Vernon Hills, as well as reaching into the far Northwest Suburbs such as Hawthorn Woods, Kildeer, Lake Zurich, Mundelein, and  Long Grove. Wheeling High School serves most of Wheeling, Illinois which is in the Mid-Suburban League. Ridgewood High School serves portions of Norridge, Harwood Heights and unincorporated Norwood Park Township which is in the Metro Suburban Conference. East Leyden High School serves portions of Rosemont which is in the West Suburban Conference. A variety of private schools are found throughout the North Shore suburbs. Higher education. Oakton Community College serves the same district as the Central Suburban League, with campuses in Des Plaines and Skokie. College of Lake County serves the Lake County suburbs of the North Shore, with  its campus in Grayslake, Illinois. Harper College serves Wheeling with its campus in Palatine, Illinois. Films and television set or filmed on the North Shore. This area received much exposure in the 1980s as the setting of many teen films, particularly those of writer/director John Hughes, who grew up in Northbrook and attended Glenbrook North High School. The most notable films through the years are: