Welcome to Oak Park

Home to more than 52,000 people and located just seven miles west of Chicago’s downtown Loop, Oak Park is one of the country’s most successfully diverse and welcoming communities, with excellent schools, abundant culture, ample green space and world-renowned architecture.

It is a community rich with history. Innovators and creators such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Ludacris and Betty White have made Oak Park their home.

Oak Park also has a diverse and active arts community.  It is home to numerous theaters, music, dance, and fine-arts professionals. The arts district on Harrison, bounded by Austin Avenue to the east and Ridgeland Avenue to the west, features boutique galleries, shops, and restaurants.  It is home to several professional dance and theatre companies, including Circle Theatre, Oak Park Festival Theatre, and Momenta resident dance company of The Academy of Movement and Music. Oak Park, with neighboring River Forest, also plays host to the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, which was founded in 1931 and is one of the nation’s oldest community orchestras.

Getting to and from (and around) Oak Park is easy. We are served by two CTA train lines—the blue and the green—as well as the regional Metra train and the I-290 expressway. Oak Park is also one of the Chicago area’s most bikeable and walkable communities (rated a “Walker’s Paradise” with a walk score of 97 out of 100).