South Park Terrace Apartments

Address: 6116-6134 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
Architect: Harry Hale Waterman
Year: 1905
Style: Prairie School
Neighborhood: Washington Park

Overview

South Park Terrace Apartments was constructed in 1905, providing affordable housing near Washington Park. Designed by architect Harry Hale Waterman, a Frank Lloyd Wright associate, the Prairie School style building recalls Wright’s Francisco Terrace Apartments (1895, demolished 1974). Waterman also designed the Eugene S. Pike House/Watchman’s House (1894) at 1826 West 91st Street in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. (The Cook County Forest Preserve acquired the Pike House in 1921 and will begin a restoration program with community residents in 2026.)

History

By the end of the 19th century, Chicago had become the nation’s second-largest city with a population of one million. As population growth continued, architects and builders moved from a long-time focus on single-family homes to developing new solutions for higher residential density. Low-rise brick courtyard buildings emerged as a response. Initial experiments appeared in the early 1890s, sometimes featuring an inward-facing courtyard. A few years later, more mature projects such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Francisco Terrace Apartments, located at 253-257 N. Francisco Avenue, helped establish a more practical model. These were typically organized around a central court opening onto the street, with separate entryways, and occupied roughly a quarter of the building lot, often with carefully landscaped greenery.

The South Park Terrace Apartments were a continuation of the courtyard apartments development in early 20th-century Chicago. Located on South Park Way (later renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) near 61st street, the building was only a block down from Washington Park, an exemplar of pastoral urban landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted & Calvert Vaux. The Washington Park race track – the “Ascot of the West”– and its Jockey Club house designed by Solon Spencer Beman were across the street and served as the epicenter of Chicago’s Gilded Age society. By 1905 after Illinois’s ban on gambling and the suspension of the American Derby horse race, the club closed and the track was demolished. During its operation, it had established the area as a prestigious recreational district and attracted many upper-and middle-class residents.

At the same time, developers capitalized on the neighborhood’s reputation and infrastructure, introducing new forms of urban housing along South Park Way. Among these developers was Thomas E. Wells, who is credited with being one of the prominent businessmen who made Chicago one of the leading cities in the world. After acquiring a site on the west side of the horse track, Wells invested $70,000 and commissioned Harry Hale to build South Park Terrace Apartments, a two-story brick courtyard apartment building with 52 apartments targeted at middle-class residents. With “no desire to establish a style of his own, preferring instead to do work in whatever style seemed appropriate to the particular project,” Waterman adopted the Prairie School vocabulary developed by his former colleague Frank Lloyd Wright. Drawing on his appreciation of his peer’s design, Waterman later employed these elements again in his design of Woodlawn Terrace (1909).

In 1921, the Wells estate sold South Park Terrace for $150,000 to Mayo Friedberg, a real estate investor active in courtyard apartment developments on Chicago’s west and south sides. Two years later in 1923, Albert D. Shockley of Cincinnati purchased the building for $187,500, at which point it was described as one of the “most popular priced modern apartments” on the south side.

During the late 1920s and 1930s, the building became dilapidated and unfit for residents amid white flight and disinvestment. As the Great Migration brought large numbers of black residents to the south side, the building was reoccupied and improved. By the 1940s, under the management of ADE Realty, it was renovated as housing for working-class black residents and was described as “the pride of the community.”

Threat

In 2025, South Park Terrace’s condition had deteriorated due to owner neglect. Residents have been living in poor conditions with ongoing safety concerns such as foreclosure, structural issues, water leaks and rotten floors. The current owner is 6116 MLK LLC out of Brooklyn, New York. In March 2025, a portion of the building caught fire, leaving visible burn marks on the blonde facade’s brickwork around boarded-up windows on the building’s second floor. On June 11, 2025, the city ordered residents to vacate the building’s middle tier with only two days’ notice.

Recommendations

Realizing the significance of the South Park Terrace Apartments, we would request the City of Chicago to take steps toward preserving the building. Perhaps action could include encouraging one of its sister agencies, like the Chicago Housing Authority, the Cook County Land Bank Authority, or a developer partner to acquire, repair and restore the property as needed.

Realizing the architectural integrity of the building’s design and the philanthropic efforts to construct the property in 1905, Preservation Chicago believes that the property should be valued and the structure repaired and given Chicago Landmark status. Chicago is in need of more affordable housing. Even in recent history, investment in the South Park Terrace Apartments is a worthwhile endeavor.