Palos Park

Stretching across the towns of Palos Park and Palos Heights, Lake Katherine is a mainly residential community that receives its name from the public botanical garden and nature complex on the neighborhood’s northern edge. Located 25 miles southwest of Chicago, Lake Katherine is renowned for its outdoor recreation opportunities and peaceful atmosphere. “It’s a mature, multigenerational community — people who move away for college often return to raise families since it’s a quiet town with a very good parks system,” says Ken Busse, the Economic and Community Development Director of Palos Heights. With highly rated schools, convenient commuting options and peaceful waterways, Lake Katherine offers relaxed suburban living. Housing options in Lake Katherine range from townhouses in organized subdivisions and ranches with lush lawns. Most homes maintain a rustic, woodsy character, as 1950s ranches feature dark wooded facades and usually cost around $300,000 to $500,000. Townhouses located in the Edelweiss on the Lake were built in the 1980s and maintain Tudor-inspired design with half-timbered facades and pitched roofs. Most units cost between $250,000 and $330,000. Townhouses in New Traditional designs built in the 1990s cost around $400,000. Children can begin at Palos East Elementary School and advance to Palos South Middle. Students continue learning at Amos Alonzo Stagg High, which is part of the Consolidated High School District 230 and has over 68 extracurricular activities, including a powerlifting club, e-sports club and cultivation club. All three schools earn A ratings from Niche. The main attraction of the neighborhood is the Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens, which is an 85-acre site featuring a variety of gardens, a nature center, a boathouse and more than 2 miles of walking trails around the landscaped lake and waterfall. The nature center offers educational programs and exhibits for residents to learn about the natural environment. In the warmer months, visitors enjoy kayaking or canoeing on the lake, watching the aquatic life and strolling through the blooming gardens. For a more traditional park with athletic courts and a playground, residents will head to Memorial Park, which is located just over the neighborhood’s southern edge. There aren’t restaurants immediately in the neighborhood, but Harlem Avenue begins at the neighborhood’s southeastern corner. “Old Palos shopping and dining district, down Harlem Avenue, is where everyone thinks to go for those one-of-a-kind, locally owned restaurants. Whether you’re wanting Greek, Italian, Polish, or American food, there’s an option for you,” Busse says. As its name promises, Kefi Greek Cuisine and Bar serves elevated Greek dishes, and residents indulge in pasta and chicken parmesan at Capri Ristorante Italian. After eating, locals browse the businesses on Harlem Avenue, like the Wandering Wishes Boutique, or drive 5 miles southeast for big-box retailers like Target. When it's time to stock up on groceries, they head southeast to Jewel-Osco. “The commuter station is in the northwest portion of town, and there’s always plenty of parking there,” Busse says. Lake Katherine sits between the Palos Park and Palos Heights Metra Stations, and the rail lines cut diagonally through the neighborhood. Commuters heading to Chicago choose to ride the Pace Suburban Bus or drive north on State Route 43 to merge onto Interstate 55. Locals don’t have to travel to Chicago to see a green body of water on Saint Patrick’s Day — the Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanical Gardens also celebrate the holiday by dyeing its waterfall bright emerald. More regularly, residents can stop by the nature center for educational programs and learn about pollination, Illinois waterways, bird migration and more. During the holiday season, locals join the greater Palos Heights community for a holiday parade on Harlem Avenue, a winter market and a tree decorating contest. The rail line makes commuting to Chicago easy, but the area offers local employment opportunities. “Residents commute up to Chicago, but there are a lot of people who own businesses and work locally. We also have Trinity Christian College and the Northwestern Palos Hospital, which are both major employers in the area,” Busse says.

In the middle of the Palos Forest Preserves sits the Little Red School Nature Center. It was built to serve as a one-room schoolhouse in the late 1800s, moved by a man and his mule in the 1930s and, since 1955, has educated curious hikers as they explore the more than 15,000 acres that make up the Palos Preserves. “It is dark out here, and we don’t have Chicago lights obscuring the sky,” says Barry Gaw with RE/MAX 10, a Palos Park local who’s accumulated nearly 50 years of real estate experience. In 2021, the Preserves were designated the world’s largest Urban Night Sky Place, a starry retreat just 25 miles outside of the Windy City; people come from near and far to admire constellations and scan the trees for wide-eyed owls. Although Palos Park West is defined by its proximity to nature — residents can fish in horsetail lake, mountain bike along the Sag Valley Trail System and cross-country ski come winter — the neighborhood is also a short drive away from large-scale shopping centers like the Orland Square Mall. “Palos Park was considered far from the city at the turn of the century. It was a place for artists and poets and writers from the University of Chicago to do their thinking and work on their projects,” notes Gaw. In many ways, Palos Park West is still a forest retreat. These days, however, summer homes are occupied by year-rounders. Subdivisions and top-rated school systems welcome growing families. “In Palos Park, you can have a million and a half to two million dollar mansions across the street from a little cottages,” says Gaw. “Nobody cares. It’s a friendly community regardless of where you live.” Recent decades in the western portion of Palos Park have seen the rise of subdivisions like the McCord Place Townhomes, where three-bedroom units with attached two-car garages hover between the mid $400,000s and $500,000s. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, brick-sided homes built in the 1980s start around $330,000 and larger, Tudor-inspired multi-story houses from the same era can sell for close to $700,000. Streets are quiet enough for bike riding lessons, grass is cut to a uniform length and sidewalks leave plenty of room for walking the dog. As noted by Gaw, the neighborhood’s most expensive houses can sell for well above $1 million. These custom-built mansions sit on sizeable lots, an acre or more, and some residents even keep their own horses (although “equestrian properties are not the norm”). Along with direct access to nature preserves, one of Palos Park West’s main appeals is its public school system. Children can attend Palos East Elementary, Palos South Middle and Amos Alonzo Stagg High School, all of which received A grades from the educational review site Niche. Over 80% of graduating students from Amos Alonzo Stagg High go on to attend college within two years, and the high school is also known for its wide variety of extracurriculars including the Staggline, a student-run newspaper with a dedicated staff of writers, cartoonists and photographers. Instrumentalists can join the Marching Chargers to participate in elaborate field shows; the band has also traveled to perform at Disney World several times. According to Gaw, “There are so many trails in the area, and people also like to pull up in their cars to have picnics.” The unpaved Sag Valley Trail System spans over 20 miles, making it popular with dog walkers and mountain bikers; it’s not uncommon to spot a horseback rider. Those up for a challenging workout head to the Swallow Cliff Stairs, once the site of a toboggan run, and locals cast out their lines for catfish and largemouth bass in the Saganashkee Slough, a manmade lake that spans 377 acres. Come winter, stop by Papoose Lake for ice fishing. Alternatively, those in search of a more curated outdoor experience can reserve a tee time at the Palos Country Club or drive to the playground in Brentwood Park. In Palos Park, the McCord House Gallery and Cultural Center has managed to preserve the village’s legacy as an artists’ community. The space hosts student exhibitions, watercolor workshops and artisan markets during the holiday season. Pick up tickets to watch a performance by the Palos Village Players at the Palos Park Recreation Center (across from the public library), or count down the days until the village’s Tree Lighting and Holiday Party in December. There’s also Concert in the Park come June, an event complete with dancing, face painting and balloon animals. In September, the Autumn in the Park festival means a parade, plenty of food vendors and even a traveling petting zoo. Of course, Downtown Chicago is host to a long list of arts and culture opportunities, from nationally recognized museums (like the Museum of Torture and the Art Institute) to touring Broadway shows. Although the city is only about 25 miles away, keep in mind that it can take up to an hour to reach depending on Interstate 55 traffic. Although Palos Park West residents are bordered by thousands of acres of forest, retail and dining options also aren’t too far away — 25 miles from Chicago, Medieval fairytale meets suburban convenience. Gaw says that Plush Horse, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor that first opened its doors in 1937, is a “big claim to fame” in Palos Park. “Generations come from all over to enjoy the ice cream. My favorite is vanilla malt, and they have pumpkin in the fall,” he says. Or make a date night reservation at Francesca’s, ordering their fresh-made spaghetti pomodoro and fettuccine with braised short rib. Three miles south, Orland Square is anchored by department stores like JCPenney, Macy’s and Von Maur. Across the street, stop for groceries at Trader Joe’s. Or pick up ingredients a bit closer to home at Jewel-Osco and Aldi. When they’re not riding their mountain bikes, walking or horseback riding through the Palos Preserves, residents generally rely on their cars to get from place to place. Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) buses stop along major Palos Park arteries like La Grange Road, and Chicago’s commuter rail system, Metra, passes through the village en route to downtown — SouthWest service fares from Palos Park to Union Station cost $6.75. For long-distance travel, head to Chicago Midway International Airport, which offers direct flights to nearly 70 U.S. cities and over 10 international destinations. Chicago O'Hare offers even more options just north of the city. Palos Park West residents also have easy access to medical care at Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital, a 425-bed facility, and UChicago Medicine Orland Park, which offers specialty and primary care about 2 miles south down U.S. Route 45.