Ravenswood, Chicago

Ravenswood is a neighborhood located on the North Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois. Lacking designation as one of Chicago's 77 well-defined community areas, it is mostly situated in the Uptown community area, with the portion west of Ravenswood Avenue and the Chicago & Northwestern/Union Pacific North Line railroad tracks being situated in the Lincoln Square community area.

Ravenswood was founded in 1868 as an exclusive commuter suburb by a group of real-estate speculators. These speculators formed the Ravenswood Land Company and purchased 194 acres of farmland and woods eight miles north of Chicago. Based on subdivision plats recorded between 1868 and July 15, 1889, the development extended roughly between Damen Avenue on the west, Berteau Avenue on the south, Clark Street on the east, and Ainslie Avenue on the north. Though local legend claims the woods supported a population of ravens, the species was rarely recorded in Illinois during the nineteenth century.Jennie Van Allen, daughter of the first permanent settler of Ravenswood, later recalled that the name was chosen because a member of the Ravenswood Land Company had "once lived in a town of that name in the East.”