Grand Boulevard’s redevelopment is at the center of the movement to restore Bronzeville, the historic community built by African Americans in segregated 1920s to 1950s Chicago. Grand Boulevard easily comprises upwards of half of Bronzeville, though Bronzeville’s exact boundaries are a matter of speculation. Grand Boulevard is edged by Cottage Grove Avenue, Pershing Road, 51st Street and the Rock Island railroad tracks.

Grand Boulevard is finally being reconstructed after a decade of aggressive demolition. On eastern edge of the area, on the site of the razed Willard School along Champlain Avenue, one hundred new apartments are nearly completed and a gated development of houses is under way. Willard School was emptied for more than a decade. In recent years, New Homes for Chicago has provided subsidies to help keep down price levels on some new homes in the area.

New Village at Washington Park is 18 non-contiguous apartment buildings between 48th Street and 50th Street, and between Lawrence and Champlain. These buildings are filling up quickly, in good part because of the low costs of renting in Grand Boulevard. New Village’s apartments rent for around $545 for a one-bedroom unit to $773 for a three bedroom flat.

Developers are marketing their projects as being in North Washington Park in an attempt to separate their buildings from the area’s poverty-stricken history. But there are some tremendous vintage townhouses and well-preserved graystone, sandstone and red brick buildings along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive which allude to the previous architectural grandeur of this area. The architecture in Grand Boulevard speaks of historic Bronzeville styles, with brick and stone facades, solariums and sixteen-foot ceilings. Townhouses of 1,700 to 2,500-square-feet sell from $150,000 to $256,000. Two- and three-flats near 40th and Wabash sell for $179,000. Rehabs of old buildings near 40th and Calumet are comprised of 69 one- to three-bedroom apartments which are expected to rent for $475 to $550, and there are plans to rehab two more buildings which will add another 23 units. Four-bedroom apartments in these buildings are intended to rent for $625.