Stony Island is a fairly well-known street in Chicago, but many city residents are not aware that there is also a neighborhood of the same name on the South Side. It is a fairly tiny community—its boundaries are defined by just three roads: S. Stony Island Avenue to the west, 87^th Street to the south and the Chicago Skyway running diagonally along the eastern edge. Stony Island Park is not, as its name suggests, an island or a park. It is actually quite landlocked and doesn’t have any major public recreation spots within its borders. The small, triangle-shaped neighborhood does, however, have a respectable showing of tree-lined streets, vintage homes and restaurant options.

The majority of residential real estate in Stony Island Park was built post World War II, which is why there are so many bungalow-style houses and classic single-family homes in the area. Sturdy bungalow construction is characteristic of many outlying Chicago neighborhoods, where urban sprawl resulted in mass development of land to accommodate the growing population. For the most part, communities in Chicago were built on a straightforward grid plan with an alley system to keep refuse and garages behind houses, and away from the main streets. Stony Island Park is no exception. Rows of residences run up and down the avenues with tall trees and green grass lawns providing the tightly-packed homes with a sense of privacy and verdure.

Any commercial development in Stony Island Park is found along the neighborhood’s two main border streets: Stony Island Avenue and 87^th Street. These multilane roads have a mix of businesses and eateries. There are a number of fast-food chains in the area, plus a bunch of chop suey places, pizzerias and casual American cuisine restaurants. The limited selection of retailers in Stony Island Park includes a sporting goods store, a custom fabric shop and a beauty supply mart.

Stony Island Park is about 10 miles southeast of Chicago’s downtown Loop. The Skyway provides a quick highway route into the city center for anyone with a car (although it is a toll road, so you have to pay to use it). CTA buses are the best way to get from Stony Island Park to other parts of Chicago. The Metra rail line is also nearby, located several blocks west of the neighborhood’s western boundary. 

Stony Island Park used to be part of a larger township originally called Pennytown and later known as Avalon Park. It was a very marshy area that also had stretching fields of prairie grass. As legend has it, there was a hill in the middle of the meadow that looked like an island in a sea of grasslands… And that is where Stony Island Park got its name.

Stony Island Park Real Estate