Foster Beach
Foster Beach is located at 5200 N. Lake Shore Drive (at Foster Avenue and Lake Michigan) in Lincoln Park. Amenities include a beach house with food concessions, bike rentals and restrooms. Distance swimming is from Center Tower to north end of beach, parallel to shore at boat line. Pay and display parking lot is available along with ADA accessible beach walk.
Swimming Distance: center tower to north end of beach, parallel to shore at boat line
For questions regarding Chicago beaches, email beaches3@chicagoparkdistrict.com.
A surprising amount of what is now Lincoln Park is made from landfill. Lincoln Park’s final landfill extension was completed in the 1950s between Foster Avenue and Ardmore Avenue, and the fill included a new beach at Foster Avenue.
Planning and design for the extension started in 1947, but construction and fill did not begin until three years later. The fill project continued over the majority of the decade, and finally finished in 1958.
E.V Buchsbaum designed the beach house for the site, which was constructed between the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the 1990s, a new beach house provided improved facilities and amenities.
Parking
Pay & display parking lot
.
Public Transit
The following public bus & train routes serve this beach:
CTA Bus Routes:
CTA Red Line Station:
at Foster Avenue and Lake Michigan