North Mayfair Community Collection

North Mayfair is a residential neighborhood near La Bagh Woods with a commercial district along parts of its perimeter. It runs from Pulaski (4000 west) to Cicero (4800 west) and from Lawrence (4800 north) to Bryn Mawr (5600 north). North Mayfair lies within Albany Park, one of the 77 official community areas of the City of Chicago, but it has a strong identity of its own.

Native American people were the original residents of the area that is now North Mayfair. Among the first Europeans to arrive were the Harding and Spikings families. William Harding acquired a land grant in the 1830s and Richard Spikings arrived in the 1840s. Like many early (and later) residents, they lived in the area for decades. In the 1870s William Harding Spikings, a builder, constructed a large brick house on the southeast corner of Pulaski and Ainslie that stood until 1941.

The Erickson family, also early landowners, had a farmhouse on Kostner south of Foster that was owned by the family into the 20th century. By the time Jennie Erickson died at the age of 96 in 1954, the area had been annexed into the City of Chicago (1889) and Northwest Side farms had given way to subdivisions. Also, the area, known as Montrose in the 19th century, was now called Mayfair. This name was first used for the community's railroad station on the Chicago & North Western line in the mid-19th century. Mayfair was also the name of the local post office, established June 2, 1882. In the 20th century Mayfair generally refers to the area south of Lawrence Avenue and North Mayfair to the neighborhood north of Lawrence.

The identity of the modern neighborhood was greatly strengthened in 1929 when twenty-three residents organized a community group for North Mayfair, which later became the North Mayfair Improvement Association. One of the first projects the group tackled was convincing state and local authorities to transform Foster Avenue from a rough road to a modern street. After that success, they pushed for bus service on Foster, organized scrap drives in World War II, watched the planning and construction of expressways in the 1950s and 1960s, worked with the North River Commission in the 1970s (and beyond) and opposed development projects at St. Lucas Cemetery in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, they were concerned with issues common to most neighborhoods, such as zoning decisions, new developments, and local parks.