New York Times Article Highlights Beverly

CHICAGO, IL -- A Beverly native who now works for the New York Times as a travel writer came back home to highlight his neighborhood in a recently published article on the publication's website.

"No travel assignment is ever straightforward, but reporting on the place you grew up presents specific challenges," wrote Lucas Peterson, who said he lived in Beverly until he was in 2nd grade and attended Sutherland Elementary School, a place he said he "scarcely recognized" in his recent return to the neighborhood.

Peterson's visit to Chicago, which also included stops in Lincoln Square and Roscoe Village, was titled "Through Three Neighborhoods, Revisiting Chicago's Charms."

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Here's some of what he had to say about his home neighborhood many years later.

"Walking along the bungalow- and tree-lined streets in the Beverly neighborhood of southwest Chicago, where I lived until 2nd grade, a fog of memory followed me as I passed businesses my family used to frequent and the houses of old neighbors... The house where I lived as a child was equally foreign, and seemed tiny, like a dollhouse."

Peterson noticed that The Purple Cow ice-cream parlor is "long gone," but was hyped to see Top Notch Beefburgers and Rainbow Cone still alive and well.

Although one may wonder what he thought about the golf course and acres of open space across the street from the iconic Rainbow Cone having been replaced by the likes of Meijer, Lane Bryant, The Crazy Crab and other retail chains.

The writer also touched on the neighborhood's rich history while visiting the Ridge Historical Society and the many Frank Lloyd Wright architectural gems of the neighborhood.

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Photo by Tim Moran, Patch