Birthplace of atomic fission, home to the University of Chicago, and site of the popular Museum of Science and Industry, Hyde Park is worth a trip south of the Loop. You should allow at least half a day to explore the campus and neighborhood, one of Chicago's most successfully integrated; set aside a full day if you want to explore museums as well.

Some Hyde Park History -- When Hyde Park was settled in 1850, it became Chicago's first suburb. A hundred years later, in the 1950s, Hyde Park added another first to its impressive resume, one that the current neighborhood is not particularly proud of: an urban-renewal plan. At the time, a certain amount of old commercial and housing stock was demolished rather than rehabilitated -- just those kinds of buildings that would be much prized today -- and was replaced by projects and small shopping malls that actually make some corners of Hyde Park look more suburban, in the modern sense, than they really are.

What Hyde Park does have to be proud of is that, in racially balkanized Chicago, this neighborhood has found an alternative vision. As Southern blacks began to migrate to Chicago's South Side during World War I, many whites fled. But most whites here, especially those who wanted to stay near the university, chose integration as the only realistic strategy to preserve their neighborhood. The 2000 census proved that integration still works; about 40% of the residents are white and 37% are black; there is also a significant Asian population. Hyde Park is decidedly middle-class, with pockets of true affluence in Kenwood that reflect the days when the well-to-do moved here in the beginning of the 20th century to escape the decline of Prairie Avenue. Among Hyde Park-Kenwood's well-known black residents in recent years were the late Elijah Muhammad, Muhammad Ali, and, currently, Louis Farrakhan, along with numerous other Nation of Islam families who continue to worship in a mosque, formerly a Greek Orthodox cathedral, that is one of the neighborhood's architectural landmarks. The late Mayor Harold Washington also lived here. Surrounding this unusual enclave, however, are many marginal blocks where poverty and slum housing abound. For all its nobility, Hyde Park's achievement in integration merely emphasizes that even more unwieldy than racial differences are socioeconomic ones.

Through its fight for self-preservation, Hyde Park has gained a reputation as an activist community. A certain vitality springs from acts of coping with the world as you find it, and it is this element that distinguishes Hyde Park from other middle-class neighborhoods in Chicago. Hyde Park is, in a word, cosmopolitan.

The University of Chicago is widely hailed as one of the more intellectually exciting institutions of higher learning in the country and has been home to some 73 Nobel laureates. The year the university opened its doors, 1892, was a big one for Hyde Park, but 1893 was even bigger. In that year, Chicago, chosen over other cities in a competitive international field, hosted the World's Columbian Exposition, commemorating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in America.

To create a fairground, the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was enlisted to fill in the marshlands along Hyde Park's lakefront and link what was to become Jackson Park to existing Washington Park on the neighborhood's western boundary with a narrow concourse called the Midway Plaisance. On the resulting 650 acres -- at a cost of $30 million -- 12 exhibit palaces, 57 buildings devoted to U.S. states and foreign governments, and dozens of smaller structures were constructed under the supervision of architect Daniel Burnham. Most of the buildings followed Burnham's preference for the Classical Revival style and exterior surfaces finished in white stucco. With the innovation of outdoor electric lighting, the sparkling result was the "White City," which attracted 27 million visitors in a single season, running from May 1 to October 31, 1893. The exposition sponsors, in that brief time, had remarkably recovered their investment, but within a few short years of its closing, most of the fair's buildings were destroyed by vandalism and fire. Only the Palace of Fine Arts, occupying the eastern tip of the midway, survives to this day, and it now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

Getting There -- From the Loop, the ride to Hyde Park on the no. 6 Jeffrey Express bus takes about 30 minutes. The bus originates on Wacker Drive, travels south along State Street, and ultimately follows Lake Shore Drive to Hyde Park. The bus runs from early morning to late evening 7 days a week, with departures about every 5 minutes on weekdays and every 10 minutes on weekends and holidays. The southbound express bus adds a surcharge of 25¢ to the normal fare of $1.50 (there's no surcharge if you use a CTA transit card). The no. 1 local bus originates at Union Station on Jackson Boulevard and Canal Street and takes about an hour.

For a faster trip, take the Metra Electric train on the South Chicago line, which goes from downtown to Hyde Park in about 15 minutes. Trains run every hour (more frequently during rush hr.) Monday through Saturday from 5:15am to 12:50am, and every 30 to 90 minutes on Sunday and holidays from 5am to 12:55am. Downtown stations are at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue, Van Buren Street and Michigan Avenue, and Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue (near the Museum Campus in Grant Park). Printed schedules are available at the stations. The fare is approximately $2 each way.

For CTA bus and Metra train information, call tel. 836-7000 (from any city or suburban area code).

For taxis, dial tel. 312/TAXI-CAB (tel. 312/829-4222) for Yellow Cab or tel. 312/CHECKER (tel. 312/243-2537) for Checker. The one-way fare from downtown is around $15.

A Suggested Itinerary -- A long 1-day itinerary for Hyde Park should include the following: a walk through the U of C campus (including a stroll along the Midway Plaisance); a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry (for families), Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, or one of the other local museums; and lunch or dinner in the neighborhood's commercial center.

Hyde Park Bites--When you're ready to take a break, Hyde Park has an eclectic selection of restaurants to choose from. As in any university town, you'll find plenty of affordable, student-friendly hangouts. The most famous University of Chicago gathering spot is Jimmy's Woodlawn Tap, 1172 E. 55th St. (tel. 773/ 643-5516). This 50-year-old bar and grill doesn't offer much in the way of atmosphere (and be prepared for cigarette smoke), but the hamburgers and sandwiches are cheap, and the person sitting next you might just be a Nobel Prize-winning professor. Another casual spot near campus is Medici, 1327 E. 57th St. (tel. 773/667-7394), where a few generations' worth of students have carved their names into the tables while chowing down on pizza, the house specialty. Calypso Café, 5211 S. Harper St., near the Metra train tracks (tel. 773/955-0229), serves up conch chowder, jerk chicken, and other Caribbean favorites in a bright, funky setting. A few blocks south, you'll find La Petite Folie, 1504 E. 55th St. (tel. 773/493-1394), a French bistro that offers refined escape from student life.

More Frank Lloyd Wright Homes--In addition to Robie House, several of Wright's earlier works, still privately owned, dot the streets of Hyde Park, such as the Heller House, 5132 S. Woodlawn Ave. (1897); the Blossom House, 1332 E. 49th St. (1882); and the McArthur House, 4852 S. Kenwood Ave. (1892). Note: The above-named houses are not open to the public, so they should only be admired from the outside.

Exploring the University of Chicago--Walking around the Gothic spires of the University of Chicago campus is bound to conjure up images of the cloistered academic life. Allow at least an hour to stroll through the grassy quads and dramatic stone buildings (if the weather's nice, do as the students do and vegetate for a while on the grass). If you're visiting on a weekday, your first stop should be the university's Visitors Information Desk (tel. 773/702-9739), located on the first floor of Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St., where you can pick up campus maps and get information on university events. The center is open Monday through Friday from 10am to 7pm. The university also offers free architecture tours on Saturdays (paid tours can be arranged for other days); call the Office of Special Events (tel. 773/702-9636). If you stop by on a weekend when the Visitors Information Desk is closed, you can get the scoop on campus events at the Reynolds Clubhouse student center (tel. 773/702-8787).

Start your tour of the campus at the Henry Moore statue, Nuclear Energy, on South Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets. It's next to the Regenstein Library, which marks the site of the old Stagg Field, where, on December 2, 1942, the world's first sustained nuclear reaction was achieved in a basement laboratory below the field. Then turn left at 57th Street until you reach the grand stone Hull Gate; walk straight to reach the main quad, or turn left through the column-lined arcade to reach Hutchinson Court (designed by John Olmsted, son of revered landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted). The Reynolds Clubhouse, the university's main student center, is located here; you can take a break at the C-Shop cafe or settle down at a table at Hutchinson Commons, a dining room/hangout spot right next to the cafe which will bring to mind the grand dining halls of Oxford or Cambridge.

Other worthy spots on campus include the charming, intimate Bond Chapel, located behind Swift Hall on the main quad, and the blocks-long Midway Plaisance, a wide stretch of green that was the site of carnival sideshow attractions during the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 (the term "midway" has been used ever since to refer to carnivals in general).

The Seminary Co-op Bookstore, 5757 S. University Ave. (tel. 773/752-4381; www.semcoop.com), is a treasure trove of academic and scholarly books. Its selection of more than 100,000 titles has won it an international reputation as "the best bookstore west of Blackwell's in Oxford." It's open Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 9pm, Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sunday from noon to 6pm.

Enjoying the Outdoors in Hyde Park--Hyde Park is not only a haven for book lovers and culture aficionados -- the community also has its open-air attractions. A number of worthy outdoor environments are located near Lake Michigan, including Lake Shore Drive itself, where many stately apartment houses follow the contour of the shoreline. A very suitable locale for a quiet stroll during the day is Promontory Point, at 55th Street and Lake Michigan, a bulb of land that juts into the lake and offers a good view of Chicago to the north and the seasonally active 57th Street beach to the south.

Farther south, just below the Museum of Science and Industry, is Wooded Island in Jackson Park, the site of the Japanese Pavilion during the Columbian Exposition and today a lovely garden of meandering paths. The Perennial Garden in Jackson Park is at 59th Street and Stony Island Avenue, where more than 180 varieties of flowering plants display a palette of colors that changes with the seasons.