Pill Hill got its name because, in the 1960s, doctors who worked at nearby South Chicago Hospital began settling on the Stony Island Ridge. They were attracted by a new development of mid-century modern houses, built to keep middle-class residents on the South Side.

Pill Hill is no longer a medical ghetto, but the houses are still there, with their angled roofs, stone facing, and broad banks of picture windows, often fronted by sculpted topiary. The neighborhood, which is bounded by 91st Street, Cregier Avenue, 95th Street, and Paxton Avenue, is Chicago’s most perfectly preserved enclave of the Space Age architecture of the 1950s and ’60s. Residents love the architecture because, unlike in the Bungalow Belt, every house has a design distinct from its neighbor.

Walk Pill Hill’s suburban-like streets, and your mind will fill with wonder: “I wonder if there’s a fondue party going on in that house, followed by a game of Twister.” “I wonder if there’s an Eames chair and a Roy Lichtenstein print in that living room.” “I wonder if that couple is about to put Antonio Carlos Jobim and Dave Brubeck on the hi-fi.” “I wonder if those people will be having a cocktail hour later, where they drink Tom Collins and discuss the Kinsey Report and the Bomb.” “I wonder if Mike Brady designed this neighborhood.”

Dig this selection of Pill Hill’s grooviest abodes. Chicago doesn’t get any modder than this.