Trick-or-Treat Comes to Milwaukee Avenue, a New Whole Foods Takes Shape, and a Garden Club Needs Your Hands This Weekend
By Socialhood News · Wicker Park ·
October in Wicker Park has a way of stacking up. With the farmers market closing day and the final car-free Milwaukee Avenue event both landing on October 25, it would be easy to miss what comes right after: the neighborhood's annual Trick-or-Treat event on Halloween itself, Saturday, October 31, organized by the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. But that's not all that's happening — a major grocery arrival is quietly taking shape a few blocks away, and the Wicker Park Garden Club is calling for volunteer hands this Saturday morning before the season winds down.
The Chamber's Halloween Trick-or-Treat is a straightforward neighborhood tradition: on October 31, Milwaukee Avenue corridor businesses open their doors to costumed kids and families for a safe, walkable, community-centered Halloween. The event is listed on the Wicker Park Bucktown Chamber of Commerce's official calendar at wickerparkbucktown.com. For families with young children, it turns the neighborhood's densest commercial stretch into a ready-made Halloween route, with the added bonus of supporting the local businesses that line the corridor. No tickets, no registration — just costumes and comfortable shoes.
The timing follows a full October for the neighborhood. BooPalooza and BarkPalooza drew an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people to the park on October 17. The Thrift Riot brought vintage shoppers to the corridor the same day. The farmers market closes out its 26th season and the final Meet Me on Milwaukee car-free event runs simultaneously on October 25. Halloween Trick-or-Treat on the 31st is the capstone — and for families who have already made the park and Milwaukee Avenue part of their October ritual, it's a natural last stop before the neighborhood shifts into its quieter winter rhythm.
Before any of that, though, there's something happening this Saturday, October 24, that deserves its own mention. The Wicker Park Garden Club's Gardening Saturdays program runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the park at 1425 N. Damen Ave., and the club is actively seeking volunteer gardeners to help maintain the ornamental community garden during its final weeks of the growing season. Anyone interested can reach out at [email protected]. The volunteer program is what earned the park its Level 1 ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation earlier this fall — a recognition from the world's only accreditation program for arboreta — and Saturday mornings in the garden are open to neighbors of all experience levels.
A block and a half east, on the other side of the neighborhood's commercial core, a larger development is quietly progressing. Whole Foods Market is in development at 1200 N. Ashland Ave., moving into the landmarked Home Bank and Trust Company Building at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Division Street. The building's main commercial space has been vacant since 2023, when CVS closed that location as part of a company-wide consolidation. Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, confirmed the Wicker Park store in April after months of neighborhood speculation, though a spokesperson declined to share an opening timeline. The building is owned by RDM Companies, which is also planning a 13-story apartment tower on the surface parking lot behind the former CVS. 1st Ward Ald. Daniel La Spata has confirmed his office has been in touch with Whole Foods about logistics, including loading accommodations for the historic corner site.
For a neighborhood that has been watching that corner sit idle for the better part of three years, the confirmation is significant. The Home Bank and Trust Company Building is a Chicago landmark, and the combination of a full-service grocery anchor with a major residential tower behind it represents one of the more consequential development projects currently underway in Wicker Park. There is no opening date yet, but as fall gives way to winter and build-out work continues, the corner at Ashland and Division is worth keeping an eye on.
For now, the more immediate calendar item is the one on October 31. If you're planning a Halloween route in the neighborhood, the Milwaukee Avenue corridor between the Damen Blue Line and Ashland is as walkable and well-lit a stretch as any in Chicago, with the park itself available as a gathering point before or after the trick-or-treat run. Full details on all Chamber events — including Trick-or-Treat, the remaining Gardening Saturdays, and updates on the neighborhood's newest arrivals — are at wickerparkbucktown.com and wickerpark.org.
Sources:
1. https://business.wickerparkbucktown.com/chamber-events
2. https://wickerpark.org/events/
3. https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/04/20/whole-foods-opening-wicker-park-store-in-former-cvs/