Beverly Shores, IN

Beverly Shores is a small Porter County town in Pine Township on the Lake Michigan shore, about 36 miles east of Chicago. The 2023 five-year ACS counted 597 residents. It grew as a planned resort and second-home community after the South Shore rail line reached the area, with Samuel Insull reorganizing the line in the 1920s and promoting travel into the dunes. Several homes from Chicago’s 1933–34 Century of Progress fair were moved here, so a walk through the residential streets can turn into an unexpected look at modernist exhibition houses. Indiana Dunes National Park and Indiana Dunes State Park wrap around the town’s shoreline, while the South Shore line keeps Chicago within the daily map.

ATTRChris Light / CC BY-SA 4.0

Beverly Shores today is a mix of full-time and “some-timer” residents, beach access, dune roads, and a surprisingly busy town schedule. The old South Shore station carries museum history alongside train service, and local traditions include Winterfest, the Father’s Day 5K Necktie Race, and the Fireman’s Ball. Town work lately has included beach parking, social trails, parks, capital planning, and the 2025 comprehensive plan. It is not a conventional beach resort with a commercial strip; it is a narrow lake town where commuter rail, modernist houses, national-park land, and town meetings share the same stretch of Indiana shoreline.