Click here to see the numbered map of Obama's Chicago

Until Tuesday, November 4, 2008, Chicago had 77 official neighbourhoods. In the weeks since that election it has added a 78th: Obamaville.

The borders of this newcomer are diffuse and shifting. Its territory ranges from the mural of the president-elect at 2500 North Halsted Street (1), which has rapidly become the most photographed in the city; takes in the Hyatt Regency (2), where he watched the results roll in; through US Cellular Field (3), home of his beloved White Sox; and down to the University of Chicago (4), where he taught constitutional law.

And Obamaville grows all the time. Last week it annexed a deli in the Near South Side called Manny’s (5) when Bar-ack popped in for lunch (three corned beef, three potato pancakes, two cherry pie). In fact, Manny’s had been an Obama favourite for some time, but given the exposure, owner Ken Raskin can expect the Gray Line tour buses to start cruising by any day now. Sales of corned-beef sandwiches have already soared.

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For the city, this virtual ’hood is rapidly becoming as powerful a tourism draw as the Sears Tower or Navy Pier. The Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau’s website has seen traffic increase by one-third, with most of the visitors clicking on the “Presidential Chicago” portal, and the city’s Office of Tourism has had to train up a whole new raft of greeters at the landmarks at the heart of Obamaville, the adjacent neighbourhoods of Hyde Park and Kenwood. (The greeters are local volunteers who sign on to take visitors, free of charge, around particular neighbourhoods or on speciality tours – food, music, buildings and so on. They must be booked 7-10 working days in advance at www.chicagogreeter.com or by calling 00 1 312 744 8000.)

As my guide, Susan, explained, apart from architecture buffs, this area to the south of the city was not on many tourists’ checklists. “Then came November 4,” she says, “and it all changed.”

As a long-term Hyde Park resident, Susan has suddenly found herself in great demand, not only guiding tourists but orientating other greeters, many of whom have never been so far south before. “Well, we are really pleased and proud. We moved here in the 1970s because we had adopted a couple of mixed-race kids and I wanted to bring them up in an area where we would all feel comfortable. But it was pretty run-down and shabby then.”

It doesn’t look too shabby now. Hyde Park and Kenwood are full of restored 19th-century grand mansions, built by Chicago’s merchants, as well as several examples of Frank Lloyd Wright, notably the Robie House (1908-10), and have a bookish, collegiate feel, thanks to the nearby university. The Obamas’ place is on a pleasant suburban street called Greenwood Avenue (6). “But we can’t get too near that now,” says Susan.

In fact, with the streets blocked by police cars and men apparently talking to their cuff links, you’ll get a better view of the White House when he finally gets the keys than you ever will of 5046 South Greenwood. But that doesn’t stop the tour buses gliding by every few minutes.

Susan’s greeter tour takes in other key points of Obamaville, from The Lab (7), Sasha and Malia’s spiffy school, to Obama’s barber, the Hyde Park Hair Salon (8), which appears in Dreams from My Father as Smitty’s.

Down the road at 1518 East 53rd Street is Valois (9), a cafeteria where the young Obama indulged in a turkey dinner or a pot roast. It’s certainly not grand. “No, Valois is for anyone who wants a cheap, filling meal. You get students, professors and community organisers, like Obama once was. It’s very sociable.” And generous: the day after the election, Gus Sellis put up a notice saying breakfast was on the house, and hundreds of locals took the owner up on his offer.

A few blocks away are two businesses that trumpet their Obama associations, 57th Street Books (10), where the window proclaims the president-elect to be a “long-term customer” and Medici (11), a pizza place that is doing a brisk trade in “Obama Eats Here” T-shirts. But does he, I asked Kelly, one of the staff selling the shirts to eager visitors. “It’s been a while,” she admitted, “but he used to come here regularly. I guess he’s been kind of busy.”

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