Living in Logan Square: a neighborhood guide

The lay of the land

Logan Square is organized around its boulevards. Logan Boulevard and Kedzie Boulevard meet at a traffic circle anchored by the Illinois Centennial Monument, a seventy-foot marble column raised in 1918, and the wide, tree-lined boulevards run off from there lined with greystones. Milwaukee Avenue cuts through on the diagonal and carries the commercial life; step a block off it and the residential streets go quiet.

It sits on the Northwest Side between Avondale to the north and Humboldt Park to the south, with the Kennedy Expressway along its western and northern edge and the 606 trail forming the southern boundary.

Getting around

The Blue Line O’Hare branch is the spine: the Logan Square station at 2620 N. Milwaukee sits right at the traffic circle, with the California and Western stations to the south. It is a straight run to the Loop in one direction and to O’Hare in the other.

• CTA buses on the main streets: the #56 Milwaukee, #74 Fullerton, #76 Diversey, and #94 California.
• The Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) runs along the west and north edge, with ramps at California, Diversey, and Armitage.
• The 606 elevated trail joins the south edge, a car-free route east and west.

Parks and green space

The boulevards themselves are the neighborhood’s front yard: Logan and Kedzie Boulevards are part of Chicago’s historic boulevard system and are listed on the National Register. Palmer Square is an oval green a few blocks north, and the 606 runs along the southern edge. The Comfort Station at 2579 N. Milwaukee, a Tudor building from 1926, is a small arts and programming space by the circle.

The housing stock

Most of the housing went up between 1890 and 1915: greystones and two-flats along the boulevards, with brick two-flats and cottages on the side streets. The Logan Square Boulevards District was listed on the National Register in 1985 and made a Chicago Landmark district in 2005, so a good share of the boulevard frontage carries historic protection. If you are weighing one of the greystones, our masonry and older-home guides are worth a read first.

The calendar

• The Logan Square Farmers Market runs Sundays at the traffic-circle plaza from late spring into the fall, with an indoor winter market.
• The Logan Square Arts Festival takes over a stretch of Milwaukee Avenue in late June.
• The Logan Theatre at 2646 N. Milwaukee keeps a full calendar year round.

Festival dates move year to year. Our Chicago events calendar tracks the current ones.

Coffee, close by

An easy first errand in a new place: the nearby rooms with good espresso and a table to land at, each checked as open when this guide was last updated.

Gaslight Coffee Roasters · 2385 N Milwaukee · map
The corner window seat on Milwaukee Avenue, roasting its own since 2011.

Cafe Mustache · 2313 N Milwaukee · map
Coffee by day, a small stage by night, and the most Logan Square room in Logan Square.

Daisies · 2375 N Milwaukee · map
The pastry-and-espresso counter at the front of the restaurant, worth the trip for the baked goods alone.

Guides worth reading before you tour here

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