Living in Portage Park & Jefferson Park: a neighborhood guide

The lay of the land

These two neighborhoods share the great arc of the bungalow belt, the crescent of brick bungalows built by the tens of thousands in the 1910s and 20s. Portage Park centers on Six Corners, the three-way crossing of Irving Park, Cicero, and Milwaukee that was once the city’s biggest shopping district outside the Loop, with the 1920 Portage Theater, one of the earliest movie palaces built for film, on the corner. Jefferson Park, to the north along Milwaukee, grew as the gateway to the Northwest Side and keeps a strong Polish thread: the Copernicus Center’s spire is a replica of the Royal Castle tower in Warsaw, and the free Ed Paschke Art Center on Higgins keeps the neighborhood-raised painter’s neon-hued work two blocks from the station. Jefferson Park now also has a guide of its own.

Getting around, including the airport

The Jefferson Park Transit Center is the Northwest Side’s hub: Blue Line trains, the Metra UP-Northwest line, and a dozen bus routes under one roof. The Blue Line runs one way to the Loop and the other way straight into O’Hare, about fifteen minutes door to terminal, which makes these blocks a standing favorite of flight crews and frequent flyers.

• Blue Line stops at Jefferson Park, Montrose, and Irving Park; the Kennedy runs alongside with ramps at the same streets.
• Metra UP-Northwest reaches Ogilvie downtown in under twenty minutes.
• Milwaukee Avenue is the historic spine, and the #56 bus still follows it end to end.

Parks and the pool

Portage Park itself is 36 acres of mature oaks with an Olympic-size outdoor pool that hosted the 1959 Pan American Games and the 1972 US Olympic swimming trials, where Mark Spitz set a world record. Jefferson Memorial Park anchors its namesake neighborhood with a fieldhouse and farmers market, and Wilson Park is the quiet local favorite in between.

The housing stock

This is bungalow country, the real thing: face-brick Chicago bungalows with art glass, limestone trim, and full basements, on 25 and 30 foot lots, joined by Cape Cods, Georgians, and two-flats near the busier streets. Many blocks sit inside bungalow historic districts where facade grants have kept the brick honest. Before you buy one, read our brick guide and older-homes guide; these houses turn 100 gracefully when the tuckpointing and gutters have been kept up.

The calendar

• Taste of Polonia at the Copernicus Center is one of the country’s biggest Polish festivals every Labor Day weekend.
• Six Corners runs a summer festival and the Portage Theater hosts screenings and events through the year.
• Jefferson Park’s farmers market runs Sundays in season.

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.

Perkolator Cafe & Roastery · 6032 W Irving Park · map
The neighborhood’s own roaster, close to Six Corners, down to a house Portage Park blend.

Guides worth reading before you tour here

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