Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Everything Chicago. Mostly random. Always local.

Living in Logan Square: A Local’s Guide to Community Area 22

Logan Square is Chicago’s Community Area 22, about five miles northwest of the Loop, built around a chain of landscaped boulevards and a 50-foot column with an eagle on top. The housing is mostly older: frame houses, two- and three-flats, small apartment buildings and some very large homes on the boulevards, where most buildings went up between 1880 and 1930. You get three Blue Line stops, 18 parks and The 606, and officially Bucktown comes with it.

The boulevards and the square

The boulevards are the main event. Logan, Kedzie and Humboldt Boulevards, along with Logan Square and Palmer Square, were laid out as part of the West Park Commission’s boulevard system, which the Illinois legislature authorized in 1869. William Le Baron Jenney designed it, and Jens Jensen later revised it.

In the middle of the square stands the Illinois Centennial Monument, put up in 1918 for the state’s 100th birthday. Henry Bacon, who also designed the Lincoln Memorial, drew the column, and Evelyn Beatrice Longman sculpted the drum at its base, which shows explorers, pioneers, farmers and laborers. The eagle on top has been called “rather ungainly,” which is fair.

The City made the boulevards a Chicago Landmark district on November 1, 2005. They had been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. The district runs about 2.5 miles along Logan, Kedzie, Palmer and Humboldt, north of Cortland Street.

Housing: frame houses, two-flats and boulevard mansions

The housing is mostly older, and the age depends on the block. After the 1871 fire, builders put up wood-frame houses out here, outside the city’s fire limits, along Milwaukee Avenue and around the old Maplewood station area. The boulevards developed later, in roughly this order: single-family homes first, then two- and three-flats and small apartment buildings.

Within the landmark district, most buildings date from 1880 to 1930. The styles include Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque and Prairie, and you can watch them change from ornate stone-trimmed brick to plainer, more symmetrical fronts. Architects to look for include Charles F. Sorensen, Fred and John Ahlschlager, and the firm Worthmann & Steinbach. On the boulevards there are also churches, such as the Norwegian Lutheran Minnekirken at 2614 N. Kedzie Blvd.

Landmark status matters if you’re buying there. In the district, changes to a building’s visible facade are reviewed, and demolition is restricted. Being on the National Register alone doesn’t do that.

Getting around: three Blue Line stops and The 606

Logan Square has three Blue Line stations: Logan Square, California and Western, which is on the O’Hare branch. Logan Square and Western are accessible. California is not.

Trains have run here for well over a century, though sources give different start dates. The Encyclopedia of Chicago says the “L” arrived in 1890. Chicago-L.org dates the original elevated Logan Square terminal to May 25, 1895. The current underground Logan Square station opened on February 1, 1970, along with the extension to Jefferson Park, and the old elevated terminal was torn down.

The 606, also called the Bloomingdale Trail, runs along the area’s southern edge on Bloomingdale Avenue (1800 N). It sits on old railroad embankments built from 1910 to 1913 and opened as a 2.7-mile trail on June 6, 2015. It runs from Ashland Avenue to Ridgeway and is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. All its ramps are ADA-accessible, and leashed dogs are allowed.

Milwaukee Avenue and the new plazas

Milwaukee Avenue is the area’s spine, and it’s older than the neighborhood. It began as the Northwest Plank Road, which sources date to either 1849–50 or 1850, and wasn’t paved until 1911. It still runs diagonally across the grid. The Logan Theatre at 2646 N. Milwaukee opened in 1915 as the Paramount and reopened after a renovation in 2012.

For about a century, Milwaukee cut straight through the traffic circle, which was built around the monument in 1927. CDOT’s redesign moved Milwaukee out of the green space. The circle area is now a pedestrian plaza, and a new plaza called La Placita sits on a reconfigured stretch of Kedzie north of the column. The streets reopened in November 2025, and the ribbon cutting was in June 2026. Some intersections are still being argued over. On Fullerton, the Logan Square branch library is at 3030 W. Fullerton Ave.

Bucktown, Palmer Square and the official map

Bucktown is officially part of Logan Square. On the City’s neighborhood map, Community Area 22 contains both, and Wicker Park, just south, is in West Town. In 1863 Chicago annexed land east of Western Avenue and south of Fullerton, then known as the Holstein area and now called Bucktown. That history lives on in Holstein Park, which has an outdoor pool.

The area’s eastern edge is the North Branch of the Chicago River, and its southern edge follows Bloomingdale Avenue, which is why The 606 doubles as a border. The Kennedy Expressway, built in the late 1950s, cut part of the area off from the rest. The rest of Logan Square joined the city in 1889 and is named for Gen. John A. Logan.

Palmer Square (2200 N. Kedzie, about 8 acres) is the second-largest park in the area; only Kosciuszko Park, at 9 acres, is bigger. The Logan Square locals talk about doesn’t always match the official one, so check the map before you argue.

Logan Square at a glance

Logan Square is official community area 22 of Chicago’s 77. Inside its lines: 3 CTA L stations, 18 Chicago Park District parks, 1 public library branch and 12 Chicago Public Schools buildings. Neighborhood names on the City’s map that fall at least partly inside: Bucktown, Logan Square.

L stations

  • California: Blue Line (not accessible)
  • Logan Square: Blue Line (accessible)
  • Western: Blue Line, O’Hare branch (accessible)

Parks

  • Kosciuszko Park: 9.0 acres; indoor pool, playground, gymnasium
  • Palmer Square Park: 8.1 acres; playground
  • Mozart Park: 4.9 acres; playground, gymnasium
  • Park No. 512 (1800 N Ashland Ave): 3.5 acres
  • Holstein Park: 3.3 acres; outdoor pool, playground, gymnasium
  • Haas Park: 1.8 acres; playground, gymnasium
  • Logan Square Skate Park: 1.6 acres
  • Unity Park: 1.4 acres; playground, community center
  • Churchill Field: 1.2 acres; dog-friendly area
  • Senior Citizens Memorial Park: 1.1 acres
  • Ehrler Park: 0.98 acres; playground
  • Park No. 556 (2529 W Logan Blvd): 0.57 acres; dog-friendly area
  • De Burgos Park: 0.51 acres; playground
  • Monticello Park: 0.41 acres; playground
  • Flower Park: 0.37 acres; community center
  • Neighbors’ Garden: 0.16 acres; community center
  • Smaller parks and mini-parks: Park No. 567, Maple Park

Library

Public schools

These are the Chicago Public Schools buildings located inside the community area. Being near a school is not the same as being in its attendance boundary: to see which schools serve a specific address, use the CPS School Locator.

More on the neighborhood

Sources: Encyclopedia of Chicago: Logan Square; City of Chicago: Logan Square Boulevards District (landmark details); Logan Square Preservation: The History of Logan Square; Chicago Monuments Project: Illinois Centennial Monument; Block Club Chicago: Logan Square traffic circle history (2020); Streetsblog Chicago: Logan Square’s street reconfiguration with new plazas (June 2026); Chicago-L.org: Logan Square station; The 606: History; The 606: Opening announcement (6/06/15); The 606: Visit; Cinema Treasures: Logan Theatre; City of Chicago, community area boundaries; City of Chicago, neighborhood boundaries; City of Chicago, CTA ‘L’ stops; Chicago Park District parks; Chicago Public Library locations; CPS school locations, 2025–26. Lists checked October 19, 2026; park features are from Park District data last updated in 2022.