(the one in Chicago, not Philadelphia, and including Palmer Square)

 

 

 

 

Part of the Bouelevards system

 

 

Logan Square/Kedzie Blvd/Palmer Square arrangement...

 

 

Re-design.  The column was designed by the architect who designed the Lincoln Memorial in DC, and commemorates th Illinois statehood centennial.

 

 

 

1890s...terminus of the Logan Square Branch of the "Metropolitan West Side Elevated".  End of the Line.

 

 

For rail fans..the Logan Square L, showing the terminal, bus transfer, and some equipment from the 1960s:  old PCC cars from the 40s/early 50s (made from cut-up PCC streetcars), and air conditioned Pullmans from the 1960s, dating from the same time and from the same manufacture as the Cleveland Rapid Transit "Airporters".  This and the Lake Street L was the way we got to the Loop when I was a kid.  Take the bus to Kedzie, walk up Kedzie, and catch the L from this station into the Loop.

 

 

Logan Square today...

 

 

Around the square

 

 

 

Milwaulkee Avenue, looking south toward the Loop and Bucktown/Wicker Park

 

 

 

 

Logan Boulevard

 

 

Kedzie Bouelvard, heading south toward Palmer Square and then Humboldt Park

 

 

 

The Logan Square Auditorium (on the top floor..based on the posters and handbills its a punk/alternative rock venue). Note Johnny's Grill...typical 'busy corner restaurant' of the old days (1960s) in Chicago, some still survive in these outer neighborhoods

 

 

 

Walking south on Kedzie toward Palmer Square.  A big building, now a church

 

 

Peaking down a side street, to show you all some Chicago "greystones"

 

 

 

 

Back to Kedzie (lined with apartments)

 

 

The concept behind Kedzie and the other boulevards is a wide central traffic lane, flanking landscaped lawns, and one-way-streets for local traffic.

 

 

 

Big houses on Kedzie Boulevard (all on the west side for some reason)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wide flanking lawns.  The planting inaturalistic, not formal like the French bouelevards.  I think this and the other "west parks" was relandscaped by Jens Jensen in the years prior to WWI.

 

 

Apartments

 

 

And more big houses

 

 

 

 

The end of Kedzie Bouelevard at Palmer Square

 

 

 

 

and looking in to Palmer Square

 

 

Palmer Square isn't really a square, it is a rectangle

 

 

When I was a kid living in Chicago my folks had freinds here on Palmer Square, living in an apartment, & I used to play in that park with their kids.  The guy was from Kentucky and was a truck driver, and had a CB base station, which was my first intro into CB radio.

 

Courtyard apartments.  Palmer Square is lined with apartments and single family houses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palmer Square "breaks the grid", so where sidestreets meet the square, they put a sidewalk through.

 

 

 

 

Heading back north up Kedzie to Logan Square

 

 

Fullerton, looking west.  One of the busy streets bisecting the neighborhood.  I used to live west on Fullerton, and we took the bus here to take the Logan Square L into the Loop.

 

 

More courtyard apartment buildings

 

 

 

Back at Logan Square

 

 

 

 

Wrightwood intsects the square.  Looking West.  This was a shortcut from Cragin east to the Northside, as it was a through street (meaning it wasnt blocked by the railroad embankments the cut up the city), and didn't have a lot of traffic.  So you could keep moving, though not as fast as on Fullerton.

 

 

The Norwegian Lutheran "Minnekirchen".  Logan Square had a sScandinavian community at one time, Norwegians and Danes.  Also a lot of Poles that moved up Milwaulkee from Bucktown (mostly to Avondale further north, though).  Then in the 1960s and 70s the Puerto Ricans moved in, more towards Palmer Square.  Now there are a lot of Mexicans here, and also gentrifiers, though the "gentrification" (probably not a right word for whats going on) has been going on in spurts since the 1970s as this is just such a nice and convenient neighborhood.  It never really got all that bad, though there was some gang action here in the 60s and 70s.

 

 

 

Looking north on Milwaulkee, towards Avondale and then the Six Corners shopping district, and then Jefferson Park/Portage Park.  The L was extended as a subway under Milwaulkee and opened to Jefferson Park in 1971 I think.  Then in the 1970s it was finally extended all the way to O'Hare.  I remember this street all tore up when they where building the subway. 

 

There is also a big neighborhood movie theatre a block north of here, "The Logan".

 

 

The Eagle/El Aguilar.

 

 

The most famous resident of Logan Square was L Frank Baum, who wrote The Wizard of Oz (and other Oz books). He eventually moved to Hollywood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neat thread! I love those boulevards and parks. A couple times a year I get to the U of Chicago/Washington Park area (where they're restoring Lorado Taft's Fountain of Time.

 

I remember those green and white subway/elevated cars made from surplus PCC trolleys; I think they ran well into the seventies. They were rough and noisy compared with the later cars, but an acquaintance who worked for CTA then said they were the fastest, most reliable cars on the system. I remember that you could hear the gears howl on some of them as they took off from a stop.

 

With no air conditioning, they ran with the windows open most of the time in summer. If the windows were open when they made the transition from elevated to subway at Fullerton, the noise inside was deafening, even painful to me unless I plugged my ears.

Thanks for the tour!

Really nice tour!

super...   thank you very much

very sharp tour jeff. reminds me of ohio a little....only so much more so.

Definately wouldn't mistake that with Logan in Philadelphia!!! 

 

Very well researched, as always  :-)

Bump, to go along with Inks Blvd thread.

Thanks for bumping that. It was fun to revisit.

Nice stuff!

Love those Chicago "greystones."

Great set, thanks!

Such a great neighborhood, I used to take the train out toward O'Hare in the late 90's from the Logan station.  The odd thing was there was a really old Gap store mixed in with all the dollar stores on the corner of Milwaukee and Diversey that still was called "Super Gap" from the 80's.  I think they finally updated the signage and now it's a Gap Outlet.

Very nice!

Awesome photo tour.  I've only visited this area once, but it felt a lot like some of the denser areas of Detroit.

Awesome Tour!

 

Seriously, though, how could anyone consider living in the 'burbs after that thread?

 

I have been in southside replica of the area, Stony Island/Jackson Park, (just a few blocks from the University of Chicago and Barack Obama's house) and it was beautiful, especially with the lake and the Museum of Science and Industry.

 

Also, driving on Stony Island was the first time that I have ever seen anyone attempt to sell bottled water in the middle of a street before, so that was kinda cool.

 

If anyone here is considering driving to downtown Chicago anytime soon, I would highly suggest taking Stony Island up to Lakeshore and going into town that way, because it is an awesome drive, and with the Dan Ryan under construction, it is a faster alternative during most times of the day.

What part of the Dan Ryan is under construction?  It's been complete for over a year now.