Portage Park & Jefferson Park

Portage Park and Jefferson Park are the heart of the Bungalow Belt, mile after mile of brick Chicago bungalows on the far Northwest Side, with Six Corners at Irving Park, Cicero and Milwaukee as the old shopping district and Jefferson Park as the transit hub to O’Hare and downtown. The Portage Theater still stands at Six Corners, Polish and Mexican bakeries share Milwaukee Avenue, and many residents work for the city, which is why the neighborhoods feel steadier than the trendier ones to the southeast. Prices are among the lowest on the North Side for a single-family house with a yard.

Where it is

Portage Park runs from Belmont north to Lawrence between Cicero and Narragansett, with the park itself at Irving Park and Central; Jefferson Park sits north of it around Milwaukee and Lawrence. The Jefferson Park Transit Center combines the Blue Line, Metra’s Union Pacific Northwest line and more than a dozen CTA and Pace bus routes. The Blue Line also stops at Montrose and Irving Park along the Kennedy. Irving Park Road, Cicero and Milwaukee are the main driving streets, and the Kennedy’s Lawrence and Irving Park exits serve the area. The Blue Line to the Loop takes 25 to 30 minutes; O’Hare is 15 minutes the other way.

What to know if you’re moving here

The bungalow is the house here, and most were built in the 1920s.

• Housing is brick bungalows with a few Georgians and two-flats, built mostly from the 1910s to the 1950s, with typical prices of roughly $250,000 to $600,000 as a broad editorial estimate as of September 2026.
• Street parking is easy on almost every block, and most houses have a garage on the alley.
• Public schools fall under Chicago Public Schools, with Taft as the neighborhood high school and several selective programs inside it.
• Many bungalows sit in the Chicago Bungalow Association’s district, which offers grants and design help for restorations.
• Jefferson Park’s transit center makes this one of the easiest places in the city to commute without a car.
• The drawback is distance: downtown is a 30-minute train ride, and the nightlife is limited to a handful of taverns and restaurants on Milwaukee.

What to do if you’re visiting

Six Corners and the Milwaukee Avenue strip near Jefferson Park are the two places to walk, and both are on the Blue Line or a short bus ride from it.

• Anyone who lives here knows Community Tavern on Milwaukee is the neighborhood restaurant with a real cocktail list near Six Corners.
• Regulars will say Roma’s Italian Beef & Sausage on Cicero is the beef stand locals name first.
• Most first-time visitors learn that Delightful Pastries on Lawrence is the Polish bakery for pączki and kolaczki.
• A local would point out that Bob-O’s Hot Dogs on Irving Park is the char-dog stand at the west edge of Portage Park.
• Portage Park itself has an Olympic-size pool that hosted the 1972 Olympic trials and a field house with year-round programs.
• The Copernicus Center on Lawrence, in the old Gateway Theatre, hosts Polish cultural events and concerts.