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This article summarizes information concerning the numbering system that the city of Chicago, Illinoismarker and surrounding suburbs use and summarizes the main thoroughfares that begin and end in the city.


Street layout

Chicagomarker's streets were laid out in a grid that grew from the city's original townsite plat. Streets following the Public Land Survey System section lines later became arterial streets in outlying sections. As new additions to the city were platted, city ordinance required them to be laid out with eight streets to the mile in one direction and 16 in the other direction. A scattering of diagonal streets, many of them originally Indian trails, also cross the city. Many additional diagonal streets were recommended in the Plan of Chicago, but only the extension of Ogden Avenue was ever constructed. In the 1950s and 1960s, a network of superhighways was built radiating from the city center.

As the city grew and annexed adjacent towns, problems arose with duplicate street names and a confusing numbering system based on the Chicago River. On June 22, 1908, the city council adopted a system proposed by Edward P. Brennan; amended June 21, 1909. The changes were effective September 1, 1909 for most of the city. Addresses in Chicago and some suburbs are numbered outward from baselines at State Street, which runs north and south, and Madison Street, which runs east and west.

A book was published in 1909 by The Chicago Directory Company indexing the old and new street numbers for most of Chicago. This volume is available on line in pdf format indexed by initial letter, Plan of Re-Numbering, City of Chicago, August 1909. The opening text of this useful book says:

"EXPLANATORY

The new house numbering plan passed by the City Council June 22, 1908, to be in force and effect September 1, 1909, makes Madison Street from Lake Michigan to the city limits on the west the base line for numbering all north and south streets and streets running in northerly or southerly direction. For east and west streets and streets running in a generally east and west direction the base line is State Street from the southern city boundary line to North Avenue, thence extended by an imaginary line through Lincoln Park and Lake Michigan."

The downtown area did not conform to this system until April 1, 1911, per an amendment to the law on June 20, 1910. Downtown was defined as Lake Michigan on the east, Roosevelt Road (Twelfth Street) on the south, and the Chicago River on the north and west. The addition to cover downtown was published, and is also on line as a pdf indexed by downtown street name.

This additional paragraph explained the downtown changes:

"The 1909 address change did not affect downtown Chicago, between the river and Roosevelt Road, the river and Lake Michigan. The ordinance was amended June 20, 1910 to include the downtown area. The new addresses for the “loop” went into use on April 1, 1911."

Chicago house numbers are generally assigned at the rate of 800 to a mile. The only exceptions are from Madison to 31st Street, just south of downtown. Roosevelt Road (previously Twelfth St) is one mile south of Madison with 1200 addresses to the mile, Cermak Road (previously 22nd Street) is two miles south of Madison with 1000 addresses to the mile, and 31st Street (3100 S) is three miles south of Madison with 900 addresses to the mile. South of 31st Street, the pattern of 800 to the mile resumes, with 39th Street the next major street, 47th after that, and so on. Individual house numbers are normally assigned at the rate of one per 10 feet of frontage. Thus the last two digits of house numbers generally go only as high as 67 before the next block number is reached. Higher house numbers are found on diagonal streets and have sometimes been assigned by request.

The blocks are normally counted out by "hundreds," so that Chicagoans routinely give directions by saying things such as "about twelve hundred north on Western" or "around twenty-four hundred west on Division" (which both describe the intersection of Western Avenue (2400 W) and Division Street (1200 N)).

South of Madison Street most of the east-west streets are simply numbered. The street numbering is aligned with the house numbering, so that 95th Street is exactly 9500 South. "Half-block" east-west thoroughfares in this area are numbered and called places; 95th Place would lie just south of and parallel to 95th Street, and just north of 96th Street.

Every four blocks (half-mile) is a major secondary street. For example, Division Street (1200 N) is less important than either Chicago Avenue (800 N) or North Avenue (1600 N), but is still a major thoroughfare. However, this is not always the case; for example, on the city's Far North Side, Peterson Avenue (6000 N) is a more heavily trafficked street than Bryn Mawr Avenue (5600 N), which sits exactly at the 7-mile marker. U.S. Route 14 is routed along Peterson between Clark Street at 1600 W and Cicero Avenue at 4800 W, whereas Bryn Mawr is discontinuous, split into two segments in this part of the city by Rosehill Cemetery between Damen and Western Avenues.

Even-numbered addresses are found on the north and west sides of a street, and odd numbers are found on the south and east sides, irrespective of the streets' position relative to the corner of State and Madison.

Diagonals, even if they were to run exactly 45 degrees off of the cardinal directions, are numbered as if they were north-south or east-west streets. Examples are North Lincoln Avenue and Ogden Avenue, which bends at Madison and changes from North Ogden to West Ogden.

The northernmost street in Chicago is Juneway Terrace (7800 N), just north of Howard Street. The southern boundary is 138th Street. The eastern boundary of Chicago is Avenue A/State Line Road (4100 E) along and south of 106th Street, and the furthest west the city extends is in the portion of O'Hare Airportmarker that lies in DuPage Countymarker, just east of Elmhurst/York Road.

Street names

While all north-south streets within city limits are named, rather than numbered, smaller streets in some areas are named in groups all starting with the same letter; thus, when traveling westward on a Chicago street, starting just past Pulaski Road (4000 W), one will cross a mile-long stretch of streets which have names starting with the letter K (From east to west: Komensky, Karlov, Kedvale, Keeler, Tripp, Kildare, Kolin, Kostner, Kenneth, Kilbourn, Kolmar, Kenton, Knox, Kilpatrick, Keating), giving rise to the expression "K-town." These streets are found approximately in the 11th mile west of the Indiana state line, and so begin with the 11th letter of the alphabet. A mile later, just past Cicero (4800 W), the starting letter changes to L, and mile by mile the letters progress up to P. Additionally, for most of the first mile west of the Illinois/Indiana state line, streets are lettered from Avenue A at the state line (4100 E) to Avenue O (3430 E), forming the A group. The areas that might otherwise be the B through J groups are the older parts of the city where street names were already well established before this system was developed (although some small groups of streets seem to have been given names intended to conform to the system), and the Q group (8800 to 9600 W) would fall west of the city, as the only land in Chicago west of 8800 West is O'Hare Airport, undeveloped forest preserve, and a small strip of land connecting O'Hare to the rest of the city and containing only Foster Avenue.

See also Etymologies of place names in Chicago, Illinois.

Suburbs

Some suburbs number their east-west streets in a continuation of the Chicago pattern, and even more number their houses according to the Chicago grid. A few suburbs also number their north-south avenues according to the Chicago grid, although such numbering vanished from Chicago itself long ago (the alphabetical naming scheme was devised to help eliminate it). For example, the 54th/Cermakmarker terminus of the Chicago 'L' rapid transit system is located near the intersection of 54th Avenue and Cermak Road (22nd Street) in Ciceromarker. This is 54 blocks west of State Street in Chicago. A minor street 54½ blocks west of State Street would be called 54th Court.

This pattern continues as far west as Plainfieldmarker, which has a 252nd Avenue. Suburbs that follow the Chicago numbering system include Nilesmarker, Rosemontmarker, Morton Grovemarker, Skokiemarker, Lincolnwoodmarker, Franklin Parkmarker, Evergreen Parkmarker, Oak Lawnmarker, Oak Forestmarker, Mattesonmarker, unincorporated parts of Des Plainesmarker, and other parts of Cook Countymarker, Will, and DuPage Counties. Other suburbs, including Evanstonmarker, Park Ridgemarker, Oak Parkmarker, Glenview and Wilmettemarker use their own numbering systems.

Some Chicago suburbs in adjoining Northwest Indiana also use the Chicago numbering system. These include Whitingmarker and Hammondmarker. Other municipalities, such as Munstermarker, Highlandmarker, and Griffithmarker are based on the Gary, Indianamarker numbering system, beginning with 5th Avenue in Gary and increasing numerically as one travels southward. Examples in far south Lake County, Indianamarker near Lowellmarker and Cedar Lakemarker include 109th Avenue, 117th Avenue and 203rd Avenue.

The aforementioned pattern also occurs in Waukegan, Illinoismarker, with Washington Street being the baseline between north and south. Nearby municipalities such as Gurneemarker, Park Citymarker, and North Chicagomarker continue with the Waukegan numbering pattern, while rural areas in Lake County, Illinoismarker follow the Chicago grid.

Grid

Major mile streets

East-West Streets North-South Streets
Mile Address number Street name Address number Street name
14 11200 N Linden Avenue 11200 W (Wolf Road)
13 10400 N Central Street 10400 W Mannheim Road
12 9600 N (Golf Road) 9600 W Rose Street (Franklin Park) also called 25th Avenue
11 8800 N (Dempster Street) 8800 W East River Road
10 8000 N (Oakton Street) 8000 W Pacific Avenue
9 7200 N Touhy Avenue 7200 W Harlem Avenue
8 6400 N Devon Avenue 6400 W Narragansett Avenue (Ridgeland Avenue in the Suburbs)
7 5600 N Bryn Mawr Avenue 5600 W Central Avenue
6 4800 N Lawrence Avenue 4800 W Cicero Avenue (Skokie Boulevard in Skokie)
5 4000 N Irving Park Road 4000 W Pulaski Road (Crawford Avenue in the Suburbs)
4 3200 N Belmont Avenue 3200 W Kedzie Avenue
3 2400 N Fullerton Avenue 2400 W Western Avenue
2 1600 N North Avenue 1600 W Ashland Avenue
1 800 N Chicago Avenue 800 W Halsted Street
0 1 N/S Madison Street 0 E/W State Street
1 1200 S Roosevelt Road 800 E Cottage Grove Avenue
2 2200 S Cermak Road 1600 E Stony Island Avenue
3 3100 S 31st Street 2400 E Yates Avenue
4 3900 S Pershing Road 3200 E Brandon Avenue
5 4700 S 47th Street 4000 E Avenue C
6 5500 S 55th Street (Garfield Boulevard)
7 6300 S 63rd Street
8 7100 S 71st Street
9 7900 S 79th Street
10 8700 S 87th Street
11 9500 S 95th Street
12 10300 S 103rd Street
13 11100 S 111th Street
14 11900 S 119th Street
15 12700 S 127th Street
16 13500 S 135th Street
17 14300 S 143th Street
18 15900 S 159th Street (Rt. 6)


(No part of Golf Road, Dempster Street, Oakton Street, 143rd Street, or 159th Street actually lies within the boundaries of Chicago. These streets are included for reference, since they are a continuation of the Chicago mile street pattern into the suburbs.)

Downtown

Many streets in downtown Chicago are considered major streets:





Secondary streets

  • East/west:
    • 10000 N- (Old Orchard Road)
    • 9200 N- (Church Street)
    • 8400 N- (Main Street)
    • 7600 N- Howard Street
    • 6800 N- Pratt Avenue
    • 6000 N- Peterson Avenue
    • 5200 N- Foster Avenue
    • 4600 N- Wilson Avenue (not a half-mile)
    • 4400 N- Montrose Avenue
    • 3600 N- Addison Street
    • 2800 N- Diversey Avenue
    • 2000 N- Armitage Avenue
    • 1200 N- Division Street
    • 400 N- Kinzie Street
    • 1000 S- Taylor Street (not a half-mile)
    • 1600 S- 16th Street
    • 2600 S- 26th Street
    • 3500 S- 35th Street
    • 4300 S- 43rd Street
    • 5100 S- 51st Street (East Hyde Park Boulevard)
    • 5900 S- 59th Street
    • 6700 S- Marquette Road (67th Street)
    • 7500 S- 75th Street
    • 8300 S- 83rd Street
    • 9100 S- 91st Street
    • 9100 S- 99th Street
    • 10700 S- 107th Street
    • 11500 S- 115th Street
    • 12300 S- 123rd Street
    • 13100 S- 131st Street


The half-mile numbered streets on the South Side are all secondary streets: 35th, 43rd, 51st, 59th, etc.; all are numbered aside from Marquette Road, running at 6700 S, west from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (400 E) to the city's western limit at Cicero Ave (4800 W), near Midway Airportmarker. East of King to near Lake Michiganmarker at 2400 E, it is called 67th Street, and Marquette is aligned one block to the north on what would be 66th Street.

  • North/south:
    • 9400 W- River Road (not a half-mile)
    • 8400 W- Cumberland Avenue
    • 7600 W- Oriole Avenue
    • 6800 W- Oak Park Avenue
    • 6000 W- Austin Avenue
    • 5200 W- Laramie Avenue
    • 4400 W- Kostner Avenue
    • 3600 W- Central Park Avenue
    • 3400 W- Kimball Avenue (Homan Ave) not a half-mile
    • 2800 W- California Avenue
    • 2000 W- Damen Avenue
    • 1200 W- Racine Avenue
    • 400 E- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (King Drive)
    • 1200 E- Woodlawn Avenue
    • 2000 E- Jeffery Boulevard
    • 2628 E- Torrence Avenue (not a half-mile)
    • 2800 E- Burnham Avenue
    • 3000 E- Commercial Avenue (not a half-mile)
    • 3600 E- Avenue L


(No part of Old Orchard Road, Church Street, or Main Street actually lies within the boundaries of Chicago. These streets are included for reference, since they are a continuation of the Chicago mile street pattern into the suburbs.)

The numbering system is also copied in Milwaukeemarker.

Diagonal Streets

The following streets run diagonally through Chicago's grid system on all or part of their courses. These streets tend to form major 5 or 6-way intersections. In many cases they were Indian trails, or were among the earliest streets established in the city. Diagonals are numbered as north-south or east-west streets. Examples are North Lincoln Avenue and Ogden Avenue, which bends at Madison and changes from North Ogden to West Ogden.



Highways

Interstates in Chicago
The city of Chicago proper has seven major interstate highways crossing through it. However, the various roadways are more typically known to Chicagoans not by their Interstate numbers but rather by various given names.

Expressways in Chicagoland







  • The Edens Expressway runs south from the Cook Countymarker line (Lake-Cook Road) near Northbrookmarker to its interchange with the Kennedy Expressway near Montrose. The Edens Spur (formally a part of the Tri-State Tollway) splits off near the north end to interchange with the mainline Tri-state. All of the Edens except for the small portion north of where the Edens Spur splits off, and all of the Edens Spur, is signed as Interstate 94; the northernmost section is signed as U.S. Highway 41. North of the northern terminus U.S. 41 continues north into Lake Countymarker as Skokie Highway. U.S. 41 is overlaid on Interstate 94 from the junction with the Edens Spur to the Skokie Road exit in Skokiemarker.


  • The Dan Ryan Expressway separately runs south from The Circle Interchangemarker (where it interchanges with the Kennedy and Eisenhower Expressways and with Congress Parkway) near the Chicago Loop, through the Spaghetti Bowl where it interchanges with the Stevenson Expressway (Interstate 55), then past an interchange with the Chicago Skywaymarker near 66th Street, to its southern terminus in south Chicago, where it interchanges with the Bishop Ford Freeway and continues southwest through south Chicago and the southern suburbs toward Champaign-Urbana. The Dan Ryan is signed as Interstate 94 until it interchanges with the Bishop Ford Freeway and Interstate 57; the Dan Ryan is then signed as the latter (although for the purposes of local traffic reports and conversation, the Dan Ryan is usually considered to end at the Interstate 57 interchange). The portion between The Circle Interchangemarker and the junction with the Chicago Skyway is overlaid with Interstate 90. There are express and local lanes running through downtown Chicago on the south side of the city which were under construction until their completion in November 2007.












  • The Bishop Ford Freeway separately (originally named the Calumet Expressway, and still referred to as such in some local traffic reports) starts at the southern terminus of the Dan Ryan Expressway and heads first southeast and then south through southern Chicago and into Chicago's southern suburbs, where it intersects with the western end of the Kingery Expressway and the eastern end of the Tri-State Tollway, then continues on further into the south suburbs before downgrading to a surface highway and eventually terminating into Dixie Highway (Illinois Route 1) south of Crete, Illinoismarker. The portion of the Bishop Ford Freeway north of the interchange with the Kingery Expressway is signed as Interstate 94; south of that point it is signed as Illinois Route 394.


  • The Chicago Skywaymarker angles off from the Dan Ryan Expressway near 66th Street and heads southeast toward Indianamarker. Whether or not the Skyway is part of Interstate 90 is a matter of some debate. The eastern end of the Skyway ends with toll bridge over the Little Calumet River and (incidentally) the Indiana state line; on the other side of the state line the Skyway ends at the western terminus of the Indiana Toll Road.


  • The Tri-State Tollway separately only enters Chicago at one point: its interchange with the Kennedy Expressway and North-West Tollway on the far northwest side. Otherwise, the Tri-State circumvents the city of Chicago entirely, running entirely through the suburbs from its northern terminus near the Wisconsinmarker border to its southern terminus at the interchange with the Bishop Ford Freeway and the western end of the Kingery Expressway. North of the junction with the Edens Spur the Tri-State is signed as Interstate 94; south of this it is signed as Interstate 294, and the southern part of that is overlaid by Interstate 80 (which continues east past the eastern terminus of Interstate 294 as the Kingery Expressway and on into Indiana).




South Lake Shore Drive, looking north into the heart of the city


  • Lake Shore Drivemarker is a major highway running along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Hayes Drive (63rd Street) in southern Chicago to the intersection of Hollywood Avenue and Sheridan Road in Chicago's Edgewater neighborhood. For most of its length, Lake Shore Drive is signed as U.S. Highway 41. Parts of Lake Shore Drive are constructed at or near expressway grade, but there are a number of at-grade intersections, especially near downtown. Nonetheless, "LSD" (as it is often referred to) is a major arterial with a great deal of cultural as well as transportation significance to Chicagoans.


Minor Freeways

  • The Elgin Bypass is a five-mile freeway along U.S. Route 20, bypassing Elgin, Illinoismarker. It goes west from the Villa Street interchange across the Fox River with exits at State Street, McLean Blvd, and Randall Road before continuing as an at-grade road.








U.S. highways



Trivia

  • On the first day of implementing the modern street numbering system 75% of the mail was incorrectly addressed.
  • There were thirteen streets named Washington at the beginning of the 20th century.
  • Chicago's longest thoroughfare is Western Avenue at 23.5 miles.
  • Milwaukee and Elston Avenues (both northwest-southeast diagonals) intersect twice—at 800 north (at Fry Street, just north of Chicago Avenue) and again at 6200 north (at Melvina Avenue, just north of Peterson Avenue). So do Princeton & Harvard, two curved streets on the south side.
  • Sheridan Road crosses Broadway three times, first at 3850 north (between Grace and Dakin), secondly near 4400 north (at Montrose) and finally at 6400 north (near Devon).
  • Sheridan Road, Wacker Drive and Ogden Avenue have both East/West and North/South addresses.
  • Wacker Drive is the only road in Chicago to exist on both sides of both Madison Street and State Street.
  • Some streets are named after all the past presidents, in order, but they skipped Tyler purposely.
  • There are several parcels of land around O'Hare that are in the City of Chicago, but are assigned suburban addresses and zip codes when new buildings are constructed. An example would be 423 W Touhy Ave, Des Plaines, 60018 which is really 12555 W. Touhy Ave., Chicago, IL 60666. Both addresses are listed in the front to reduce confusion.
  • Des Plaines and Elk Grove Village have their own street numbering system. Businesses located on land annexed by Chicago now have a Chicago address, but continue to use their old street number, even though they are non-conforming to the Chicago street numbering system. This would lead to confusion as 401 W Touhy Ave., Chicago, Illinois would suggest a property located in Lake Michigan.


References

  1. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/440.html
  2. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/1909snc/start.pdf
  3. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/1909snc/start.pdf
  4. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/1911snc/start.pdf
  5. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/1909snc/start.pdf
  6. http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/nameChanges/start.pdf
  7. Chicago Street Names : chicagology
  8. Parcel Details
  9. Parcel Details


See also




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