Chicago Community Areas
Rogers Park

Border Communities, Far North

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Chicago's Nexus

Commentators frequently describe Rogers Park as one of Chicago's most diverse areas, and many champion it as the most harmoniously eclectic enclave in the city. The history of the community, once an affluent village in Evanston township, is storied and fascinating. It has existed as a rural suburb, as a gracious college town on the city's northern edge, as a center of radical and alternative thought, as a danger zone for social unrest and economic downturn, and finally as a flagship in the urban renaissance that now flourishes in many formerly underprivileged neighborhoods along the lakefront from Uptown to South Evanston. It also hosts Loyola University of Chicago and the Devon Avenue Indian/Pakistani corridor.
*Population: 63,484 **Per Capita Income: $16,937
Aldermanic Wards: Wards 40, 49 **Typical Home Value: $180,000

Neighborhoods: Rogers Park
Residential areas: Rogers Park Lakefront, Central Rogers Park, Juneway, Loyola
Commercial districts: Clark-Devon, North Clark, Sheridan Road ("Main Street on the Lake"), Lunt-Morse, Howard-Jarvis
Museums and campuses: Loyola University of Chicago, Mudelein College
Parks and Beaches: Loyola Park and Beach, Lakefront Beaches
Keywords: Academic, African, African-American, Alternative, Artistic, Athletic, Avant-Garde, Beach, Californian, Catholic, Down-to-Earth, Eastern European, Eclectic, European, Fine Arts, Jewish, Landmark(s), Indian, Multiethnic, Music Scene, Native American, Novelty, Pacific, Pakistani, Vintage, Youth
Explore Rogers Park:
Text and Images Copyright ©2004 WildOnions.org affiliates. All rights reserved.
Gracious interior of Cafe Suron, with Pratt Boulevard beyond. Sunlight washes through Rogers Park in the summer and fall, giving its beaches and the many cul-de-sacs that flank them a cheerful coastal ambience. Rogers Park is one of very few areas in the city of Chicago with residential properties that have direct access to Lake Michigan beaches, because Lake Shore Drive currently ends at Hollywood Beach in Edgewater. This unique feature of Rogers Park makes it in many ways more akin to the North Shore suburbs than to other North Side Chicago neighborhoods. With a conscientious, measured strategy to preserve Rogers Park's character and resources while it continues to undergo an economic renovation, Rogers Park has the potential over the next several decades to become one of Chicago's most prestigious communities. It is already one of the city's most charming.

Photo by Alex Wedemeyer.

*Population Source: Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, derived from U.S. Census 2000.
**Income and Home Value Source: U.S. Census 2000, Zip Code level data (60626).

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