Logan Square may be the only Chicago neighborhood with its own Statue of Liberty: for decades she’s been greeting the clients of Liberty Bank for Savings (2392 N. Milwaukee), standing guard over the steel-framed glass and mosaic-tile entrance. The building itself is an anomaly, a 60s design in a neighborhood that, as a general rule, doesn’t do modern. Take a walk down the street, east of California, and you’ll see what I mean.
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Between the Congress and Logan Boulevard, Milwaukee Avenue is a motley succession of retail buildings more utilitarian than stylish. That changes when you get to the Logan Theatre (2646 N. Milwaukee) and the commercial strip that extends to the north. Far humbler than the Congress, the Logan is still showing movies (see listings) nearly a century after its 1915 opening. Further up the street the storefronts grow more ornate, though they’re primarily occupied by discount shops, even at the intersection of Diversey, Milwaukee, and Kimball, once the neighborhood’s retail crossroads. On one corner, what was once a three-story Goldblatt’s department store is now a Gap outlet (see shopping listings); the upper-story windows have been filled in with glass block. Across the street, above the entrance of a two-story art deco structure, the remnants of the name Woolworth seep through the signage for a Foot Locker. The six-story headquarters of Chicago clothier Morris B. Sachs—who once claimed, “I sold Dick Daley’s mother the first pair of long pants for Dick. Without me, where would he be?”—is now vacant, save for a Payless Shoe Source on the ground floor. The building is a protected landmark, and the city is seeking proposals for its rehabilitation.
Just northwest of the column is one of the square’s true architectural markers, the towering brick Gothic Norwegian Lutheran Church (2614 N. Kedzie). Built by Norwegian immigrants in 1912, it’s the last church in Chicago offering services in that language. Next door is a marker of a much different kind: the side wall of a five-story building that once housed Grace’s Furniture and is being turned into a Cheetah Gym. The wall has been painted entirely black, save for this repeated inscription in blood-red lettering: rent this space. call david. 773-728-7777.
The real charm of Logan Square lies in what you find when you walk off the boulevards: simple tree-lined streets of unassuming homes with well-kept gardens: mix and match graystones, brick two-flats, workingman’s houses with pitched roofs and wide porches. None of them hold any great architectural pedigree, but the parts meld into an exceptionally graceful and inviting whole. Logan Square gets the little things right, whether it’s a lovely vest-pocket Neighbors Garden (try 2533 N. Sacramento) or tiny Unity Park (2636 N. Kimball), with its charming minifieldhouse and new playlot.
