• Palmer (John McAuley) Square Park
• Humboldt Boulevard
• Logan Square Boulevards Historic District (NRHP 1985 / Chicago Landmark 2005)
• Ignaz Schwinn residence site at Palmer and Humboldt

Palmer Square takes its name from the seven-acre park at its western edge, itself named for John McAuley Palmer, a Civil War general and the fifteenth governor of Illinois. Chicago's West Park Commissioners first platted the grounds as Palmer Place in the early 1870s, part of the city's emerging boulevard system, and renamed it Palmer Square by ordinance in 1909. Elegant residences rose along the square and neighboring Humboldt Boulevard between the 1880s and early 1900s as the boulevards became a fashionable address.

The square became a magnet for Chicago's bicycle craze of the 1890s, when wheelmen's clubs raced its ovular paved paths — a pastime with a personal connection, since Schwinn Bicycle founder Ignaz Schwinn lived at the corner of Palmer and Humboldt during the 1910s. The park still anchors the Logan Square Boulevards Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and designated a Chicago Landmark in 2005.

From a bicycle-era boulevard park to a landmark district recognized by two levels of government, Palmer Square's quiet green heart has always drawn people outdoors — a legacy worth wearing wherever your next ride takes you.