• Portage Park (NRHP-listed, 1959 Pan-American Games site)
• Six Corners shopping district
• Clarence Hatzfeld's 1922 Prairie-style fieldhouse
• St. Ladislaus and Our Lady of Victory churches

Portage Park takes its name from the ancient portage route linking the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers along what is now Irving Park Road, a marshy passage used by Native American tribes and French fur traders to carry canoes between the two watersheds. The surrounding farmland was annexed to Chicago in 1889, but substantial development waited until residents formed the Old Portage Park District in 1912 and developers like Koester and Zander began subdividing the land into what became part of Chicago's famous Bungalow Belt.

The park itself opened in stages between 1913 and 1917, with a naturalistic swimming lagoon debuting in 1916 and a Prairie-style fieldhouse designed by architect Clarence Hatzfeld following in 1922. Its Olympic-size pool later hosted the swimming events of the 1959 Pan-American Games and the 1972 U.S. Olympic swimming trials, where Mark Spitz set new world records. Nearby, the Six Corners intersection of Irving Park Road, Cicero Avenue, and Milwaukee Avenue grew into one of Chicago's premier shopping districts, anchored by architecturally significant churches like St. Ladislaus and Our Lady of Victory.

From a native portage route to an Olympic swimming venue, Portage Park's ground has carried travelers of every kind for centuries — a history worth wearing on your own trip through the neighborhood.