page_title: Roads and expressways in Chicago
section_title: Street layout
hierarchical_section_title: Roads and expressways in Chicago / Street layout
caption_attribution_description: Crossroads of the Chicago Address system
context_page_description: Roads and expressways in Chicago summarizes the main thoroughfares and the numbering system used in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.
context_section_description: Chicago's streets were laid out in a grid that grew from the city's original townsite plan platted by James Thompson. 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 Native American 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 online in PDF format indexed by initial letter, Plan of Re-Numbering, City of Chicago, August 1909. The opening text of the 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 20 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
caption: The division of Chicago's directional address system is at State Street - separating East (E) from West (W), and Madison Street - North (N) from South (S) .
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