page_title: Portage Park, Chicago
section_title: Transportation
hierarchical_section_title: Portage Park, Chicago / Transportation
caption_attribution_description: English: Alex LeClair's house.
context_page_description: Portage Park is located on the northwest side of the City of Chicago, Illinois and is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. Portage Park is bordered by the community areas of Jefferson Park and Forest Glen to the north, Dunning and the suburb of Harwood Heights to the west, Irving Park to the east and Belmont-Cragin to the south.
  The area is notable for its Six Corners outdoor shopping district, centered at the intersection of Irving Park Road, Cicero Avenue and the diagonal Milwaukee Avenue, the Portage Theater and for its namesake - Portage Park. The name of the park was taken from the major portage linking the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers along what is today Irving Park Road. The area was so swampy that in wet weather, Native Americans and trappers were easily able to paddle through the area in either direction without leaving their canoes. In those days, the Des Plaines was perhaps the most significant way to the Illinois, and then on to the Mississippi.
  Portage Park has the largest Polish community in the Chicago Metropolitan Area according to the 2000 census.
context_section_description: The Portage Park neighborhood is accessible via mass transit through the Blue Line. The Montrose station is located on Portage Park's northeastern edge in the Kennedy Expressway median and the Irving Park station is located on Portage Park's southeaster edge in the Kennedy Expressway median as well. The Milwaukee District / North Line has a station stop at Mayfair, just west of the Kennedy Expressway.
caption: A Portage Park two-flat
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