Originally planned as farm land, when four men decided to expand the area and to transform it into an exclusive settlement, mimicking the success that suburban communities were having.
An agreement was reached the City of Chicago as well as the Northwestern Railroad to allow trains to stop in the area after the construction of a station.
The area, along with the Jefferson Park Township was annexed and became part of Chicago in 1889. Soon after, city services were built into the area such as water service, a fire department and streetcar service.
The following decades saw the development of the neighborhood – the creation of several parks, of which Independence Park is the biggest, political reorganization (such as the merger of Irving Park District with Chicago Park District), new infrastructure (such as the construction of the Northwest Expressway (Kennedy), which displaced many homes and businesses, and the organization of its own amateur baseball team, the Irving Park White Sox.
Irving Park is rich in historic sites, with many Victorian homes and Chicago style two-flats, many in the The Villa District and can be found in the National Register of Historic Places.
The CTA’s Park Blue Line and the Metra Union Pacific/Northwest Line have stops here along with the I-90 Kennedy Expressway which cuts through the area.
