Jefferson Park

Jefferson Park is located on the city's Northwest Side of Chicago. Jefferson Park is bordered by the community areas of Norwood Park to the northwest, Forest Glen to the northeast, Portage Park and the suburb of Harwood Heights to the south. Although the official community area map draws the boundary between Jefferson Park and Portage Park at Lawrence, many residents consider the boundary between the two neighborhoods to be at Montrose to the south, reflected in most 'Chicago Neighborhood Maps'.

Jefferson Park is a predominantly middle-class neighborhood of people coming from a variety of diverse backgrounds. Like many neighborhoods on the Northwest Side of Chicago the neighborhood has a heavy Polish-American presence, and is home to the Copernicus Foundation, the Polish parish of St. Constance, as well as a host of other Polish-American organizations, institutions, and businesses.

Jefferson Park is also known for having a very high number of resident city and county workers. The area is filled with the homes of Chicago Public School teachers and staff, Chicago Police Department, Chicago Fire Department as well as Cook County Sheriff officers and staff.

Jefferson Park (the park, not the neighborhood), situated at Long and Higgins Avenues in the heart ofits community, swarms with activity year-round. Equipped with twobaseball fields, one combination footballsoccer field, three tenniscourts, one playground and a spray pool and a full outdoor swimmingpool with dressing facility, the seven-acre park offers plenty ofoutdoor recreation. When the kids are out of school, Jefferson Park also hosts all sorts of day camps. Each summer, hundreds of residents stroll the parkgrounds for Jeff Fest, a Jefferson Park Chamber of Commerce-sponsoredoutdoor community festival featuring local food, vendors and bands.

Jefferson Park has a solid core of dining establishments.   The Gale Street Inn is the place to go for some of the best fallin'-off-the-bone-style ribs in Chicago.  For those residents craving something sweet, the old-fashioned Sicilia Bakery has wonderful  Italian sweets and savories. Some of the favorites are homemade cannolis, tiramisu, saucy calzones andbeef-stuffed rice.  Other neighborhood favorites are Smak-Tak for Polish cuisine, Duke's for hot dogs, and Joe's for pizza. 

Aside from packing in restaurants and family-friendly parks, this Chicago neighborhood offers home buyers a diverse housing market with many types of homes to choose from. Beautiful houses with comfortable porches sit on perfectly manicured lawns surrounded by wrought-iron fencing. Towering trees shade the properties, giving Jefferson Park the feel of a mature neighborhood.  Brick bungalows, small frame houses and two-story abodes line the residential streets in Jefferson Park with a number of low-rise apartment buildings and courtyard condos tossed into the mix. A three-bedroom detached home in Jefferson Park typically costs around $300,000 while attached properties (meaning condominiums) have an average sales price in the upper $100,000s.

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