Montrose: Portage Park and Six Corners

Montrose is a median station on Portage Park's northeastern edge, and Metra's Milwaukee District North line stops at Mayfair just west of the Kennedy, so this is another two-railroad address.

What it is like

Portage Park is a primarily residential area whose building stock is mostly bungalows and two-flats, built out in the early 1900s when streetcar lines along Milwaukee, Irving Park and Cicero drew families out of the crowded river-side neighborhoods. It has two business districts, Six Corners at Irving Park, Cicero and Milwaukee, and Belmont and Central, and two restored movie palaces, the Portage Theater and the Patio. It has the largest Polish community in the metropolitan area by the 2000 census, and one of its parks is named for Chopin. The name goes back to the portage between the Des Plaines and Chicago rivers along what is now Irving Park Road.

What it costs

Zillow Home Value Index for July 2026, the typical value of a middle-tier home: Portage Park $424,796 (+6.5% in a year). Irving Park to the east is $477,764 (+10.5% in a year); Jefferson Park to the north is $417,695 (+6.7% in a year). This is the middle of the ladder, and it is where a bungalow with a yard starts to be the normal purchase rather than the exception.

Getting around

Blue Line 24 hours a day; Metra Milwaukee District North at Mayfair; the 78 Montrose bus at the station. Six Corners is the bus hub for the 54 Cicero, 56 Milwaukee and 80 Irving Park.

Parks and schools

Portage Park, the park, is 38.18 acres at 4100 N. Long: an Olympic-size outdoor pool with a water play area, a heated indoor pool, two fieldhouses, six tennis courts, five ball fields, a dog area and a boxing center; the fieldhouse is by Clarence Hatzfeld. Chopin, Dickinson, Dunham and Wilson parks are in the neighborhood too. Public schools include Schurz and Foreman high schools and the Rickover Naval Academy, and elementary schools including Reinberg, Gray, Prussing, Smyser and Portage Park; St. Patrick is the Catholic high school. Ask me for the boundary of any address.

Buying or selling near this stop? Tell me about your place and you get a real number, not an algorithm, within a day.

Where this comes from

• Wikipedia, Portage Park, Chicago, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_Park,_Chicago, retrieved 2026-09-03
• Chicago Park District, Portage Park, https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/portage-park, retrieved 2026-09-02
• Wikipedia, Blue Line (CTA): station listing, 24-hour service, history, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Line_(CTA), retrieved 2026-09-02
• Zillow Research, ZHVI neighborhood file (all homes, middle tier, smoothed, seasonally adjusted), July 2026, https://www.zillow.com/research/data/, retrieved 2026-09-02