A marble column in a traffic circle where four boulevards meet, and the block NBC's Chicago Fire dressed on Sacramento Avenue.
What Logan Square looks like
A marble column stands on a raised terrace at the center of the traffic circle, dedicated in 1918 and ringed by grass, mature trees and looping paths. and converge here, each with two-way lanes split by a wide, tree lined median and a narrower one-way street running alongside for the houses that face it.
crosses the circle at a diagonal, lined with two- and three-story brick buildings whose ground floors hold restaurants, a coffee roaster and a pharmacy under a hand-painted sign. Storefronts continue for several blocks in tan and red brick, with arched window surrounds on the older buildings and newer glass fronted construction filling in the gaps.
Off the boulevards, the side streets carry greystone two-flats and bungalows. Most are two or three storeys under flat rooflines, built mostly between the 1890s and the 1920s, with small lawns behind low fences along the sidewalks.
The Blue Line runs underground beneath the circle, with an entrance on Kedzie Avenue marked by a blue canopy and a row of bike share docks out front. The platform below is finished in pale tile, with the station's name spelled out in block letters over the tracks.
Shot in Logan Square
The NBC series Chicago Fire dressed an apartment building on Sacramento Avenue between Milwaukee Avenue and Logan Boulevard as the Wymer Arms Hotel, for a paramedic scene shot in January 2013. The same production had shot nearby on Logan Boulevard a few months earlier, in October 2012.
Chicago Fire, 2013
An apartment building on this block had its exterior redressed with a new marquee and signage as the Wymer Arms Hotel for a paramedic call in the series. The scene plays out on the sidewalk in front of the building. Street View
What Logan Square can double for
Monument Circle in Indianapolis, Indiana
Monument Circle in Indianapolis centers a stone monument in a traffic circle with streets radiating outward, the same composition as the Illinois Centennial column. Its own monument dates from 1902, close enough in period to read alongside Logan Square's 1918 dedication. Taller downtown office buildings ring the Indianapolis circle rather than low brick blocks, so a tight frame on the monument and the first ring of streets holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching monument in a traffic circle now.
Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York
Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn runs a wide tree lined boulevard past turn of the century apartment buildings, close in scale to Logan Square's own boulevards. Both were laid out with a planted median between the through lanes and a service road for the buildings that face it. Eastern Parkway's buildings run taller and in brownstone rather than grey limestone, so a shot that stays low and keeps the median in frame reads closer to Chicago than one that shows the building line. Try searching tree lined boulevard apartment buildings now.
Grand Concourse in Bronx, New York
The Grand Concourse in the Bronx is another wide boulevard with a planted median running down its center, built to the same boulevard park idea Chicago used. Its apartment blocks went up mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, later than most of Logan Square's greystones. The Concourse's buildings are taller Art Deco blocks with more terra cotta trim, visible in a wide shot, so a frame that holds on the median and the near lane matches better than one showing the building line. Try searching wide boulevard with a median now.
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