Ogden Avenue is a street extending from the Near West Side of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Montgomery, Illinois Montgomery is a village in Kane and Kendall counties, Illinois. While roughly 45 miles from Chicago, it is not considered a Chicago suburb. The population was 20,262 at the 2020 census. Between 2000 and 2010 the village population grew 237 per ...

. It was named for

William B. Ogden William Butler Ogden (June 15, 1805 – August 3, 1877) was an American politician and railroad executive who served as the first Mayor of Chicago. He was referred to as "the Astor of Chicago." He was, at one time, the city's richest citizen. ...

, the first mayor of Chicago. The street follows the route of the Southwestern

Plank Road A plank road is a road composed of wooden planks or puncheon logs. Plank roads were commonly found in the Canadian province of Ontario as well as the Northeast and Midwest of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. They were oft ...

, which opened in 1848 across swampy terrain between Chicago and

Riverside, Illinois Riverside is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population of the village was ...

, and was extended to Naperville by 1851. The 1909

Plan of Chicago The Burnham Plan is a popular name for the 1909 ''Plan of Chicago'', co-authored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett and published in 1909. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railr ...

recommended an entire network of new diagonal streets, but the only one ever built was the extension in the 1920s of Ogden from Union Park through the

Old Town In a city or town, the old town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are ma ...

neighborhood to end at Clark Street opposite

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, ...

. This extension, largely built in the 1920s, was completed in 1934 with bridges and a connecting viaduct across Goose Island and the North Branch of the

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons fo ...

. In the late 1960s, as part of an

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

project for Old Town, the street was vacated in this area and sold off for development. In recent decades, additional portions of Ogden have been abandoned and vacated. The avenue now ends a short distance north of Chicago Avenue. The street intersects

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

Interstate 94 Interstate 94 (I-94) is an east–west Interstate Highway connecting the Great Lakes and northern Great Plains regions of the United States. Its western terminus is just east of Billings, Montana, at a junction with I-90; its eastern term ...

Kennedy Expressway The John F. Kennedy Expressway is a nearly freeway in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Portions of the freeway carry I-190, I-90 and I-94. The freeway runs in a southeast–northwest direction between the central city neighborhood of the ...

in Chicago,

Interstate 294 Interstate 294 (I-294) is a tolled auxiliary Interstate Highway in northeastern Illinois. It forms the southern portion of the Tri-State Tollway in Illinois. I-294 runs from South Holland at I-80/ I-94 and Illinois Route 394 (IL 394) t ...

/ Tri-State Tollway in Western Springs, Interstate 355 in Lisle. In the 1920s the broad avenue became an important arterial carrying auto traffic through the city's West Side. Portions of the avenue carried U.S. Route 66 from the city through adjacent suburbs. It carried US 32 until 1934. Ogden Avenue used to carry U.S. Route 34 to its end as well. Because of this, the intersection of U.S. Route 34/Ogden Avenue and

U.S. Route 12 U.S. Route 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States highway, running from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Michigan, for almost . The highway has mostly been superseded by Interstate 90 (I-90) and I-94, but unlike most U.S. routes that ...

/ U.S. Route 20/

U.S. Route 45 U.S. Route 45 (US 45) is a major north-south United States highway and a border-to-border route, from Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. A sign at the highway's northern terminus notes the total distance as . US 45 is notable for incorporatin ...

/LaGrange Road is one of the few places where four U.S. Routes intersect. Further outside Chicago, a portion of the roadway from Harlem Avenue through the western suburbs carries U.S. Route 34. U.S Route 34 carries the name of Ogden Av. from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

westbound to

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage, Kane, Kendall, and Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located primarily in DuPage and Kane counties, it is the second most populous city in Illinois, a ...

. Ogden Av. ends when U.S. Route 34 leaves Aurora at the intersection of U.S. Route 34 and U.S. Route 30 on the border of Aurora;

; and

Oswego, Illinois Oswego is a village in Kendall and Will Counties, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 34,485. Oswego is the largest municipality in Kendall County. It is a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. History In 1833, William Sm ...

Major intersections

References

External links

Ogden Avenue
history and photography at Forgotten Chicago {{coord, 41, 52, 29.7, N, 87, 40, 25.9, W, region:US-IL, display=title Streets in Chicago U.S. Route 66 in Illinois U.S. Route 34 Transportation in Kendall County, Illinois Transportation in DuPage County, Illinois Transportation in Cook County, Illinois Oswego, Illinois Lisle, Illinois La Grange, Illinois Cicero, Illinois