North Avenue

North Avenue, also known as Illinois Route 64, is a major east–west street near the northern edge of Villa Park. You can continue on Illinois Route 64 east all the way to LaSalle Drive in downtown Chicago. Illinois Route 64 then continues north onto LaSalle Drive for a very short distance until ending at U.S. Route 41 (Lake Shore Drive), while North Avenue continues east for less than one-half mile, changing its name to North Boulevard at Clark Street, and then continuing until its termination in a cul-de-sac at 200 East, just west of Lake Shore Drive. From Illinois Route 43 (Harlem Avenue) to its east end, North Avenue is within the city limits of Chicago. Going west, North Ave. continues all the way to Main Street at the St. Charles/West Chicago border.

As its name suggests, it was the northern boundary of the City of Chicago west of LaSalle Street to Wood Street upon its incorporation on March 4th, 1837. (East of LaSalle, Armitage Avenue, then called Center Street, was the northern boundary.) The portion west to Western Avenue was annexed on February 14th, 1851, and that west to Pulaski on the southern side February 27th, 1869. On the northern side all of the Street in the City west of Kedzie was annexed with the Town of Jefferson effective June 29th, 1889.[1]