Devon Avenue is a major east-west street in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. ...

. It begins at

Sheridan Road Sheridan Road is a major north-south street that leads from Diversey Parkway (Chicago), Diversey Parkway in Chicago, Illinois, north to the Illinois-Wisconsin border and beyond to Racine, Wisconsin, Racine. Throughout most of its run, it is the ...

near the

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

lakeshore in the City of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and it runs west until merging with Higgins Road near

O'Hare International Airport Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the primary international airport serving Chicago, Illinois, United States, located on the city's Northwest Side, approximately northwest of the Chicago Loop, Loop business district. The airport is ope ...

. Devon continues on the opposite side of the airport and runs intermittently through Chicago's northwestern suburbs. In the northwest suburbs west of O'Hare Airport, Devon Avenue is the boundary between

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

and DuPage Counties. The street is located at 6400 N in Chicago's address system.

History

Devon Avenue was originally known as Church Road, but it was renamed in the 1880s by Edgewater developer John Lewis Cochran after Devon station on the Main Line north of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The street has been settled by many Asian immigrant groups, which is perhaps most evident between Kedzie and Ridge Avenues in

West Ridge, Chicago West Ridge is one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is a middle-class neighborhood located on the far North Side of the City of Chicago. It is located in the 50th ward and the 40th ward. Today West Ridge is one of Chicago's better off communi ...

. Here, one will encounter concentrations of

Jewish Americans American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...

, Assyrian Americans,

Russian American Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian possessions in what is now Alaska. Russi ...

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

Pakistani American Pakistani Americans () are citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry from Pakistan, or more simply, Pakistanis in America. They can be from different ethnic groups in Pakistan like Punjabi or Muhajir. The term may also re ...

s, Bangladeshi Americans, and Pashtun Americans. Portions of Devon in this area have been renamed in honor of

Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 187611 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pa ...

, and

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman and activist who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangl ...

.http://www.rediff.com/us/2000/aug/07us1.htm
Retrieved 28 August 2006. The organization
Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe
(better known as "F.R.E.E. of Chicago") is headquartered in the Orthodox-Jewish section of Devon. As a result, most Soviet/ CIS immigrants of Jewish ancestry settled around this area upon arrival in Chicago. After acclimation, these residents would tend to move to the north suburbs (especially Skokie and Buffalo Grove). Because the vast majority of the Jewish diaspora residing in the former Soviet Union have emigrated since its collapse, the vibrancy of this particular area of Devon is not as apparent as it was in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s (which were periods of mass emigration). Nevertheless, a significant proportion of these immigrants, especially the elderly, have remained on Devon. Shree Ganesh Temple of Chicago

Devon's

Desi Desi ( or or ; Hindustani language, Hindustani: देसी , , ) also Deshi, is a loose term used to describe the ethnic groups in South Asia, peoples, culture of South Asia, cultures, and products of the Indian subcontinent and their Sout ...

corridor is one of the best-known and largest communities of its kind in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. It exists mainly on Devon between Ravenswood Ave. and California Ave. South Asian shops, restaurants and grocery stores including the first location of Patel Brothers, that opened in 1974, abound along this strip, and it has become a popular tourist destination. Vivek Mukherjee of Rediff.com writes, "There are similar desi markets in New Jersey, at the famous Oak Tree Road or in the Bay Area, but nothing like Devon Street. ..Devon Street's sidewalks are even speckled with the

paan Betel nut chewing, also called betel quid chewing or areca nut chewing, is a practice in which areca nuts (also called "betel nuts") are chewed together with slaked lime and betel leaves for their stimulant and narcotic effects, the prima ...

stains". More recently, Devon has become a hub for a burgeoning population of

Rohingya The Rohingya people (; ; ) are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who predominantly follow Islam from Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Ro ...

refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar, with more than 2,000 Rohingya estimates to have settled nearby in West Ridge and Rogers Park. Th
Rohingya Culture Center
was established in 2016 to serve the needs of the growing community. Other points of interest along Devon Avenue include Superdawg,

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

's O'Hare Campus, Bryn Mawr Country Club, Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov High School, Edgebrook Golf Course, Thillens Stadium, Novelty Par Mini Golf Course, parts of the Forest Preserve and Misericordia/Heart of Mercy, serving children with developmental disabilities.

Transportation

Devon Avenue is served by the 155 Devon between

and Kedzie Avenue. The 36 Broadway, 88 Higgins and 151 Sheridan serve the street for shorter segments.

Notes

External links

A Walk Down Devon Avenue
{{chicago Asian-American culture in Chicago Bangladeshi-American culture Ethnic enclaves in Illinois Indian-American culture in Illinois Jews and Judaism in Chicago Little Indias Little Pakistans Neighborhoods in Chicago Orthodox Jewish communities Pakistani-American culture South Asian American culture Streets in Chicago