Jefferson Park is one of Chicago's 77 well-defined community areas as well as a neighborhood located on the city's Northwest Side. The territorial discrepancy between the two stems from the fact that the neighborhood of Jefferson Park occupies a larger swath of territory than the community area by including with in it land of adjacent community areas.
Jefferson Park is bordered by the community areas of Norwood Park to the northwest, Forest Glen to the northeast, Portage Park and the suburb of Harwood Heights to the south. Although the official community area map draws the boundary between Jefferson Park and Portage Park at Lawrence, many residents consider the boundary between the two neighborhoods to be at Montrose to the south, reflected in most 'Chicago Neighborhood Maps'.
Settlement in the vicinity of Jefferson Park began in the 1830s with John Kinzie Clark and Elijah Wentworth, whose claim was near what is now the Jefferson Park Metra Station, where he operated a tavern and inn. The tiny settlement of traders, hunters, and farmers consisted of simple one and two room log cabins until Abram Gale, for whom Gale Street is named, built the first frame house in Jefferson. Jefferson Park became the hub of an independent township that was incorporated at the nearby Dickinson Tavern as Jefferson Township in 1850 until annexed by the city of Chicago in 1889. The area was once home to a significant population of Volga Germans, and one of the area's one time local landmarks was a local apartment buildings in the vicinity of the park along Higgins Avenue dubbed by locals as "the Russian Hotel".