West Town, Chicago
Community Area 24 - West Town Location within the city of Chicago |
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| Latitude Longitude |
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| Neighborhoods | ||
| ZIP Code | parts of 60612, 60622, 60642, 60647 | |
| Area | 11.84 km² (4.57 mi²) | |
| Population (2000) Density |
87,435 (down 0.31% from 1990) 7,387.1 /km² |
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| Demographics | White Black Hispanic Asian Other |
39.4% 9.13% 46.9% 1.73% 2.90% |
| Median income | $38,915 | |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | ||
West Town located in Chicago, Illinois, northwest of the Loop, is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas. Its name may refer to Western Avenue, which was the city's western boundary at the time of West Town's settlement, but more likely was a convenient abstraction by the creators of Chicago's community areas. Then, as now, West Town was a collection of several distinct neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods
Wicker Park
Wicker Park is a Chicago neighborhood northwest of the Loop, south of Bucktown. Charles and Joel Wicker purchased 80 acres (32 ha) of land along Milwaukee Avenue in 1870 and laid out a subdivision with a mix of lot sizes surrounding a 4-acre (1.6 ha) park. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 spurred the first wave of development, as homeless Chicagoans looked to build new houses. Wicker Park proved especially popular with German and Swedish merchants, who built large mansions along the neighborhood's choicest streets--particularly on Hoyne and Pierce, just southwest of North & Damen, known then as Robey. At the end of the 19th century, the area was known as "the Polish Gold Coast" and Hoyne was known as "Beer Baron Row," as many of Chicago's wealthiest brewers built mansions there. In the 1890s and 1900s, immigration from Poland and the completion of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Lines greatly boosted the population density of West Town, especially in areas east of Wicker Park. The corner of Division, Milwaukee, and Ashland once known as 'Kostkaville', retains the moniker "Polish Triangle" to this day, and the provisional government of Poland met in Wicker Park during World War I. The area is home to many of the most opulent churches in the Archdiocese of Chicago, built in the so-called 'Polish Cathedral style'.
After World War II, many Poles moved to newer, less crowded housing further northwest, and Wicker Park became more ethnically diverse with a large influx of Puerto Rican immigrants. Split from the Lincoln Park neighborhood only by the Kennedy Expressway in the late 50's and 60's, it contained the second largest concentration of Puerto Ricans in Chicago. It was the original home to the largest Latino gang at the time, the Latin Kings. The Young Lords, a human rights movement, held sit-ins with L.A.D.O. at the Wicker Park Welfare Office and large non violent marches to city hall. Urban renewal projects were undertaken to combat "urban blight" in some parts of the neighborhood, but disinvestment continued at a rapid clip. Wicker Park was also promoted by the city's urban renewal plans, as a good "suburb within the city" because of its easy access to downtown, via Milwaukee Ave. and the elevated train (via Damen and Division stations). Chicago and Wicker Park reached a nadir in the 1970s, a decade when the city overall lost 11% of its population. During the 1970s, hundreds of cases of insurance-motivated arson were reported in Wicker Park, near St. Elizabeth Hospital. Many small factories near the area (many in woodworking) also closed or moved away as city inspectors paid extra visits that now follow, today's retail store expansion into these areas.
Efforts by community development groups like N.C.O. (Northwest Community Organization)to stabilize the community through new affordable-housing construction in the 1980s coincided with the arrival of artists attracted by the neighborhood's easy access to the Loop, cheap loft space in the abandoned factories, and distinctly urban feel.
In 1989, the "Around the Coyote" festival was launched to help the hundreds of working artists and micro-galleries in the neighborhood to gain a level of local and international prominence. This 501(c)3 non-profit was established with the mission to "bring to the art community a professional organization that will help artists network and exhibit their art."[1] For decades, the festival centered around the Flatiron Arts Building and was typically held during the month of October, Chicago's Artist Month. [2] As of 2008 "Around the Coyote" revised its preferred locations for the annual festival, which in 2008 was held coincidentally with Looptopia in May in Chicago's Loop.
Today, the neighborhood is best known for its numerous commercial and entertainment establishments and being a convenient place to live for downtown workers due to its proximity to public transportation and the loop. Gentrification has made the area much more attractive to college educated, white collar workers, although it faced considerable resistance from the working class Puerto Rican community it displaced. Crime has decreased and many new homes have been built as well as older homes being restored. This has led to increased business activity, with many new bars, restaurants, and stores opening to serve these individuals. Property values have gone up, increasing the wealth of property owners and making the neighborhood attractive to real estate investors.
The borders of the neighborhood are generally accepted to be the Chicago River the east, North Avenue to the north (at 1600 N), Division to the south (at 1200 N), and Western Avenue to the west (at 2400 W). Both the East Village and Ukrainian Village are to the south, Humboldt Park is to the west, and Bucktown is to the north.
Notable past and current residents include Nelson Algren, who lived on the third floor at 1958 W. Evergreen Ave between 1959-1975, Liz Phair, who penned her first album Exile in Guyville in and about Wicker Park, James Iha, former guitarist of the band Smashing Pumpkins, Pro Wrestler Colt Cabana who can be seen on MTV's Wrestling Society X as Matt Classic, and singer/guitarist Matt Skiba of The Alkaline Trio. Much of Wicker Park was designated as a Chicago Landmark District in 1991. [3]
Wicker Park is the setting of a 2004 film by the same name. However, the filming of this movie was done on location in Montreal, Quebec. Another film of note that uses Wicker Park as its background is High Fidelity (2000) directed by Stephen Frears and starring Evanston-born John Cusack. It is also a primary source of inspiration for the Skinny Puppy album Too Dark Park.
Humboldt Park
The western boundary of the West Town community area is Humboldt Park. The 104-block area east of Humboldt Park, west of Western Avenue, and north of Chicago Avenue is commonly referred to as part of Humboldt Park, even though it is not in the Community Area of that name. It is perhaps best known for Paseo Boricua, a half-mile stretch of Division Street between Western and California Avenues. This stretch of Division is bookended by two 59-foot (18 m)-tall steel Puerto Rican flags, and contains many Puerto Rican stores and restaurants, with a community very resistant to the forces of gentrification that have moved them further west from West Town, Wicker Park, and Ukrainian Village.
Ukrainian Village
Ukrainian Village is a Chicago neighborhood located south of Wicker Park. Its boundaries are Division St (1200 N) to the north, Chicago Ave (800 N) to the south, Western Ave (2400 W) to the west, and Damen Ave (2000 W) to the east. Settlement of the neighborhood was largely spurred by the 1895 construction of an elevated train line along Paulina Ave (1700 W); the "L" was demolished in 1964. In past decades, it has been a safe, middle-class neighborhood, populated by older citizens of Eastern European ethnicity, and bordered (and affected) on many sides by more dangerous areas. It was insulated somewhat from surrounding socioeconomic change by large industrial areas on its south and west borders and by the staying power of the Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic congregations. Although Ukrainian village continues to be the center of Chicago's large Ukrainian community, the gentrification of West Town is rapidly changing the demographic.
Notable local landmarks include Roberto Clemente High School, St Mary's Hospital, St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, and Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the latter having been commissioned by St. John Kochurov and designed by famed architect Louis Sullivan. In addition, the area includes the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, which contains a large collection of Pysanky, an exhibit on the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, and an exhibit on the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-1934.
In 2002, part of Ukrainian Village was designated a Chicago Landmark District. [4] Much of the film Brother 2, very popular in Russia in the late 1990s, was filmed in Ukrainian Village.
East Village
East Village is a neighborhood directly east of Ukrainian Village (the neighborhood used to be called "East Ukrainian Village"). The generally accepted boundaries of East Village are Ashland (1600 W) on the east, Damen (2000 W) on the west, Division (1200 N) on the north, and Chicago (800 N) on the south (although some people extend the southern border to Grand Ave). This area's historic proximity to the elevated train and higher population density gave it a more working-class population than Ukrainian Village. Much of the original housing stock has been torn down for new construction in recent years. Several blocks of East Village have recently been designated a Chicago Landmark district to preserve its character with these development pressures.
Smith Park
Smith Park, a recognized neighborhood within Chicago’s West Town community, is named for the city park on its south border. Bounded by Chicago Avenue (800N) on the north, Grand Avenue (550N) on the south, Western Avenue (2400W) on the east and Washtenaw Avenue (2700W) on the west; the majority of the neighborhood sits within Chicago’s 26th Ward, with a small portion a part of the 1st Ward. This area, formerly known as “The Patch”, was originally settled by Sicilian immigrants who moved west from the “Little Sicily” area on Sedgwick Street, near where the Cabrini-Green housing projects were built, and from the Italian neighborhood along the Grand Avenue corridor. It is a very old community with many families that have lived in the neighborhood for over six generations. In 1929, when a quarry that had been converted to a large city dump in the West Town neighborhood had been completely filled, the Bureau of Sanitation transferred part of the site to the Bureau of Parks and Recreation. The city named the area Smith Athletic Field for Joseph Higgins Smith, alderman of the surrounding 32nd ward from 1914 to 1933. In 1959, the city transferred Smith Park to the Chicago Park District, at which time an artillery piece was placed in the park. A WWII tank was moved to the southeast corner of the park in the 1980s from its former home at Grand and Western Avenues. This is the landmark by which most Chicagoans recognize Smith Park. The Park District added a spraypool, swimming pool, and bathhouse in the late 1960s and in 1979 a large, modern fieldhouse was constructed. Nine years later, the Park District dedicated its gymnasium to Tom Positano, a high school student who had been active at the park and who posthumously received a Junior Citizenship Award.[5]
Noble Square
Noble Square is directly east of East Village. The generally accepted boundaries of Noble Square are the Kennedy Expressway on the east, Ashland (1600 W) on the west, North (1600 N) on the north, and Chicago (800 N) or Grand (500 N) on the south. The name apparently refers to Eckhart Park, a one-block square park at the northeast corner of Chicago and Noble (1400 W). Its identity may be disappearing: realtors have been including its northern half as an eastern section of Wicker Park, while the southern end of this neighborhood has been identified as West Town since the beginning of the decade. Please note that this neighborhood is listed as West Town in 19th Century census.
River West
The small area within West Town east of the Kennedy Expressway, along and east of Milwaukee Avenue between roughly Hubbard (330 N) and Augusta (1000 N), is referred to as River West, complementing the River North area of the Near North Side. The small area is further bisected by the elevated Union Pacific railroad tracks. It contains large loft buildings, most now converted to residential use; several infill housing developments; St. John Cantius church; the Chicago Tribune's Freedom Center printing facility; and a few blocks of historic residential fabric.
Education
West Town residents are assigned to schools in the Chicago Public Schools.
Comprehensive high schools located in the West Town community area include:
Option high schools include:
Ukrainian village includes the private St. Nicholas Cathedral school, which offers Catholic education from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. [6]
Landmarks
See also
References
- ^ around the coyote : about
- ^ City of Chicago - Chicago Artists Month
- ^ Chicago Landmarks | Wicker Park District
- ^ Chicago Landmarks | Ukranian Village District
- ^ Chicago Park District: Smith (Joseph Higgins) Park
- ^ St Nicholas Cathedral School - Chicago, Illinois
External links
- Official City of Chicago West Town Community Map
- Chicago Park District
- Historic district description
- Chicago Journal - weekly community newspaper
- Bucktown Arts, Leisure, Businesses
- Humboldt Park Arts, Culture, Gentrification, Immigration
- Encyclopedia of Chicago entry on West Town
- Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art
- Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago
- Wicker Park & Bucktown Chamber of Commerce
- West Town Chamber of Commerce
- Around the Coyote Arts Organization
- Wicker Park News
- Wicker Park Food Co-Op
- Ukrainian Village Neighborhood Association
- East Village Association
- Puerto Ricans and gentrification
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Logan Square, Chicago | Lincoln Park, Chicago |
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| Humboldt Park, Chicago |  |
Near North Side, Chicago | |||||
 West Town, Chicago  |
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| East Garfield Park, Chicago | Near West Side, Chicago | Chicago Loop |
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