Cultural Studies:The Avondale

Community and Chicago’s Polish

Landscape

Mr. Greg SherwinAdlai E. Stevenson High School

Lincolnshire, IL

Cultural Landscape Cultural Landscape ConceptsConcepts

Material and Nonmaterial Culture

Sequent Occupance

Chain Migration

Cultural Diffusion

Cultural Landscape study on AP Central Website

ChicagoChicago’’s changing s changing neighborhoodsneighborhoods

Chicago historian Dominic Pacyga characterizes Chicago as a snake that transforms itself every generation, shedding its old skin to emerge a new and different creature. The city’s neighborhoods reflect various social incarnations that can be read as layers in the surrounding cityscape.

The Avondale Community and Chicago’s Polish

LandscapeBy Mr. Sherwinski

Polish Chicago HistoryPolish Chicago History

Largest Polish City after Largest Polish City after Warsaw? Well maybe many Warsaw? Well maybe many

moons agomoons ago

There are about 9-10 million Americans of Polish descent.

Chicago bills itself as the largest Polish city outside of Poland, with approximately 185,000 Polish language speakers.Name 1900 2007

Warsaw 756,400 1,706,624

Krakow 120,300 756,583

Polish Organizations in Polish Organizations in ChicagoChicago

The Polish Museum of America

Polish American Association

Polish American Congress

Polish National Alliance

Polish Falcons

Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America

Avondale: The

Polish Village of Chicago

One of many Polish neighborhoods in Chicago

Avondale neighborhood-Avondale neighborhood-The Polish Village The Polish Village

This area is referred to as Jackowo (pronounced Yahtskovo) and Wacławowo in Polish based on the churches in the area. Owo has the same function as “ville” or “ton” in English.

Avondale:Avondale:The Polish VillageThe Polish Village

The Polish Village (Jackowo and Wacławowo), together make up one of Chicago's largest and most vibrant Polish Patches.

The neighborhoods derive their Polish names from the two contiguous Polish Roman Catholic parishes- Saint Hyacinth's Basilica and St. Wenceslaus Church.

Milwaukee Avenue is the district's main commercial strip with dozens of sausage shops, restaurants, bakeries etc.

In English the area is usually referred to as the Polish Village - the name featured on signs hung on street lamps over the district. Pulaski Avenue, named after the Polish Revolutionary War hero, runs through the area.

Casimir Pulaski Day is a holiday observed in Illinois on the first Monday of every March in memory of Casimir Pulaski, a Revolutionary War cavalry officer born in Poland.

The day is celebrated mainly in areas that have large Polish populations, such as Chicago. The focus of official commemorations of Casimir Pulaski Day in Chicago is at the Polish Museum of America where various city and state officials congregate to pay tribute to Chicago's Polish Community.

Illinois enacted a law on June 20, 1977, to celebrate the birthday of Casimir Pulaski and held the first official Pulaski Day celebrations in 1978.

Casmir Pulaski

Avondale and the Old Avondale and the Old Polish DowntownPolish Downtown

Many Polish patches and neighborhoods in Chicago historically.

The Original Polish Downtown neighborhood was around Division, Ashland and Milwaukee

Avondale is connected to the Polish Downtown by Milwaukee Avenue

Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago is known as the Polish Corridor or Polish Broadway.

Map of the Old Polish Downtown which is South and East of Avondale

Old Polish DowntownOld Polish Downtown Today the area is

gentrified.

Young, hip Wicker Park neighborhood

But layers of the old landscape persist

Polish National Museum in Old Polish Downtown

1. St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, Rectory, and Elementary School, 1351 W. Evergreen Street2. Holy Trinity Church and Rectory, 1120 N Noble Street3. Holy Trinity Elementary School, now Polish offices, 1135 N. Cleaver Street6. St. Stanislaus Gymnasium, now residential, 1521 W. Haddon Avenue7. Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and Polish Museum of America, 984 N. Milwaukee Avenue8. Polish National Alliance, now College of Office Technology, 1520 W. Division Street9. Chopin Theater, 1543 W. Division Street10. Polish Welfare Association, now other businesses, 1303 N. Ashland Avenue11. Polish Women’s Alliance, now residential, 1309 N. Ashland Avenue14. Home Bank, now Mb Financial, 1200 N. Ashland Avenue15. Polish Veterans Home, now art gallery, 1239 N. Wood Street16. Falcons Hall, now other uses, 1062 N. Ashland Avenue

Images from Images from Avondale-Avondale-

The Polish VillageThe Polish Village

Images from Images from Avondale-Avondale-

The Polish VillageThe Polish Village

MORE PHOTOSMORE PHOTOS

More PhotosMore Photos

We speak Polish!

More PhotosMore Photos

A holdover from another era when neighborhood taverns on side streets in Chicago were almost as common as corporate chain drugstores are today. The ethnic character of this establishment’s proprietors is well established by the name, along with the words advertising Zimne Piwo (cold beer) below the Old Style logo.

An ad on the side of Pasieka Bakery at the corner of Lawndale and Milwaukee charms passersby by declaring it has “the best” baked goods in town.

Religious Landscape:Religious Landscape:Two Polish Catholic ChurchesTwo Polish Catholic Churches

St. Hyacinth (1894)

St. Wenceslaus (1912)

It is a prime example of the so-called "Polish Cathedral style" of churches in both its opulence and grand scale.

Built as the Polish population swelled in the area.

Side BarSide Bar

These churches are on the North and South edges of Avondale

Inside St. Hyacinth Inside St. Hyacinth BasilicaBasilica

Catholic Churches tend to be ornate

Statue of Pope

John Paul II

outside of St.

Hyacinth

Pope John Paul II in Pope John Paul II in Chicago (1979)Chicago (1979)

Karol Wojtyla (voy-te-Karol Wojtyla (voy-te-wa) Chicago 1976wa) Chicago 1976

After Plane crash that After Plane crash that killed Polish killed Polish President…President…

Non-Polish elements on the

landscape of Avondale

Chicago Housing and building in

AvondaleThe Chicago Cultural Landscape

At Milwaukee and Ridgeway, this “Sullivanesque” building serves as the Polish Medical Center.

Avondale is in the Avondale is in the Bungalow BeltBungalow Belt

Gray indicates area where many bungalows were built in the 1920s

Glocalization and the Bungalow

Once Pop. Culture- now somewhat unique to Chicago-tax credits to fix up and modernize your Bungalow

website

Bungalows in Bungalows in AvaondaleAvaondale

Two Flats also dominate the Two Flats also dominate the

Avondale working class Avondale working class

landscapelandscape

Blue collar landscapeBlue collar landscape

One can’t appreciate the built environment of Avondale without grasping its prominent industrial character. From Florsheim Shoes to Olson Rug, factories here produced goods that were shipped across the country, alongside a host of smaller scale, and often family-owned, industrial operations.

This vintage shot from 1970s of Dad’s Root Beer factory.

Polish outmigration

from Avondale

As one immigrant group As one immigrant group moves out, the next moves out, the next

moves inmoves in

Sequent Occupance: The succeeding stages of human inhabitation over time on one site. Each stage is seen as being established by its predecessor, although the sequence will almost certainly be interrupted by outside forces.

Sign with 3 languagesSign with 3 languages

Two CulturesAt right is a prominent sign on the Polish Village’s commercial strip along Milwaukee Avenue, along with a Latino vendor selling paletas (Latin American ice pops) beneath it, an indication of the increased Hispanic presence in the area.

Mexican landscapeMexican landscape

A look at the Red A look at the Red Apple againApple again

Final thoughts: Avondale’s Polish influence on the

landscape is evident, but the

landscape is changing

ChicagoChicago’’s changing s changing neighborhoodsneighborhoods

Chicago historian Dominic Pacyga characterizes Chicago as a snake that transforms itself every generation, shedding its old skin to emerge a new and different creature. The city’s neighborhoods reflect various social incarnations that can be read as layers in the surrounding cityscape.