West Town Community Collection

According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, West Town, Community Area 24, is about three miles northwest of downtown Chicago, with its official boundaries roughly corresponding to Bloomingdale Avenue on the north, Kinzie Street on the south, the Chicago River on the east, and a shifting western boundary that can go as far as Kedzie Avenue. West Town is comprised of all or part of several smaller neighborhoods including Bucktown, East Humboldt Park, East Village, Noble Square, Pulaski Park, River West, Ukrainian Village, and Wicker Park.

Much of the West Town area east of Wood Street was within the limits of what was incorporated as the City of Chicago in 1837. During the 1860s, homes were constructed near the railroad shops and yards and near newly constructed factories by the river and along Milwaukee Avenue. Poles had begun to settle the area, and the 1869 establishment of Humboldt Park in West Town’s northwest corner, as well as Humboldt station by the Milwaukee Railroad, led to a settlement of primarily Germans and Scandinavians north of the park. The area attracted many workers after the Chicago Fire of 1871 who wished to build lower cost wood-frame homes, and in the following decades Polish immigration to the area increased, along with Russian Jews, Ukrainians, and Germans.

As ethnic groups became more affluent, they moved further north along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor. As the Germans and Scandinavians moved north, the Poles moved in. During the second half of the twentieth century, Poles began moving north, as Puerto Ricans and Mexicans moved in.

The 1950s saw not just a demographic shift in West Town, but also urban renewal efforts by the City of Chicago, including subsidized housing projects and construction of the Kennedy Expressway, Interstate 94. Ethnic communities organized against many urban renewal projects and met with some success, though several projects were realized despite community opposition. Toward the end of the twentieth century, sections of West Town, most notably Wicker Park and Bucktown, experienced various degrees of development, and many ethnic residents in these areas were displaced as a result.