Avondale, Chicago

Avondale
—  Community area  —
Community Area 21 - Avondale
Location within the city of Chicago
Coordinates: 41°56.4′N 87°42.6′W / 41.94°N 87.71°W / 41.94; -87.71Coordinates: 41°56.4′N 87°42.6′W / 41.94°N 87.71°W / 41.94; -87.71
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Cook
City	Chicago
Neighborhoods	List Avondale Logan Square Jackowo Wacławowo
Area
- Total	2 sq mi (5.18 km2)
Population (2000)
- Total	43,083
- Density	21,541.4/sq mi (8,317.2/km2)
	population up 21.2% from 1990
Demographics
- White	29.6%
- Black	1.55%
- Hispanic	62.0%
- Asian	2.21%
- Other	4.65%
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Codes	60618
Median income	$36,677
Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

Avondale is one of 77 officially designated Chicago, Illinois community areas. It is located on the Northwest Side of Chicago. Its main borders are the North Branch of the Chicago River, Diversey Avenue, Addison Street, Pulaski Road and the Union Pacific/Northwest rail line; bisecting the community are Belmont and Milwaukee Avenues along with the Kennedy Expressway (Interstate 90/Interstate 94). Located directly north of the Logan Square neighborhood, it is also accessible through the Belmont and Logan Square stations of the CTA Blue Line.

An early racially-integrated suburb now considered a neighborhood, Avondale became part of Chicago when the city annexed Jefferson Township in 1889. Factories that sprang up around the turn of the 20th century by the railroads were responsible for the initial wave of European immigrants, mostly Poles, Scandinavians and Germans. This quiet, blue-collar neighborhood experienced an increase in the Hispanic population from 37.6% in 1990 to 62.0% in 2000.^[1], but this trend has reversed since then with Non-Latino Whites being the largest ethnic group thanks to gentrification along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor^[2].

Avondale was the site of one of Chicago's Seven Lost Wonders, the Olson Park and Waterfall complex at Diversey and Pulaski.^[3]

Neighborhoods

The Polish Village - Jackowo and Wacławowo

Polish store on Milwaukee Avenue

Rahm Emanuel speaking at St. Hyacinth Basilica.

Wacławowo is derived from the Polish name for the church of St. Wenceslaus. Photographer Richard Nickel was married here in 1950.

The Polish Village or Jackowo [jat​͡sˈkɔvɔ] and Wacławowo [vat​͡swaˈvɔvɔ], 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 (Bazylika Św. Jacka) and St. Wenceslaus Church (Kościół Świętego Wacława). Milwaukee Avenue is the district's main commercial strip, which includes a number of sausage shops, restaurants, and bakeries. 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.

The Polish communities of Jackowo and Wacławowo appeared in the late 19th century and early 20th century as Polish settlement spread further northwest along Milwaukee Avenue. The neighborhood experienced its heyday as the cultural nexus of Chicago's Polonia during the 1980s and 90's with the so-called Solidarity and Post-Solidarity waves of Polish migration to Chicago, including a number of political refugees^[4]. Until the recent installation of an automated system, on Sunday mornings the CTA driver would announce "Yats- koh- voh", signaling the stop for St. Hyacinth Basilica as Poles shuttled off the bus on their way to mass^[5]. Local landmarks and institutions increasingly became revitalized and renewed while taking on an increasingly ethnic hue by catering to these recent arrivals from Poland. The historic Milford Theatre served as the central Polish cinema arts venue like Jefferson Park’s Gateway Theater today, with locals giving it the nickname “Cinema Polski”^[6].

A distinct flowering of Polish arts and culture took place here in Avondale, an environment where Poles could finally freely express themselves without worrying about incurring the wrath of government censors or political repression. The events and activities organized here by Chicago's Polish community played a key role in shaping the chain of events that eventually resulted in the collapse of the Communist government in Poland, bringing down the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since after World War II^[7]. A highly expressive and now unfortunately decaying mural in the McDonald's parking lot combining Polish patriotic and folkloric motifs by Caryl Yasko titled “Razem”, or together in Polish, was painted thanks in part to funds furnished by the Polish American Congress in 1975^[8]. It now stands forsaken near the corners of Belmont and Pulaski in mute testament to this bygone renaissance^[9].

Avondale's connection to Chicago Polonia has brought the vicinity some notable visitors who came to reach out to Chicago's Polish community. This has included General Józef Haller de Hallenburg, Prime Minister Stanisław Mikołajczyk as well as Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa. Both former Premier Jarosław Kaczyński as well as his deceased twin brother President Lech Kaczyński paid official visits through the area. Former mayor of Warsaw and current Member of the European Parliament Paweł Piskorski while sampling the wares at Kurowski’s, one of the numerous Polish delicatessens in the area, declared that the sausage shop’s kielbasa was better than any he’d had in his own home city. Future Pope John Paul II trekked to St. Hyacinth's several times as the Archbishop of Cracow and referred to his gatherings there during his 1979 pilgrimage to Chicago^[10]. Avondale once served as the place for the political elites to publicly cavort for the support of the Polish American electorate with politicians both local and national visiting the district. George H. W. Bush attended mass at St. Hyacinth's as well as a meal at the former Orbit restaurant during his 1988 campaign. Purportedly violence almost broke out as supporters of Lyndon LaRouche protesting outside the basilica were not looked at very kindly by local Poles, who had a reverence for the candidate they saw as the best hope against the loathed Communist regime in Poland^[11].

Although today much of the Polish diaspora has moved out to more upscale neighborhoods and other immigrants from Latin America^[12] or from the former Soviet Bloc, such as Ukrainians and Czechs have moved in, the area still retains much of its Polish character. Like neighboring Logan Square, the neighborhood is also experiencing gentrification as artists and Yuppies move their way northwest along Milwaukee Avenue^[13].

The neighborhood is serviced by the Blue Line's Belmont station located on its northeastern edge next to the Kennedy Expressway at the intersection of Kimball and Belmont, less than three blocks away from St. Hyacinth's former mission of Our Lady of Fatima. Just to the north of Jackowo is Wacławowo and the parish of St. Wenceslaus, with its impressive church. Housing stock there primarily consists of brick two-flats built in the first half of the 20th century prior to World War II, although there are a number of bungalows present in the area neighboring the Villa District to the north.

See also

• Polish Cathedral style
• Polish American

References

1. ^ "Chicago Area Housing Website - Housing website home page". http://www.chicagoareahousing.org/. 
2. ^ http://www.robparal.com/downloads/ChicagoChange.pdf
3. ^ Grossman, Ron. "Chicago's Seven Lost Wonders". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0508290065aug29,0,5504866.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo440-f. 
4. ^ http://urbanarchives.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/chicago-pol-mex-fusion/
5. ^ http://www.polishnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1329:avondale-and-chicagos-polish-village&catid=90:polish-tradition&Itemid=322
6. ^ http://www.polishnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1329:avondale-and-chicagos-polish-village&catid=90:polish-tradition&Itemid=322
7. ^ http://www.nwchicagohistory.org/NWCHS_-_July_2009.pdf
8. ^ http://forgottenchicago.com/features/chicago-areas/holiday-in-avondale/
9. ^ http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications/pdf_publications/weber.pdf
10. ^ http://www.nwchicagohistory.org/NWCHS_-_July_2009.pdf
11. ^ http://www.polishnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1329:avondale-and-chicagos-polish-village&catid=90:polish-tradition&Itemid=322
12. ^ http://chuckthompson.com/commentary/2008_08_01_archive.html
13. ^ http://forgottenchicago.com/features/chicago-areas/holiday-in-avondale/

External links

• Official City of Chicago Avondale Community Map
• Avondale, Chicago Webliography
• The History of Avondale and Chicago's Polish Village
• Holiday in Avondale, Forgotten Chicago's take on Avondale
• Avondale and Chicago's Polish Village in the newsletter of the Northwest Chicago Historical Society