Polish Downtown (Chicago)

Polish Downtown was Chicago’s oldest and most prominent Polish settlement. Polish Downtown was the political, cultural and social capital of not only Poles in Chicago but Polish Americans throughout North America as well. Centered on Polonia Triangle at the intersection of Division, Ashland and Milwaukee Avenue, the headquarters for almost every major Polish organization in the United States was clustered within its vicinity, beginning with the Polish National Alliance to the Polish Daily News.

Description

Located on the city's near northwest side, the area of Polish Downtown shifted and expanded over time as Polish immigration to Chicago exploded along with other Eastern Europeans amid Chicago's population boom in the late nineteenth century.

Historian Edward R. Kantowicz gave the following boundaries for Polish Downtown: Racine Avenue to the east, Fullerton Avenue to the North, Kedzie Avenue to the West and Grand Avenue to the South. The historian Dominic Pacyga notes that this district was not exclusively Polish, and that Italians, Ukrainians, and Jews each possessed their own enclaves within the area. The Polish character of the neighborhood visibly predominated over others in the area, as there was an extensive network of Polish churches, businesses, cultural institutions and fraternal organizations.