Ukrainian Village - History

History

Ukrainian Village, like neighboring East Village began as farmland. Originally German Americans formed the largest ethnic group in the vicinity, however by the start of the 20th century the neighborhood was largely Slavic. Similarly to Chicago's Lithuanian Downtown in Bridgeport, Ukrainians settled in the district because of their familiarity with Poles who lived in the surrounding Polish Downtown. Dense settlement of the neighborhood was largely spurred by the 1895 construction of an elevated train line along Paulina Ave (1700 W) that would later be decommissioned in 1964. The Ukrainian community in the Chicagoland area is scattered widely, with the core neighborhood in the city located in what is known as Chicago's "Ukrainian Village." This central area has been the focus of Ukrainian life since around the start of the 20th century, and continues to function as its hub with three major Ukrainian churches, two Ukrainian banks, a Ukrainian grammar school, the Ukrainian National Museum, a Ukrainian Cultural Center, two Ukrainian youth organizations, and many Ukrainian restaurants, stores and businesses.

There have been four mass immigrations from Ukraine to the United States. The first immigrants arrived during the period 1870-1914. Most of these early immigrants from Ukraine were poor, illiterate peasants seeking a better life in America. Many small Ukrainian enclaves developed throughout Chicago, including the area bounded by Division, Racine, Orleans and Roosevelt; another in the Burnside area and another in what has become known as the Ukrainian Village. A small pocket of immigrants colonized Packingtown on the South Side of Chicago. In 1903 they erected a church that stood in the shadows of the large slaughterhouses that characterized the area. The First Greek Catholic Church of St. Mary's of Chicago featured a three barred cross on the steeple. Beneath the cross was a crescent, symbolic of the victory of Christianity over Islam. St. Mary's soon became an integral part of Rusyn culture.

The second, interwar, wave of immigration occurred between 1920-1939 following Ukraine's declaration at the end of World War I as an independent nation. In contrast to the first wave of immigrants, Ukrainians arriving in Chicago at this time were semi-skilled, literate workers who had decided to come to the United States to escape the political and economic pressures of the newly independent Ukraine. Ukrainians played an important role in Chicago's Centennial Exposition in 1933. The Ukrainian Pavilion at the Exposition housed a restaurant and exhibit halls demonstrating folk art and history.

By the 1930s, there were five Ukrainian parishes dotting Chicago's neighborhoods, including the lovely Byzantine-Slavonic style of St. Nicholas Cathedral. Built between November 1913 and January 1915, St. Nicholas is in the heart of the Ukrainian neighborhood south of Wicker Park and along Chicago Avenue, fondly referred to by locals as the Ukrainian Village.

This neighborhood, northwest of the Loop, was first settled by Polish and Slovak immigrants, but with the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and the influx of political refugees during World War I, it assumed a Ukrainian cultural identity which lingers to this day.

The third, post World War II, wave of immigration occurred between approximately 1948-1955. This wave of immigration brought with it a highly skilled, professional Ukrainian population who entered the United States following the passage of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. Forced to leave Ukraine on the eve of the Soviet onslaught, they were committed to Ukraine’s freedom crusade.

Following period, thousands of political refugees from war-torn Eastern Europe found their way to America, including professionals, physicians, lawyers, writers and intellectuals who had stood in opposition to the Stalinist regime. The population surge of the 1950s energized Chicago's Ukrainian Village and spurred construction of new parishes and the founding of new organizations.

Over the past half century, it has remained a middle-class neighborhood, populated largely by older citizens of Eastern European ethnicity, bordered (and affected) on many sides by more dangerous areas. It was insulated somewhat from surrounding socioeconomic change in the large industrial areas on its south and west borders by the strong fabric of ethnic institutions as well as the staying power of the Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic congregations. These local ethnic institutions include the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, the Ukrainian National Museum, and the Ukrainian Cultural Center. Although Ukrainian Village continues to be the center of Chicago's large Ukrainian community, the gentrification of West Town is rapidly changing the demographic. Ukrainian Village continues to be home to approximately 15,000 ethnic Ukrainians.

Other notable local landmarks include Ss. Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, Roberto Clemente High School, St Mary's Hospital, and Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral, the latter having been commissioned by St. John Kochurov and designed by famed architect Louis Sullivan.