GEOG 312 Assignment 1 - Geography Of Chicago & Its Region PDF

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There are two written assignments during the course. This is the first one. The requirement is two pages on a topic of your choice from the first half of the class. ...

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Allie Goulding Professor John C. Hudson Geography 312 7 February 2017 Historical Geography of the Northwest Side Polish Neighborhood Nicknamed the Polish Downtown, the Northwest Side was one of Chicago’s oldest and most prominent Polish settlements. Included in this area were Pulaski Park, River West, Bucktown, Wicker Park, East Village, and Noble Square. The beginning of this Northwest Side Polish neighborhood can be traced back to 1851, when Anthony Smarzewski-Schermann first settled the area. By 1890, half of all Chicago’s Polish population lived in the Northwest Side, and in 1950, some 94,000 Polish-born people were concentrated in three distinct wedge-like sectors of the city, largely on the Northwest Side. The area continued to grow after World War II, where as many as 150,000 Poles were estimated to have arrived as displaced people from the war. Now, the neighborhood is no longer the center of Chicago’s Polish Community, but this Polish neighborhood remains a large part of Chicago’s history. The Polish Downtown shifted and expanded over time as Polish immigration increased. For the most part, the neighborhood spanned from Racine Avenue to the east, Fullerton Avenue to the north, Kedzie Avenue to the west, and Grand Avenue to the south, according to historian Edward R. Kantowicz. In 1867, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church was founded with the help of Anthony Smarzewski-Schermann. It quickly became the center of Chicago’s Polish community. Following the “Polish Cathedral style,” it is very large, much like the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, located at 1118 North Noble Street. Both churches were visible from the Kennedy Freeway,

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completed in 1960. The St. Stanislaus Kostka Church was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with masses celebrated in English, Polish, and now Spanish. The combined membership of the two churches was over 60,000 in the early 1900s, making them one of the largest parishes in the world. In terms of culture and people, one of the more famous people residing in the area was Nelson Algren, who used the Northwest Side Polish neighborhood as a place of inspiration for his literary works. He often gambled in Polish bars, such as the Bit of Poland on Milwaukee Avenue. His second novel, Never Come Morning, published in 1942, was about a young PolishAmerican criminal with a dead-end life. Not surprisingly, this novel offended the large PolishAmerican community whom he lived around. The book was actually banned from the Chicago Public Library at one point, but he remained infamous in the community because of it. Land use in the Northwest Side Polish neighborhood varied. Many Polish organizations, such as Polish National Alliance, were founded in Pulaski Park. Congressman Dan Rostenkowski also held his base of operations in this area. Besides these headquarters, land use also included the two churches mentioned above, which were a large part of the Polish culture. The Kennedy Expressway also served as an important use of land, as it connected Chicago to other cities nearby and gave an entrance way into the Northwest Side Polish neighborhood. In 2000, the Polish population pushed outward into suburbs adjacent to the city. The proportion of Polish immigrants dropped below the city average in many of the tracts that had been Polish for at least half a century. Now, though the city continues to have a large Polish population, the pattern has shifted from densely populated inner-city areas to the suburbs northwest of the central city.

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Works Cited Hudson, John C. Chicago: A Geography of the City and Its Region. Santa Fe, NM: Center for American Places, 2006. Print. Pacyga, Dominic A. "Poles." Poles. Encyclopedia of Chicago, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. Parot, Josh J. "Multicultural Difficulties in Chicago's Polish Catholic Community:

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Historical Perpectives." Multicultural Difficulties in Chicago's Polish Catholic Community: Historical Perpectives. Northeastern Illinois University Libraries, n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2017. Siczek, Klaudia. "Forgotten Architecture of the Chicago Polish Neighborhood." Chicago Detours: Chicago Tours for Curious People. Chicago DeTours, 03 June 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2017....