Trip 43: Ukrainian Village District

Date: July 10, 2010
Trip: 43
Landmarks Visited: 1
Landmarks To-Date: 128
Landmarks Remaining: 225

The Ukrainian Village District is a relatively large landmark district that is the historically Ukrainian neighborhood of Chicago. I've read that Chicago is the second largest Ukrainian city in the world after Kiev, Ukraine. I also remember a Ukrainian political candidate coming to Chicago to campaign a few years ago.

The district is a quiet neighborhood of two and three flat brown brick homes, with a few cottages, bungalows and greystones thrown into the mix. And there are lots of churches.

The neighborhood is also home to two Ukrainian museums.

This vacant church and attached school are for sale. I think it would be a fun project to convert the church into a restaurant and the school into condos or even a bed and breakfast. At least from the outside the church looks like it still has its original architectural features including its stained glass windows.

This is a Ukrainian Catholic Church.

You still see business signs in Ukrainian and you still hear people on the street speaking Ukrainian.

This is another Ukrainian Catholic church. Surprisingly, it's only a couple of blocks from the church shown above.

This is a really beautiful two-sided sculpture. It's female on one side and male on the other. It's located in front of the Ukrainian national museum.

This used car lot is actually across Western Ave from the landmark district. But I couldn't help throwing in a couple of photos for camp value. The vintage signage for "Car Town" promises "Used Ok's Cars" and "Ok'd Deals".