Pilsen Historic District

Pilsen is a densely built Chicago neighborhood about two and a half miles southwest of downtown, laid out on the city's flat street grid. Investors platted many streets in the 1850s, but construction took off after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, as Bohemian immigrants moved in. Most surviving buildings date from the 1880s and 1890s. The district counts 4,405 contributing and 838 noncontributing buildings, including brick cottages, rear houses, two- and three-flats, tenements, mixed-use corner buildings, banks, churches, schools, meeting halls and factories. Many show Baroque forms and ornament carried from Europe, such as sculptural gables, carved stone lintels and patterned brickwork. West 18th Street forms the commercial spine. Churches such as St. Procopius and St. Paul are prominent landmarks. Parks including Harrison, Dvorak and Barrett, along with two public baths, reflect Progressive-era efforts to serve a crowded immigrant community. Together these features give Pilsen an architectural and urban character unusual among Chicago neighborhoods.