Lower
West Side (continued)
Heart of Chicago
Although a number of German immigrants lived in Pilsen, the largest
German community on the Lower West Side developed west of
Robey
Street (Damen Avenue), in the area now known as Heart of Chicago.
In 1872 German Lutherans established St. Matthew parish, and
ten
years later they opened a new school at the southwest corner
of 21st and Hoyne. In 1887 the congregation build a brick
church
across the street from their "Schule." German Catholics
organized St. Paul parish in 1876, and men of the congregation
contributed their labor to build the massive structure which
towers over the neighborhood at 22nd Place and Hoyne. Known
as the church
"built without a nail," St. Paul's (1899) is
said to be the first all-brick Gothic church in America (See
Fig. 1).
Not only did the German parish of St. Paul boast a magnificent
house of worship, but it was also the birthplace of St. Paul Federal
Savings and Loan (1889). One of Chicago's largest savings institutions,
St. Paul Federal has expanded beyond the neighborhood into the
city and suburbs. Savings and loan associations were popular among
German, Polish, and Bohemian immigrants, and they made it possible
for thousands of families to become property owners, a tradition
which continues today among the area's Mexican residents.
Polish immigrants on the Lower West Side followed the same path
set out by Bohemian families. From their original settlement around
St. Adalbert Church at 1656 West 17th Street, Polish families
built homes in Heart of Chicago and Little Village as they moved
up the economic ladder. In addition to becoming the majority in
the old Irish parish of St. Pius at 19th and Ashland, the Polish
community established a network of national parishes that extended
west to the suburb of Cicero. The location of their new parishes
illustrates how the Polish settlement on the Lower West Side expanded,
from St. Adalbert's (1874) to St. Casimir's (1890) at 22nd and
Whipple; to St. Ann's (1903) at 18th Place and Leavitt; to Good
Shepherd (1907) at 28th and Kolin.
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Figure
1: The lodge headquarters of the Czech Slavic Benevolent Society
(CSPS), built in 1879 at 1226 W. 18th Street. »
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