Forgotten Chicago Walking Tour Part 2 - Residential Architecture

On Sunday September 27th I took a walk through Western Pilsen and Eastern Little Village with the people from Forgotten Chicago. It was a great day for a walk. In part 2 I'll show some of the architectural styles that are present in the area. The Pilsen area was mostly built up during the 1870's and 1880's. Little Village was a little later mostly in the 1890's to early 1900's.

With that said the first homes we looked at was actually built in the early 1960's. Just around the corner from the Pink Line stop these homes are just east of Western on 21st Street. No one knows why this strip of land wasn't developed earlier.



We continued to walk eastward our guide pointed out this building with the fake Mansard roof. They would build these structures with the fake tops to make them seem more important.



Here's a typical commercial / residential structure



We looked at some homes built on the back of the lot instead of the front. One reason this was done was so another building could be built on the front part of the lot. Below are two examples of this not being done. The owners of these buildings get to enjoy a very large front yard :)



We continued onward to the area around 24th and Oakley where a small Italian neighboorhood still exists.


Passing west over Western Avenue we enter the Little Village area. The housing on this side is about 10 to 20 years newer than the stock on the otherside. The area is alo built to a lower density. Instead of the occasional cottage and mostly multiple units you have a lot more cottages and the occasional multi-flat dwelling and those multi-unit building usually have a commercial part. Below are some typical cottages as well as a nice block of homes



Finally we have a rather rare site in Chicago rowhomes:



Thank you for looking at Part 2. Part 3 will conclude this series in which we'll explore the commercial and industrial side of a Little Village.