Slot Machines for Bars in West Town, Chicago

History

Most of West Town east of Wood Street fell within Chicago's original 1837 city limits. Milwaukee Avenue was planked in the 1840s as the Northwest Plank Road, and workers came in the late 1840s to build railroad lines, while others took factory jobs near the river. By the turn of the twentieth century, Germans and Scandinavians lived mostly in the north and northwest, Italians along Grand Avenue, and Polish immigrants around Division and Ashland, in what became known as Polish Downtown. Ukrainians settled the blocks that became Ukrainian Village, whose churches include St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral and Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, designed by Louis Sullivan. In the East Village blocks, German, Polish and other European immigrants lived in workers' cottages and small flats that the City made a landmark district in 2006. In the second half of the twentieth century the area became a Latino port of entry, first Puerto Ricans, then Mexicans, who were the dominant Latino group by 1990, a presence the shopping district along Chicago Avenue reflects. At the turn of the twenty-first century, artists, students and wealthier residents arrived, and gentrification spread along Milwaukee Avenue and Halsted with restaurants, nightclubs and shops.

The area today

West Town takes in Wicker Park, Noble Square, East Village and Ukrainian Village. Blue Line subway stations including Grand, Chicago and Division sit on Milwaukee Avenue, and the Polish Triangle lies where Division, Ashland and Milwaukee meet. Four sections of workers' cottages and small flats on Winchester, Wolcott, Honore and Hermitage, between Chicago Avenue and Division Street, make up the East Village landmark district. Smith Park, at 2526 W. Grand Avenue, traces to 1929, when part of a filled city dump went to the city's parks bureau. Its fieldhouse has a gymnasium, kitchen and meeting rooms, and the grounds hold a swimming pool, baseball fields and tennis courts.

Bars and restaurants here

Division Street has the older barroom history: by the 1940s its Polish taverns had earned it the name Polish Broadway. Chicago Avenue through East Village is a restaurant strip, according to the owners of a pool hall with golf simulators that opened at 1734 W. Chicago in August 2026. They built it without a kitchen so guests could come before or after dinner. It opened with hours until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and a mural by Mauricio Ramirez adorns its wall on Hermitage Avenue.