| South Lawndale
located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois and more
commonly known as the Little Village neighborhood, is
one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas.
Little Village is a neighborhood
on Chicago's West Side, historically designated "South
Lawndale" it was popularly known as "Czech
California" for many years due to the largest ethnic
group being of Bohemian heritage. It is home to the
largest Mexican-American population in the Midwest,
and was formerly the home of large Italian, Polish,
Czech, Irish, Lithuanian, Croatian and Slovene ethnic
communities.
It is located south of the BNSF
Railway tracks (Metra's BNSF Railway Line also runs
on these tracks) that run south-west from 18th Street
and Western Avenue to 26th Street and Cicero Avenue
and north of the South Branch of the Chicago River,
and west of the north/south railroad tracks just west
of Western Avenue and east of the city limits at Cicero
Avenue.
The name "Little Village"
was reportedly coined by a realtor in the early 1970s
to "capture the Bohemian character of the community".
Famous past residents of Little Village include Mayor
Anton Cermak, who lived in the 2300 block of S. Millard
Avenue, across the street from Lazaro Cardenas Elementary. |
