Living in Ukrainian Village & East Village: a neighborhood guide

The lay of the land

Ukrainian Village runs along Chicago Avenue between Damen and Western, with East Village picking up from Damen to Ashland. The streets are one-ways lined wall to wall with brick workers cottages and two-flats from the 1880s through the 1910s, so intact that the city made the core a landmark district in 2002 and has extended it since. Division Street on the north edge, the old Polish Broadway of Nelson Algren’s Chicago, carries the cafes and nightlife; Chicago Avenue keeps the bakeries, delis, and the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art.

The skyline here is steeples: Holy Trinity Cathedral, designed by Louis Sullivan in 1903 with a gift from Tsar Nicholas II on the books; St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral with its thirteen domes; and Sts. Volodymyr and Olha, whose facade mosaic glows at golden hour.

Getting around

The Blue Line’s Division stop sits at the neighborhood’s northeast corner, and the #66 Chicago and #70 Division buses run frequent and flat, fifteen minutes to Michigan Avenue on a light traffic day. Drivers slip onto the Kennedy at Division or Augusta.

• Permit parking rules most residential blocks; check the signs and our showing notes.
• The 606 trail’s eastern end is a short ride north.
• The West Loop and Fulton Market are a ten-minute bike ride south.

Parks and green space

Smith Park at the western edge covers the ballfields and playgrounds, and Eckhart Park on Chicago Avenue brings an indoor pool in the grand 1908 Ida Crown Natatorium. Commercial Park in East Village fills the small-park role, and the pocket gardens along the landmark blocks do the rest.

The housing stock

This is masonry connoisseur territory: Italianate cottages with tall parlors, brick two- and three-flats with corbelled cornices, and the occasional greystone, most protected by the landmark district, which reviews exterior changes and keeps the streetscape whole. Interiors range from time-capsule to fully rebuilt. Read our brick guide and plaster guide before touring; here the walls really are the value.

The calendar

• Do Division fills the street with stages and vendors each June.
• Ukrainian Village Fest brings folk dance and food to the cathedral blocks in September.
• The Ukrainian National Museum and Institute of Modern Art program exhibits year round.

Coffee, close by

An easy first errand in a new place: the nearby rooms with good espresso and a table to land at, each checked as open when this guide was last updated.

Star Lounge Coffee Bar · 2521 W Chicago · map
Dark Matter’s original clubhouse on Chicago Avenue, murals and all.

Standing Passengers · 1458 W Chicago · map
A record-lined espresso bar on the East Village end of Chicago Avenue.

Guides worth reading before you tour here

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