After passing this tortilla factory on 18th Street just east of Ashland, for the millionth time this summer, I decided to take a photo and since it piqued my interest. The Pony Express cartouche is a definite indicator of its former function as a post office. According to Forgotten Chicago, it's one of the few old style post offices with a limestone facade.
I found an article in the Chicago Tribune date April 29, 1898 that discussed the naming rights of the post office. The article states the Bohemian residents won the right to name the post office the Pilsen station.
The current Pilsen Post Office is located on Ashland Avenue, just south of 18th Street. This post office, designed in the Moderne style, was likely a product of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the Depression era. These post larger post office replaced the smaller ones to accomodate the new sorting equipment the post office was using.
2 comments:
Essentially the naming of the Post Office was the first official recognition of "that place at Pilsen" as a name for the Lower West Side in the public sphere. For that reason, I will admit, I was slightly perturbed when our Congressman renamed it. Respecting the achievements of other's culture is the way to celebrate your own. I have always wanted to see a photo of the first post office which stood where the library now does.
I am still waiting for a newly built public building to be named for Saul Alinsky.
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