Polonia Triangle (), or the Polish Triangle, is a plaza located in West Town, in what had been the historical

Polish Downtown Polish Downtown was Chicago's oldest and most prominent Polish settlement. Polish Downtown was the political, cultural and social capital of Poles in Chicago and of other Polish Americans throughout North America. Centered on Polonia Triangle ...

area of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. A single-tiered fountain made of black iron with a bowl about nine feet in diameter is installed at its center. Polonia Triangle derives its name from the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

word ''Polonia'' ("

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...

"), which itself comes from the Latin name for Poland. Polonia Triangle was considered to be the center or town square of Chicago's Polish Downtown, the city's oldest and most prominent Polish settlement. In many ways it functioned as the capital of American Polonia, with the headquarters for almost every major Polish organization in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

clustered in its vicinity.

Location and surroundings

The Triangle is bounded by Division Street on the south, Ashland Avenue on the west, and Milwaukee Avenue on the northeast. Organisations located within its vicinity include the

Polish National Alliance The Polish National Alliance (PNA) ( pol. Związek Narodowy Polski, (ZNP)) is the largest and one of the oldest Polish fraternal organizations in the United States. The original goal was to mobilize support among Polish Americans for the libera ...

to the Polish Daily News. Polonia Triangle is one of 11 neighborhoods included in ''The Labor Trail'' which chronicles Chicago's history of

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

life and struggle. The site is still home to the

Chopin Theatre Chopin Theatre is an independent performing arts venue located in Wicker Park, Chicago. Reopened in 1990 by Zygmunt Dyrkacz, a Polish immigrant, the theater has become a significant cultural hub known for its eclectic programming and commitment ...

and is used for processions during Corpus Christi by parishioners of two of Chicago's Polish Cathedrals: St. Stanislaus Kostka and

Holy Trinity Polish Mission Holy Trinity Church () is a historic Catholic Church, Catholic church of the Archdiocese of Chicago located at 1118 North Noble Street. It is a prime example of the so-called Polish cathedral style of churches, in both its opulence and grand sc ...

. The Blue Line's Division/Milwaukee station is also located at the Polonia Triangle.

Controversies

There have been two major controversies relating to Polonia Triangle. The first dealt with renaming the plaza after writer

Nelson Algren Nelson Algren (born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer. His 1949 novel '' The Man with the Golden Arm'' won the National Book Award and was adapted as the 1955 film of the same name. Algren articulate ...

(1909–1981), whose controversial 1940s novels prominently displayed the

Polish American Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...

underclass and was taken by Chicago's Polish community as

Anti-Polonism Polonophobia, also referred to as anti-Polonism () or anti-Polish sentiment are terms for negative attitudes, prejudices, and actions against Poles as an ethnic group, Poland as their country, and their culture. These include ethnic prejudic ...

. A compromise was reached in 1998, where the Triangle kept its name and a newly installed fountain was named after Algren and inscribed with a quote from his 1951 essay '' Chicago: City on the Make'' around the fountain's base: "For the masses who do the city's labor also keep the city's heart". The second more recent one has been a push by a number of area residents led by Zygmunt Dyrkacz, head of the

, to artistically redevelop the Triangle as "the gateway to Wicker Park".

Redevelopment

Although Polonia Triangle has deteriorated from its heady days as the center of

, the entire West Town area has undergone a renaissance as gentrification has transformed the area. The old " Polish Broadway" along Division Street is becoming an increasingly thriving business district, full of nightclubs, restaurants and cafes. These changes have accelerated calls to improve what had become a long neglected area, most recently publicized in the ''

Chicago Reader The ''Chicago Reader'', or ''Reader'' (stylized as ЯEADER), is an American alternative newspaper in Chicago, Illinois, noted for its literary style of journalism and coverage of the arts, particularly film and theater. The ''Reader'' has been ...

's'' in depth report titled ''"Wicker Park's Dirty Doorstep: Round two of the battle over the glorified bus stop known as the Polish Triangle"''. Moreover, the Metropolitan Planning Council, in collaboration with the Placemaking Movement and WPB (Wicker Park/Bucktown), has collectively initiated a project aimed at the redevelopment and renovation of Polonia Triangle.

References

External links

The Metropolitan Planning Council and the Placemaking Movement's joint initiative to redevelop and renovate Polonia Triangle
{{Coord, 41.903579, -87.667176, format=dms, region:US-IL_type:landmark, display=title Polish-American culture in Chicago West Side, Chicago History of Chicago Polish communities in the United States