This street runs between California Avenue and Western and is 69th Street on the west side of Marquette Park and east of Western. It is now an area of blight. Lithuanian Plaza starts with the park on one side and the back end of Holy Cross Hospital on the east side. All of these photos were taken between Talman and Mozart, with a few near Washtenaw.
As far as I can tell, the Plaza is still open, but several other taverns are closed, as is the deli. This area is not a good neighborhood to be in after dark. Richard Chwedyk once told me that one reason older white men and women haven't moved from their three-flats is because, after enduring the horrors of World War II, random shots fired in the middle of the night is something they might find easy to ignore. The logic is so simple, I had never considered it.
The photos are not in consecutive order, but I hope to show the amount of closed businesses and boarded up two- and three-flats along a three block stretch of Lithuanian Plaza. As it was in August of 2012.
2 comments:
Places of promise turn gradually to places of despair.
There was a little restaurant. Tulpe'. The name means "tulip" in Lithuanian. I remember it being no bigger than the pool room at the Delta and when they ran out of food, they closed for the day. They had the closest resemblance to my Mom's cooking and Mom could cook.
The reference to WW II makes so much sense. So much sense that what would happen if we took Preckwinkle's bullet tax and armed these "old timers"?
Post a Comment