Chicago Community Area #31 - Lower West Side

Sunday's ride took me through several near west and south neighborhoods. I started by heading straight south on Halsted down to 1600 south into the Lower West Side which is better known as Pilsen. "Lower West Side" sounds like some place in Manhattan. I've never heard anyone here refer to it by that name.

Pilsen is an important Mexican-American community, but started out as a Czech neighborhood and is named after a city in the Czech Republic: Plzeň. The community is well-known for the many murals that are painted on the 16th street railroad embankment and on the sides of buildings throughout the area. Some of the murals depicts Eurpean scenes and reflect the Slavik origins of the neighborhood, others have a distinct Mexican/Aztec motif. Unfortunately, many of the beautiful murals are showing heavy signs of weathering.

After checking out the murals on 16th all the way down to Blue Island, I went down to one of the main commercial streets, 18th St, to return back to Halsted. At 1125 West 18th, I spotted a strange inscription over a door way: "Morticians" written in pseudo Chinese lettering. There didn't seem to be any mortician studios in the immediate vicinity and a quick Internet search was not fruitful.

[Edit 8/20/09: I was able to turn up this old photo of the Mortician's building in "better days". If you ask me, I think it looks better now.]