8 Best Sights in Wicker Park, Chicago

Serving as the border that separates Wicker Park from Ukrainian Village to its south, Division Street has become a shopping and dining destination in its own right. Bars, boutiques, and trendy restaurants line the once-gritty thoroughfare, which lent its name to journalist Studs Terkel's 1967 book about urban life. To start your exploration, head west on the stretch of Division between Ashland and Leavitt avenues.

Along with the Northwest Tower across the street, this distinctive three-story, terra-cotta structure, situated on a busy six-cornered intersection, is a visual symbol of Wicker Park. Its creaky upper floors have long served as a sort of informal arts colony, providing studio and gallery space for a number of visual artists.

Intuit showcases work from creators outside the artistic mainstream, many of whom used whatever supplies they had at their disposal to realize their vision. Collectively it’s a testament to the force of the creative impulse, no matter one’s background. Temporary exhibitions change throughout the year, but the heart of the museum is its exhibition about the internationally renowned artist Henry Darger, featuring a selection of artwork and anchored by a recreation of the artist’s cramped one-room apartment with his actual ephemera---think volumes of scrapbooks, balls of twine, pencil stubs, and paint pots—along with digital elements that explore the art, writings, methods and motivations of this mystery-shrouded artist.

Erected in 1929, this triangular, 12-story art deco office building is the anchor of the North-Milwaukee–Damen intersection and is used as a reference point from miles around. According to the Chicago Tribune, some artists dubbed it the Coyote Building in the 1980s, because they thought that the base attaching the flagpole to the rest of the tower "resembled a coyote howling at the moon." The tower has a café on the ground floor, a hotel (The Robey Chicago), a rooftop lounge, and a club.

The Chicago metro area has the largest Polish population of any city outside Warsaw, and this museum celebrates that fact. Take a trip to the old country by strolling through exhibits of folk costumes, memorabilia from Pope John Paul II, and the reconstructed rooms of famed pianist and statesman Ignacy Paderewski. There's also Hussar armor and an 8-foot-long sleigh in the shape of a dolphin. Chat up the knowledgeable docents and you might be treated to tales of Paderewski's romances or the exploits of the progressive 13th-century queen Jadwiga. 

Modern and contemporary art fans with an interest in the artistic achievements of the Ukrainian diaspora head to this small museum at the far western edge of the Ukrainian Village. One of its two galleries is dedicated to changing exhibitions; the other features the museum's permanent collection of mixed media, sculpture, and painting from the 1950s to the present. Some of the most interesting works are kinetic steel-wire sculptures by Konstantin Milonadis, the constructed reliefs of Ron Kostyniuk, and painted wood structures by Mychajlo Urban. 

For a glimpse of how the working class lived at the turn of the 20th century, head south of Wicker Park to the Ukrainian Village. In its center, on Haddon Avenue and on Thomas and Cortez streets between Damen Avenue and Leavitt Street, you'll find a well-preserved group of workers' cottages and apartments. At the corner of Leavitt and Haddon Streets, gilded cupolas mark Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral (tours offered occasionally; schedule at  holytrinitycathedral.net), an early-20th-century church designed by renowned Chicago architect Louis Sullivan.

This triangular little patch of green, donated to the city in 1870 by politician Charles Wicker, is a neighborhood favorite and home to softball fields, a children's water playground, a dog park, and outdoor movies. The handsome central fountain is a great spot for chilling out and people-watching in warm weather.