Located within Chicago's Lower West Side community area, the Pilsen neighborhood has been an im- portant port of entry for many major immigrant groups throughout the city's history. Pilsen is situated within the original boundaries of Chicago at the time of its incorporation as a city in 1837.

Why is Pilsen called Pilsen?

When one Bohemian resident opened a restaurant called “At the City of Plzen” to honor the second largest city in West Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic), residents began to refer to the neighborhood as Pilsen. The subsequent naming of the post office as Pilsen Station institutionalized the moniker.

When did Pilsen become a Mexican neighborhood?

We answered the when part of the question just by looking at census numbers: Pilsen did not become mostly Latino until the 1960s; Little Village didn't until the 1970s.