First impressions can be misleading.
Driving south on Milwaukee Avenue, a person entering the Jefferson Park area of Chicago passes under the Chicago & North Western railroad viaduct, over the Kennedy Expressway from O`Hare International Airport and sees the golden arches of McDonalds on the west and the CTA Jefferson Park Terminal on the east.
Fast food and transients, right? Wrong!
It`s a street with a flavor all its own: Second- and third-generation residents, ethnic restaurants and small, family-owned businesses pack the approximately five-block area of Milwaukee Avenue that runs through Jefferson Park.
The street is filled with residents shopping and passing the time of day with one another, as they have throughout the years; or going to and from work, whether it`s to a job on Milwaukee Avenue or to one that`s a bus or train ride away.
A walk down the street brings the flavor of this section of Milwaukee Avenue into focus: the variety of shops and the different ethnic groups represented. Milwaukee Avenue reflects the Jefferson Park community. Walking down the street and reading the store signs and listening to the shopkeepers, whether old-timers or newcomers, explain why they like Milwaukee, it`s easy to see why the shoppers return and the residents stay.
At the north end of Jefferson Park, across from the terminal, a heavy, handcrafted door of sculpted aluminum opens to the Edward Fox Studio, a photography studio that specializes in weddings (2,000 a year).
Charlotte Nopar, whose father Edward founded the studio in 1902 at Milwaukee and Armitage Avenues, is delighted with the present location at 4900 N. Milwaukee Ave. Her son Richard runs the studio.
”We were very fortunate,” she says. ”When we bought the building 20 years ago it was the shell of a furniture store belonging to Bernie Molay
(Jefferson Park`s historian). Nothing was here. Then they put in the Jefferson Park Terminal. Thousands used to come in, but that has changed since service was extended to O`Hare a few years ago. But, I love being here.”
Nopar adds that still there are a lot of of people using the terminal and that the location has been good to them.
Further south, in contrast to the brisk pace of the terminal area, where 11 CTA and 2 Nortran lines plus the C&NW disgorge and swallow hurrying passengers, Jefferson Park residents relax on the avenue`s benches, stop for coffee at the Jefferson Restaurant and chat with merchants they have known for years.
As the Jefferson Park Terminal is the hub of Chicago`s northwest transportation system, the intersection of Lawrence and Milwaukee Avenues is the hub of Jefferson Park. A colorful jumble of signs compete for attention.
Close to the corner, at 4783, the Jefferson Restaurant, opening at 6 a.m. during the week, serves as a morning stop for people on their way to the terminal or to work in the community.
Pete Karras, who has owned the restaurant for nine years, calls his early-morning counter-sitters his ”breakfast club.”
”I stop here on my way to the terminal because it`s very homey,” says a woman at the counter who did not wish to be identified. ”The people are warm, very nice. The standards of the people who run the restaurant are high. The food is good, and the prices are reasonable.”
Next to her, another ”breakfast club” regular talks about why he likes Jefferson Park.
”Everything is within half a mile,” he notes. ”You have shopping, a library, a pool. Transportation is ideal. You can walk everywhere to everything.”
He motions toward the corner. ”You have tailor shops, VCR tape stores. It`s like living in a shopping center. It all comes together in Jefferson Park.”
Lyle Wicks, 32, who is now raising his family in the same house where he grew up, joins in the counter conversation and agrees: ”If you have to live in the city, I can`t think of a better area. There are businesses all over, and you have the expressways.”
Wicks has seen changes in the area`s generational makeup. ”When I was a kid, there were bunches of kids in the neighborhood. Then the neighborhood got older. Now it is turning over–there are more kids.”
Explaining the predominance of elderly shoppers, Wicks adds, ”The younger people take the car to shopping centers or `Six Corners` (the shopping area at the intersections of Irving Park, Cicero and Milwaukee in Portage Park). Older people walk in the neighborhood.”
Officer John Leahy, who has walked the Jefferson Park police beat for four years, knows most of the pedestrians.
After having worked in a different Chicago district, Leahy found Jefferson Park was ”more of a neighborhood.” He says, ”People get out and walk.”
”Good morning,” he greets an elderly woman. To another, he inquires,
”How are you today, Helen?” They smile and respond in kind.
”He`s really super,” comments shopper Mary Zarriello, who has stopped to chat. ”He really likes older people.”
Leahy, 39, takes time to talk to the neighborhood`s graying population.
”A lot of people don`t,” he says, adding that the elderly ”want to talk.”
When he was hit by a car 2 1/2 years ago while walking his beat, Leahy was overwhelmed by the community`s response. ”I got over 200 cards,” he says. ”The people here are very friendly.”
One reason people are out, according to Leahy, is the area`s low crime rate. ”When a purse is snatched here, it`s a major story.”
As he walks down the street pointing out the numerous stores owned by longtime merchants, Leahy notes that the area also is in a state of ethnic transition.
”There are more and more Polish-speaking people,” he says. ”Polish people from Milwaukee and Belmont are moving up.”
He points to the building housing the Honey Bee Inn, a Chinese restaurant at 4745. ”That building is mostly Polish,” Leahy says.
Polish-speaking travel agents Adam and Maria Grzegorzewski operate Best Way Travel in the building, at 4747, which abuts the Chinese restaurant.
For more than 50 years, Adam, 74, has been known in the Polish community as a radio announcer on local Polish programs. The agency recently moved to Jefferson Park from the 3200 block of Milwaukee Avenue.
Next to Best Way Travel, hungry diners can find robust traditional Polish fare in Bruno Balati`s tiny (six tables plus counter) Teresa 2 restaurant.
Ald. Gerald McLaughlin, whose 45th Ward includes Jefferson Park, says:
”People think the area is predominantly Polish. That is not entirely true. Based on the 1980 census, the area is 26.9 percent Polish, 27.8 percent German and 17.7 percent Irish.” The remaining 27.6 percent of the residents come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
The ethnic makeup of Jefferson Park is reflected in Barb`s Hallmark Shop at 4767, which sells greeting cards in Polish, German, Greek, Italian–and English.
”There is a big call for them, particularly around Christmas and Easter,” store manager Flemme Miata says, with the Polish cards the most popular.
Miata, a 17-year Jefferson Park resident, says she knows most of the customers.
Walking out of Barb`s, one picks up the wonderful fresh-from-the-oven smells from the streets` two German bakeries, Neuman Bakery Specialties Inc. and the Ideal Pastry Shop.
Although Neuman Bakery packs most of the goods baked at 4755 for shipping, a passerby with a taste for one of the company`s 15 types of fruit breads can buy it at the outlet counter located on the premises.
”It used to be retail in the 1930s,” says Elaine Lane, Neuman`s traffic manager. ”Now we ship out. The bakery here ships all over the country.”
”It switched from retail about 18 years ago,” recalls Peter Neuman, who is production supervisor for his father, George Neuman Jr.
Up the street from Neuman`s, at 4765, people forsake dieting for one of Ideal`s pastries.
”We`re probably best known for our coffee cakes, though we do a lot of decorated cakes,” says third-generation baker Kurt Schroeder. ”People send our coffee cakes all over, but a person can come in and find anything you would expect to get in a bakery.”
Schroeder, whose grandfather was a baker in Germany and whose father owned a bakery on Damen Avenue, opened Ideal on Milwaukee Avenue in 1953.
Across the street from Neuman`s and Ideal, a person in search of Polish sweets, sausage or ham can take a number and join the line at 4772, the takeout deli of Krakus Sausage.
There, shoppers who come from neighboring suburbs and nearby homes, commiserate with each other on the long line and debate the merits of fresh versus smoked sausage.
Two doors down, fruit stacked about 6 feet high tempts shoppers to enter the colorful Imperial Fruit Market owned by the Eliopoulos family. In a neighborhood of relatively old, established businesses, Imperial is a newcomer, having moved from a nearby location about two years ago.
Another newcomer is M.K.`s Magazines at 4789. In the skinny angle store, squeezed into the southeast corner of Milwaukee and Lawrence, customers line up for papers, magazines, sundries–and lottery tickets.
Owner Mike Picicci saw a for-rent sign on the building three years ago and decided the location was perfect for him.
”I know this neighborhood,” he says. ”It`s the only neighborhood left in Chicago with low crime. Before, I saw policemen on foot only downtown. Here I see two policemen.” He means Leahy, who covers the area in the morning followed by Dennis Salemi in the afternoon.
Traveling south on Milwaukee, away from Lawrence Avenue, traffic is less congested, parking is easier and more services intertwine with retail stores. European nannies, secretarial services and legal advice are advertised on the office window at 4750.
As you go farther south, trees begin to replace the commercial signs, and there are three-story apartment buildings scattered among the two-story commercial properties. There are no high-rises in Jefferson Park.
Green, the color of trees and pool table felt, also is the color of the doorway at 4637. Here at Chris` Billiards, a player can shoot pool 365 days a year from 10 a.m. until 1 a.m. (11 a.m. on Sundays).
Chris` is where Paul Newman was on location las summer filming ”The Color of Money.”
Owner Chris Crisman hopes the movie, a sequel to ”The Hustler,” will bring people back to pool.
”Most people have the wrong image of a poolroom,” Crisman, 54, contends. ”This is a nice community, parents come and bring their kids.”
During the filming, Cirzan Electric at 4651 was known as the ”store next to Chris` Billiards.”
”I saw Newman every day,” Florence Cirzan recalls. ”People, who were waiting by the door of the shop to see him, stopped by. I didn`t get much work done.”
”To us it`s like a small town,” she says of Jefferson Park.
