Lithuanians in the Chicago area
Lithuanians in Chicago and the nearby metropolitan area are a prominent group within the "Windy City" whose presence goes back over a hundred years.
[2] The population is currently declining, influenced partially by Lithuania's 2004 entry into the EU, which has led a decrease in new arrivals to the United States.
[5] A large number of the early buildings of this district were built by the first prominent Lithuanian community leader, Antanas Olšauskas, circa 1910.
There is a small enclave of Lithuanians around the Beverly Shores area in northwest Indiana at the southern coast of Lake Michigan, where there is an American-Lithuanian Club.
Chicago is home to the Consulate General of the Republic of Lithuania, and the city's large Lithuanian American community maintains close ties to what is affectionately called the Motherland.
Chicago's Lithuanian heritage is visible in the cityscape through its Lithuanian-named streets such as Lituanica Avenue and Lithuanian Plaza Court as well as an Art Deco monument in Marquette Park commemorating pilots Stasys Girėnas and Steponas Darius who died in the crash of the aircraft Lituanica in 1933.
The area just east of Marquette Park features such institutions as Maria High School, Sisters of St. Casimir Motherhouse,[13] Holy Cross Hospital, and Nativity BVM Catholic Church, which have been associated with Lithuanians.
A number of the most architecturally significant churches of the Archdiocese of Chicago were built as national parishes by Lithuanian immigrants such as Holy Cross, Providence of God, Nativity BVM which is dedicated to Our Lady of Šiluva, and the now demolished St. George's in Bridgeport.
Opulently decorated with a proclivity towards Renaissance and Baroque ornamentation, Lithuanian churches were designed in the spirit of the architecture of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth's heyday.
Like Chicago's Polish Cathedrals, these churches were statements meant to recall an era when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania spanned from the Baltic to the Black Sea, having been built at a time when Lithuania was under Russian occupation and incorporating Lithuanian imagery in its decor such as the Vytis to invoke pride in Lithuanian culture.
The museum contains a variety of wood carvings, amber jewelry, Lithuanian national clothing pieces, sculptures, and many other traditional folk art.
These newspapers not only provide news and current events that involve Lithuanians living in Chicago, but also stories from around the entire world, such as economic, political and social trends relevant to Lithuanian-speaking peoples.
