West Lawn

Though primarily residential, West Lawn is home to Ford City, one of the largest retail shopping centers on the city’s Southwest Side. Not far away is the campus of Richard J. Daley College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and Midway International Airport. West Lawn’s main cultural attraction, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture promotes the traditions and history of one of the most prominent ethnic groups in Chicago.

West Lawn: Classic Chicago Institutions Still Call this Southwest Side Neighborhood Home

Written by Alan Solomon, with research assistance from the Chicago Neighborhood Tourism Project.

The West Lawn neighborhood is largely a residential community of single-family homes whose most intriguing attractions are things you don't see much anymore.

On Pulaski Road south of 63rd Street is J&R Variety, the kind of independent one-stop store that anchored neighborhoods' commercial streets for generations. Magic shops may be disappearing in some places, but Izzy Rizzy's House of Tricks is still right here on Pulaski, too. 
 

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