Like many other Chicago neighborhoods, the development of the neighborhood now known as Ukrainian Village was spurred by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. In the aftermath of the fire, German immigrants populated the area; it was originally a working-class neighborhood. A good portion of these immigrants were construction workers and craftsmen who had moved to the area in order to find work building large estates for nearby Wicker Park residents. Between 1880 and 1910, Chicago experienced its first wave of Ukrainian immigration. By 1910, Ukrainians were the most populous ethnic group in the neighborhood. By 1930, the number of Ukrainians in Chicago was estimated to be approximately 30,000, with most living in the Ukrainian Village.
This concentration of Ukrainians in one area of Chicago led Mayor Jane Byrne to officially designate the community as “Ukrainian Village” in 1983. Despite the fact that this designation is relatively recent, the Ukrainian Village has been a culturally influential area since the beginning of the twentieth century.
While the neighborhood remains a central location for those with Ukrainian roots, gentrification became an issue in the last couple of decades of the twentieth century. The increase in development and prices paired with the outflux of residents meant that by 1990, approximately 2,500 of the residents identified themselves as Ukrainian, while the remaining population was primarily white, with no explicit ties to Ukraine. Despite this challenge, the neighborhood remains uniquely Ukrainian, through institutions such as their churches, youth groups, and museums.