Community: Pleasant Street

 

Pleasant Street, located in DeKalb’s Third Ward, began as a neighborhood that welcomed immigrants from Norway, Finland, Sweden, and German in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1953, the City of DeKalb gave an old red brick pavement road a facelift, widening and repaving it, turning it into DeKalb’s Pleasant Street neighborhood, which they celebrated with the Pleasant Street Fair in October. [2]

Later, in the 1970s, the Pleasant Street neighborhood in DeKalb experienced an influx of Latino migrants and became dubbed “Little Mexico.” DeKalb resident Luis described growing up on Pleasant Street as a meeting point for himself and his friends, especially Latinos. [3]

The wave of Latino immigration peaked in the 1970s when Hispanic immigrants arrived in DeKalb County to work for factories in the area such as Nehring Electrical and California Packing Co. [4] This population increased by more than one-third in the 1990s, and by 1998, 4.2 percent of the county’s population was Hispanic, many of them settling in DeKalb, Illinois. [5]

Pleasant Street has recently been home to many Mexican-American staples in DeKalb County, including La Mexicana, Paraiso Market, Panadería y Dulcería Tus Amigos, and Flamingo Restaurant & Ice Cream.

Sources:

1. DeKalb, IL Third Ward History

2. “Pleasant is Name For It”, The Daily Chronicle, October 6, 1953, p. 10.

3. Oral History Completed 2025, DeKalb County History Center.

4. . DeKalb, IL Third Ward History

5. Dan Campana, “Hispanic Population enhances the cultural mix of DeKalb County”, The Daily Chronicle, July 29, 2000, p. A1.