Churches

All posts tagged Churches

Ravenswood United Methodist Church

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 20, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4501 North Hermitage Avenue

The church was built in 1890. The parish house was added in 1912.
John S Woollacott designed this church with its restrained rustication of stone-work. Note, too, the colorful floral and geometric stained–glass windows, which were brought from another church and installed here. The belfry appears to be covered in an attempt to restrain the traffic of pigeons.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

This was the second building for the Ravenswood Methodist Church. The first was originally built downtown, as a temporary structure for the First Methodist Church, which was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. That first building was given to the Ravenswood Methodist church in 1873, and was moved from downtown to a lot three blocks west of this location for the newly organized congregation. In 1879, it
was moved again, to this site, and stood at the back of the lot next to the alley. It may not have been particularly beautiful; one neighbor, John McLauchlan, described it as “a big drygoods box.”

Ravenswood United Methodist Church. Credit: Ravenswood UMC

Ravenswood United Methodist Church. Credit: Ravenswood UMC

The present building, which cost $26,000, was built some 11 years later; its architect, John Woollacott, also designed the Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church at 600 West Fullerton, built in l888.
G.M. Turnbull designed the parish house in 1912; the parsonage, replacing one built in the late 1880s, was built in 1963 through a bequest from Eleanor Abbott Ford, a daughter of Dr. Wallace Abbott. Dr. Abbott, founder of Abbott Laboratories, donated the original organ for the church, which is still in use and fills a monumental arch on the east wall.
Early parishioners include Martin Van Allen, the secretary of the Ravenswood Land Company- and Mary McDowell, the founder of the settlement house of the University of Chicago near the stockyards. Berry Memorial Methodist Church on Leavitt Street grew out of this church.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Parish Records; Recorder of Deeds Office. Parish Hall Permit is A 6001; N 1; Page 304: File 18075, on 7/13/12 (G. M. Turnbull, architect}. American_Contractor. 7/20/1912.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4447 North Hermitage Avenue.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 194′ south from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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Ravenswood Presbyterian Church

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on March 15, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

4300 North Hermitage Avenue

This church was designed by the renowned Chicago firm of Pond & Pond at a cost of $43.000. Pond & Pond also designed a number of the Hull House buildings erected between 1895 and 1913, the Stevens Building downtown, and the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church built in 1915, the same year as this Church. In 1949. at the cost of $225,000, architect Benjamin Franklin Olson was commissioned to “alter and refurbish” the original structure, and replace the 1906 parish house. The result was the present blonde stone structure. Little of the original building’s exterior is now evident.

Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. Credit: Google Street View

Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. Credit: Google Street View

HISTORICAL FEATURES

The Ravenswood Presbyterian Church was organized in 1902. Services were held in Library Hall at the corner of Hermitage and Montrose, until a chapel was built on this site in 1907. The chimes for the organ in the 1915 building were given by the Deagan Company, whose headquarters we will see on Berteau Avenue.

SOURCES

No Permit. Parish Records; Brick Builder, August 1915 (24:117-8)

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4246 North Hermitage Avenue, the Helen Zatterberg Playlot Park.

  1. The next location is across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


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Bethany United Church of Christ

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on January 1, 2013
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4250 North Paulina Street

While architect Benjamin Franklin Olson can be said to have done more aesthetic harm than good refurbishing the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church, this building has a number of appealing features, particularly in the east facade of the sanctuary. Note the cut stone which accentuates the vertical elements, elegantly laid brickwork which gives a horizontal texture, and concave wall welcoming the visitor to the church’s main entrance. The cloister and parish house also integrate well with the sanctuary building and make a pleasant whole. The building cost about $150,000 in 1930.

Bethany United Church of Christ. Credit: Google Street View

Bethany United Church of Christ. Credit: Google Street View

Olson also designed St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 2335 North Orchard Street (just south of Fullerton), a 1959 Neo-Gothic church. Like this church, St. Paul’s integrates a number of different building materials into a pleasing whole.

Until the construction of the Bethany United Church of Christ in 1930 the grandest house in Old Ravenswood was the Bennett Mansion. The Bennett Mansion stood on the current site of the church. The structure was torn down to create the current church. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association


Until the construction of the Bethany United Church of Christ in 1930 the grandest house in Old Ravenswood was the Bennett Mansion. The Bennett Building stood on the current site of the church. The structure was torn down to create the current church. Credit: Ravenswood Lake View Historical Association

HISTORICAL FEATURES

Before the church was built, Robert J. Bennett had a large, brick house on this site, which was the finest house in this neighborhood For many years. Bennett, who was a partner in the wholesale grocery firm of W.M. Hoyt Company, is best known locally as a real estate developer and philanthropist. He owned extensive property in Ravenswood and commissioned a number of houses, such as the McLaughlan and Knight homes that we just saw, as well as apartment buildings, one of which we will see later on the tour. He also built an office building, known as the Bennett Building, at the northwest corner of Wilson and East Ravenswood avenues. In 1891 he donated the land for and underwrote the construction of the first YMCA in Ravenswood, which was built at the back of his office building. Eleven years later he donated land at the southeast corner of Wilson and Hermitage for a new YMCA .

SOURCES

Permit #835331; Plan AB 369; Water 210222; File 220772; 44; Page 484 on 3/6/1930. Also check Parish records.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4251 North Paulina Street.

  1. The next building is across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


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Philadelphia Romanian Church (Ravenswood Church of Christ Scientist)

Posted by Rav Ens Wood on January 9, 2012
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

1713 West Sunnyside Avenue


An interesting design contrast with the other churches in the neighborhood.
This church, designed by N. Max Dunning and Clarence A. Jensen, takes inspiration from Greek temple forms found in the Pantheon and elsewhere. Classical architecture was quite typical in Christian Science churches in Chicago and many cities. What is not typical is the very high quality of design present here. Note the Superb proportions of the east facade, which express vertical thrust through the Ionic
columns and horizontal breadth through the width of the portico. This facade’s proportions, the monumental scale of the building, the skillful use of terra cotta ornament, the stained glass, and the copper lanterns flanking portico, all set this building aside as one of the city’s finest classical structures.
The building was extraordinarily expensive by the standards of its time, when Ravenswood’s largest and finest houses sold for only $6,000 or $8,000. Taking inflation in house prices into account, this building’s cost of $175,000 is equivalent
to about $10 million in 2000 dollars.
N. Max Dunning (1873-1945) was one of Chicago’s ‘most prominent architects, the designer of the American Furniture Mart, American Book Company Building also known as the Lakeside Press Plant #3 at 330 E. Cermak, and, with E. E. Roberts, the Oak Park Baptist Church. In this case, Dunning collaborated with Clarence A. Jensen, a lesser-known architect.

HISTORICAL FEATURES


The original Christian Science congregation moved out in the early 1980’s. A succession of other congregations have followed, the most recent of which, prior to the Philadelphia Romanian Church, was the Lakeshore Family Church. in the late summer of 1993. The church, which owned the building and adjacent parking lot, signed a contract with a Lincoln Park real estate developer for the purchase of the
three-quarter acre site and its building. He proposed to tear down the church and construct some 32 apartments and townhouses on the site, using setbacks and density levels inconnsistent with norms in the neighborhood, and which would require zoning change.
1713 W Sunnyside Ave, Philadelphia Romanian Church. Credit: Wikimapia

1713 W Sunnyside Ave, Philadelphia Romanian Church. Credit: Wikimapia


In the course of the following several months, community opposition grew. A few days before Christmas, 1993, at a community meeting, residents by an overwhelming vote rejected the proposed zoning change and recommended that the City Council also reject it. Shortly thereafter, the Lakeshore Family Church decided to nullify its contract with the developer and sell the site instead to another church, the current owners, who restored the building.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4500 North Paulina Street.

  1. Cross the street, about 33′ north from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.