Ravenswood Presbyterian Church

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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.

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1770 West Berteau Avenue

Architect F. E. Davidson designed this building at an estimated cost of $150,000 in 1919. Is a beautifully designed commercial building. Window bays articulated in a variety of ways, including stepped brickwork, cut stone and terra cotta. Note carved limestone detail, especially over the entrance, and copper detail of string course, clock surround tower. Note also contrasting brown brick in spandrels. Cornice removed? This building, particularly its south facade when seen from a distance, has a monumental articulation of the classical order of base, column and capital. Unusually fine industrial design.
Note the concealed water reservoir located in the tower and topped with the clock. Looking up Ravenswood Avenue you can see a number of other industrial buildings that do not conceal their water tanks with similarly elegant design.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

The Progress Company, the original owner, was a publishing house. The Deagan Company appears to have bought the building in 1912 after the bankruptcy of Progress. The Deagan Company manufactured tubular chimes and orchestral instruments for theater pipe organs for clients throughout the world and Chicago. Deagan chimes are in local churches, such as the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church we visited earlier in the tour., as well as in the Wolford Memorial Tower in Lincoln Park near Waveland Golf Course. The company’s orchestral instruments are in the pipe organs of the Chicago Theater, the Granada Theater and the Uptown Theater.
In the 20th Century East Ravenswood, especially Ravenswood Avenue, became the site for a number of factories, but it did not start out that way. The first factory in Ravenswood was the Cubley Musical Instrument Factory opened on the southwest corner of Ashland and Sunnyside in 1872. But residents of East Ravenswood, led by Robert Bennett, complained about a factory in their fashionable residential neighborhood. Finally in 1880 Bennett arranged what Guy Cubley called a “double trade,” and Cubley moved his factory to Wolcott Avenue on the other side of the railroad tracks.
By the 1870’s and 1880’s East Ravenswood Avenue was the local business district with grocery stores, a meat market, a post office, and a drug store, among other shops and offices. But even in the 1880’s the street had lumber yards and commercial stables above Wilson Avenue.

SOURCES

CCL Survey; Recorder of Deeds Office. Permits are #11600 (5/21/1909; 13543 (7/29/1909); 9579 (3/5/1909; and 19272 (3/25/1910).

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 4147 North Ravenswood Avenue.

  1. Continue west to the corner, about 136′.
  2. Cross Berteau, heading south. The next building with an entrance on Ravenswood is your destination, about 121′.
  3. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

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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.

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