June 02, 2011

Worship: Presbyterian

Some Background

Presbyterians have been active in Chicago since the city’s beginning. The First Presbyterian Church was organized in 1833, before Chicago was officially incorporated. Early Presbyterians met in a carpenter shop inside Fort Dearborn. Presbyterian minister Jeremiah Porter wrote that Sabbath in the fort was “most shamefully abused” and that there were twenty stores and groceries “dealing out liquid death” (RG 425, First Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL).  

Fullerton Avenue 
Presbyterian Church
known currently as
  Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church
600 W Fullerton Parkway
Township of Lake View
City of Lake View
Community of Lincoln Park
the original address 670 W Fullerton Avenue
*the oldest continous congregation in old Lake View*
illustration - Art Institute of Chicago
image below- Lincoln Park by Melaine Apel
the first church
an 1914 account
These are excerpts from this booklet that is part of my collection
Opening Day 
in 1864
24 Congregants added to the Flock 
in 1875
Known today as the Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church. This house of worship was a popular town-hall meeting place for citizens of the City of Lake View 
1887 Rascher's Atlas Map
X marks the spot
the original church
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
1891

zoomed below
1894
zoomed below
100 years old 
in 1964
in 1964
1907 postcard - Ebay
2000 photo - De Paul University Digital Collection
photo - Chicago Sojourn
photo - Chicago Sojourn
photos below - their Facebook page
Township of Lake View
City of Lake View
pre 1909 address
561 Evanston Avenue
post 1909 address
Community of Lake View

1911 photo - Art Institute of Chicago 
postcard - Chicago History in Postcards
 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
1894
1923
In 1887 architects Daniel Burnham and John Wellborn Root were asked to design a church for the Presbyterian congregation of Lake View township. The membership had come together as a group three years before and were currently holding their Sunday services in a tent. They'd acquired a nice corner lot at Addison Street and Evanston Avenue (later Broadway) within sight of the prominent Lake View Town Hall building at Addison and Halsted Streets, and were ready to build a more permanent place to worship. Burnham and Root my have seemed an odd choice to be asked to design a church. Known for their big commercial projects in downtown Chicago like the Grannis, Montauk, Phoenix, Rand McNally and the recently completed Rookery Building, the partners were making quite a reputation for themselves as one of the city's go-to firms for tall building construction. 
what the area look like in 1887
a lot of vacant land
X marks the spot of the future church
zoomed view below
north of Addison Street
south of Addison Street
But as successful as Daniel Burnham was in getting the firm the big jobs, John Root, as his sister-in-law and biographer Harriet Monroe wrote, "longed to build churches." John Root had recently undertaken another church project on Chicago's south side for the Roman Catholic parish of St. Gabriel. But his design for the Presbyterians turned away from the heavy brick exterior of the church in the city. Lake View at the time was not located within the corporate boundaries of the city it bordered, and was remote, sparsely populated by people or their buildings, and had a very suburban look and feel. 
The fire resistant masonry edifice for St. Gabriel was appropriate for its urban site, but for Lake View's largely pastoral setting, Root went for the more organic rustic look and clad his clean-lined building in unpainted wood shingles, which fit nicely into the rural landscape. Tagged the "Shingle Style" in the 1950s, the amalgamation of stained wood surfaces was generally referred to as "Seaside Cottage" in Root's day, and had become a popular style of choice along the shoreline of the country's northeastern seaboard before moving westward. But Root's small building, unlike many of its East Coast predecessors, was a simple statement of organic geometric forms shaped in wood.
The Before Look
their Facebook page
1915 photo - Ravenswood-Lake View Community CollectionThe Parish House built in 19111911 photos - Art Institute of Chicago
The building is well known due to the partnership between Daniel Burnham and John  Root who designed some of Chicago's most famous commercial buildings, such as the Rookery 
and the Monadnock building
full page - East Lake View by Matthew Nickerson
The Renovation:
Newsletter Article
from Ravenswood-Lake View Historical Association 
by Peter Buol
the contractor
Renovation of this 'cornerstone of the community' started in 2004. Of the $1.23 million cost, $500,000 was donated by the Presbytery congregations and the rest was raised through secular (private) donations. During the renovation workers found the original cedar shingles underneath with white shingles.  A paint historian helped them determine the shingles' exact color. This time, the church was insulated and fireproofed with sheathing underneath the shingles. By the year 2000 the renovation was complete.
photos - Lynn Becker/Repeat
6 photos below - unknown source
 photos - Lake View Patch 2012
The Renovated 
Interior
3 photos - Open House Chicago
2 photos - their Facebook page
And after a January snow
by David Collins
Their High School
*closed in 2015*
May 2014

LAKEVIEW — You wouldn't be able to tell from the outside, but for more than 40 years, Lake View Presbyterian Church has been more than a house of worship. It's been a home to Lake View Academy, an alternative high school for Chicago Public Schools dropouts that's graduated more than 360 kids over the years. Without a sign on the building at 716 W. Addison St., mostly only people working with high school dropouts know about it, said the Rev. Joy Douglas Strome, the church pastor. "It's not an evangelical effort," she said. "They're not church programs we're planning. They're community programs we feel called to do as members of this church. We've always had a heart for this community." Now the church wants to double the capacity of the program by demolishing its western building and building a new one — one that's twice as tall and more accessible for all the church's community programs. It's already raised $500,000 for the $6 million project, Strome said. "We’re going through a whole list of 'Who do you know?' until we’ve told the stories enough times that we can find people who are interested in investing in it," she said. Besides the diploma program, the building acts as a community space for others, too. The church serves about 5,000 meals to senior citizens each year, most of whom are not members of the church. Hundreds of LGBT youths have flocked to the church each Friday night for food, movies and dancing. A new building would increase space for students, including adding a daycare or playgroup area to help both teen parents at the academy and local single parents. Additional room would allow them to add a second service night for LGBT youths.

Last Graduation 2015
Endeavor 
Presbyterian Church
District of Lake View
currently
Community of Lake View
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
1894
1923
1950
District of Lake View
Community of Lake Viewphoto - Flickr
An Anniversary
 in 1952
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
1928
zoomed view below
initial interior views
The Fifth United 
Presbyterian  Church
of Chicago
 District of Lake View
known currently as
The Chicago Northside Church of the Nazarene
Community of Uptown
*There must have been a fire at one point*
zoomed view below
 2021 Google Views
was the parking lot the original church location??
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
1894
zoomed below
1928
zoomed view below

1907 postcard - Chicago History in Postcards
 both photos - Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection

Temperance Campaign
 in 1907

The Congregants
photos - Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection


 image - The Congregationalist and Christian World 1903
 postcard - Ebay
District of Lake View 
Community of Uptown
4301 N Sheridan Road
the original church - same location as the second
postcard - Ebay
probably built shortly after congregation was formed in 1905
this building stood from 1922-1996
photo - Jamie Prata via Forgotten Chicago Discussion Group
a 1946 interior view below - Chicago Public Library
Sanborn Fire Map location 1928
 postcard - Ebay
photo below - Pinterest
Its Final Days in 1996
photo - Chicagogeek via Flickr

Post Notes: 
This post is part of a 6 part series of blog posts about 'Houses of Worship' according to faith. Most Houses of Worship have attached schools on their private property that I may or may not be highlight in any of these posts. 


Read the list of all types of churches as of 1905:

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Important Note:
These posts are exclusively used for educational purposes. I do not wish to gain monetary profit from this blog nor should anyone else without permission for the original source - thanks!


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