James and Mary: Two Contrasting, Cautionary Tales of the Spirit of the City

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Birth, growth, decline, death, purgatory, resurrection - or not.  Two very similar stories; two very different outcomes.

Even as the Chicago Archdiocese is about to set the bulldozers loose to destroy the even more historic 1880's St. James Church at 2942 South Wabash, the story of St. Mary of the Angels Church illustrates that with a more enlightened leadership, it doesn't have to be that way.  Friends of Historic St. James Church, the hardy band of parishioners and preservationists who mounted a spirited campaign to save St. James, appear to have lost out to Francis Cardinal George's determination to destroy the building, despite offers of a million dollars of in-kind services to save it.

Like St. James, St. Mary of the Angels had a history worth saving.  The parish was originally created to ease overcrowding at nearby St. Stanislaus Koska.  Two city blocks - 86 lots - were acquired for $60,000.  One was reserved for the church, the other subdivided for housing. In 1899, a small combined church and school opened, designed by noted ecclesiastical architect Henry Schlacks.

The congregation continued its rapid growth, and by 1909, St. Mary's first pastor, Rev. Francis Gordon began thinking about a larger church.  Designed by Worthmann and Steinbach, it was modeled after St. Peter's in Rome, and its Baroque elegance sought to recall Poland's Golden Age, before it was wiped off the map as a nation, partitioned and occupied by three European powers.

Work began on September 28, 1911, but the outbreak of World I and resulting materials shortages delayed construction.  The resolve remained.  According to Denis Robert McNamara's book Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago, the new church was intended as a testament to �a belief in the Resurrection of Christ and the firm conviction that Poland would be restored.�  And they were rewarded.  By the time St. Mary of the Angels was finally dedicated in 1920, the victorious allies had again made Poland, for the first time in centuries, a sovereign nation.

And then the  construction of the Kennedy Expressway replayed the issue of partition by slicing up the community and destroying many parishioner' homes.  When the superhighway opened in 1960, it became the conduit drawing many residents out of the city and away from the now mutilated fabric of their abandoned neighborhood.  From a high of 1,600 families and 1,200 students, the parish declined, until it was closed in 1988, citing  - sound familiar? - dwindling membership and prohibitive repair costs as mandating the building's demolition.  As has been the case at St. James, the announcement evoked an uproar, and an energetic campaign to reverse St. Mary of the Angels' death warrant.

It must have been a gentler time.  The Archdiocese's real estate operation was, always, indifferent, but it would be made to yield when those struggling to save the church found an ally in Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, who requested the Prelature of Opus Dei to assume responsibility for the historic building, which they did in 1991, beginning an extensive restoration, first with the dome, and then, in 1997, with the interior.

A Save the Dome campaign placed signs on that dome making its website url visible throughout the community. The cost of the repairs was estimated at $3.2 million, with $900,000 listed as raised.  This has evolved into a Restore God's House Campaign.  In addition to dome repair and renovating the south tower, it includes rebuilding the east parapet wall, which was dismantled for safety reasons in 1991, the elements all carefully put into storage.

The church gets its name from the 26 angels placed along the exterior.  My understanding is that these are not the originals, and the fact that they all seem to be identical gives the composition a certain Dolly-like quality that's not entirely reassuring.

While certain economies were taken in the execution of the exterior, there's still the grand entryway on Hermitage . . .

and well as cherubs . . .

and terra cotta ornament . . .

culminating in the papal coat-of-arms . . .

The true glory of St. Mary of the Angels is its interior, including elaborate decoration added by artist John A. Mallin in the 1940's.

� 2009, Jeremy Atherton, Wikipedia Creative Commons

 The sanctuary has just been documented in a stunning set of photographs by Chris Smith on the Out of Chicago website.  And now I know the trick to getting those photographs with the great vantage points.  Help change the light bulbs.

Or at least that's what worked for Smith.  What he intended as a pop-in shoot wound of being an all-day event.  After helping out changing the bulbs in the chandeliers 30 feet above the floor, he got access to the balcony - and then everyone went out for Chinese buffet.  Check out Chris Smith's great photo portrait of the sanctuary here.

While nothing is ever certain in our increasingly secular world, St. Mary's of the Angels now seems to have a future.  Attendance at services has grown.  The nuns are long gone from the Sisters of the Resurrection convent constructed across from the church in 1905 . . .

. . .  but they've now been replaced by the young professionals who continue to gentrify the Bucktown neighborhood - the building was recently been redeveloped as condos.

 You see the same thing happening on the Near South Side.  I was impressed walking down to Second Presbyterian Church  last week how the stretch of Michigan down to 19th street now seemed an almost continuous procession of loft conversions, new residential towers, bars, trendy restaurants and all the other accoutrement's of an economically revived neighborhood.

Continuing north, just south of St. James, at 2942 South Wabash, you can see similar signs of change in the Motor Row district on Michigan that the city is intent on making a major music and arts district that will draw in both Chicago residents and all those conventioneers looking for something to do while lodged in one of the thousands of new hotel rooms McPier is constructing off of Cermak Road.

The Archdiocese, of course, can't see it.  On Wednesday, lest anyone doubt its determination - and power - it punched a huge hole in the roof of St. James, and then, statement made, sent the wrecking crews home.  According to a report in the Trib by Ron Grossman, its spokesman declined to say when demolition would resume.

St. James interior, photograph courtesy David Schalliol

For the Chicago archdiocese, gazing into eternity - no problem.  Looking a few decades down the road, not so much.  If the Archdiocese had had their way, St. Gelasius and Holy Family would today be little more than parking lots and memories.  The announcement of their impending demolition, as at St. James, also evoked outrage and activism, but a more receptive Archdiocese listened, and agreed to alternatives that have made churches anchors of revival in their communities.  

St. Gelasius

Because the Archdiocese declined to demolish Old St. Patrick's when it was down to serving a mere handful of families, today it's a thriving center of the booming West Loop.  This weekend, Old St. Pat's will welcome 18,000 people to it's annual �World's Largest Block Party� fundraiser.  [The first 500 people to arrive in Chicago Blackhawks wear will get an additional drink ticket - now, there's a church even an agnostic can love.)

The Archdiocese would have you believe that the spirit of devotion generations of immigrants built with their sacrifices into the beautiful churches that expressed their faith vanishes from the building the moment it's deemed a real estate problem.  Yet that spirit remains infused in the structure.  It has not vanished; it is deliberately destroyed and discarded as a matter of choice.

When a city destroys its architectural heritage, it consumes itself, and denatures its future.

Read More:

Will 130 years of history and faith be destroyed?  Friends of Historic St. James rally to forestall wrecking ball.

Parishioners, Preservationists hold Vigil to Save St. James Church as Developer offers to do Rehab for the $5 million Archdiocese has earmarked for new church.

Heavens to Purgatory: Imploding Churches Flatten Chicago

Chicago Jewel Unhidden: Inside Howard van Doren Shaw's spectacular Second Presbyterian Church, now a Historic Landmark

Parishioners, Preservationists hold Vigil to Save St. James Church as Developer offers to do Rehab for $5 million Archdiocese has earmarked for new church

 On Sunday, a hardy bunch of parishioners and preservationists held a vigil in the morning chill, calling on Cardinal George and the Chicago Archdiocese not to go through with their plans to wreck the 130-year-old St. James Church at 2942 South Wabash, one of the few surviving buildings by architect Patrick C. Keely, who also designed Holy Name Cathedral.

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There was no indication of a response from the Archdiocese.  A published schedule beginning with the removal of asbestos of from the building as early as today would begin a process concluding with full demolition by mid-June.

Update:  here's a great interview the great Rick Kogan did on his WBEZ Afternoon Shift with Dave Samber  (who you hear singing in our video clip) of Polo Cafe, where there are weekly meetings of Friends of Historic St. James every Tuesday at 7:00, and novelist Mary Pat Kelly 

An interesting part of Kogan's interview is Samber talking about an offer from developer Joseph Cacciatore . . .

Joseph Cacciatore, real estate developer, prominent family, and in indeed in this case a Catholic family, has come up with an idea, and he's made a proposal that I understand has been presented to Cardinal George before the conclave even started. 

And the proposal is to allow him as a general contractor with his great expertise and resources to come in and for a total price tag, a turnkey, full contract price of $5 million, he will deliver the keys to the church at the end that would be fully acceptable to the city and to the building codes and to the wishes of the congregation in terms of ventilation and air conditioning and he will then, at the time he turns over the keys, write a check for a half million dollars back to the church.

This has just come up.  We are now in the process of trying to figure out how do we raise the four and a half million dollars.  We think it's very doable. 

Reports are that the Archdiocese has already pledged $5 to $7 million for construction of a new church on a site on Michigan Avenue a block to the east.

Read:
Will 130 years of history and faith be destroyed? Friends of History St. James rally to forestall wrecking ball.

Will 130 years of history and faith be destroyed? Friends of Historic St. James rally to forestall wrecking ball.

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 This Sunday, March 17th, at 10:45 a.m., Friends of Historic St. James will be holding a vigil to support saving this historic Chicago church.  2942 S. Wabash.

On Tuesday, Preservation Chicago released the 2013 edition of its annual list of the Chicago 7 Most Threatened Buildings. As always, it's an interesting mix of the well known - the Lathrop Homes and Century and Consumers Buildings - and neighborhood finds: the Harry Weese bank in clearing, Hotel Guyon, the former Meyers Drug Store in Lake View and the 1949 Allstate Headquarters Building in Lawndale.  We'll probably be writing more about these soon.

But perhaps the most endangered structure on the list is the majestic 1880's St. James Church, at 2942 South Wabash.   If the Chicago Archdiocese's proceeds with its published plans, demolition will begin this coming Monday.  The majestic organ will be dismantled, the church bells stripped and salvaged.  Within two months, nothing will remain of the historic structure but rubble and memories.

The relationship between the Archdiocese and architecture has been profoundly schizoid.  Time and again, often led by immigrant parishioners,  it has willed into being incredibly beautiful church buildings that are moving symbols of timeless devotion.  Let a neighborhood change, or membership dwindle, however, and the Archdiocese loses all faith in a better future.  Troubled churches are sacrificed to a real estate operation so ruthless it makes Sam Zell look like a gross sentimentalist by comparison.  Tear it down.  Sell it off.  Demolition is the perfect political tool.  It ends the argument with a finality that precludes any future appeal.

photograph: David Schalliol

Not all unneeded churches merit saving, no matter how old.  St. James does.  The congregation dates back all the way to 1855, and construction on the "new" church back to 1875, just four years after the Great Fire.  The parish was unusually prosperous, to the point where it was debt-free by 1895. The Gothic Revival church designed by Patrick C. Keely, the architect of Holy Name Cathedral, includes  a 200-foot tall bell tower that provides a visual and aural anchor for the surrounding community, even as IIT to the south attempts to cut it off with chain link fencing.  The church originally also had Tiffany windows, destroyed in a 1972 fire.  Although services have not been held in the building for over two years, the now white-painted interior, as seen here in the photos by David Schalliol, still exudes a serene dignity.  The Archdiocese claims to have been spent $1 million on studies proving that  the building is not worth saving, and have worked to speed the process along by letting it deteriorate unabated. 

photograph:  David Schalliol

In a last-ditch effort to save the church from destruction, a group of parishioners has formed Friends of Historic St. James Church, with both a website and a Facebook page.  The group disputes the estimate of $12 million to rehabilitate the church that has come from the Archdiocese, which plans to replace it with a new building on a site a block east on Michigan Avenue, at a cost that has varied in different media reports from $4 up to $7 million.

Photograph: David Schalliol (detail)

In point of comparison, the Archdiocese was reported by the Chicago Tribune to have gone $6 million into hock to repair structural problems with the roof of Holy Name Cathedral. Work also included repairing damage from a fire that took place during the project, whose $8 million in costs was covered by insurance.  Fading gold leaf was replaced with �a fresh 23-caret coat.�

Old St. Patrick's

Time and again, the Archdiocese has had to be dragged kicking and screaming by its own parishioners to take actions that have ultimately proven to be in the church's own best long-term interests.  An under-utilized church today often can see its fortunes completely reversed in just a couple decades.   As recently as 1983, Old St. Pat's was down to four registered members.  Today, it's a thriving center of a rapidly redeveloping West Loop.  In act of astounding myopia, the Archdiocese in 1987 announced its intention to destroy the 1857 Holy Family Church on West Roosevelt.  Fortunately, a popular outcry persuaded them otherwise, and, today, the church unites the strip malls and condo towers of the New West Side with Chicago's long spiritual history.  Last December Holy Family received relics that are said to be fragments from Jesus's manger.

Holy Family, Roosevelt Road

God is eternal; man, mortal.  If you want to be cynical, you could well remark how the the lavish beauty of the great churches is, at least partially, as much a self-tribute to those who built them as they are a devotion to God.  Still, as all our lives are transitory, it it these buildings and these spaces that provide a spiritual continuity down through generations.  In the civic realm, they are the glue that binds communities together, the physical presence that gives each neighborhood its distinctive character. 

The area in which St. James finds itself is poised for a resurgence.  Recently, Greg Hinz Crain's Chicago Business reported on The hottest urban center in the U.S. - Chicago's mega-Loop, the vital, economically resurgent district that's expanding beyond the old downtown to take in adjacent, often previously distressed neighborhoods.  St. James is within the next potential wave.  What a civic impoverishment it will be if that next cycle of expansion finds only a vacant lot where a 130-year-old  historical landmark stood until only recently - a loss for future gentrifiers to be sure, but even more importantly for long-standing current residents and parishioners, robbed of their heritage.

Photograph: David Schalliol

 By the Archdiocese's own numbers, the choice at St. James is between spending $4 to $7 million for a new church, or spending $5 million more to save a historic building that's been a beacon of spirituality across 15 decades representing over two-thirds of Chicago history.  The spiritual damage inflicted by destroying this singular building far eclipses any short-term savings, and it cannot be undone.

This Sunday, March 17th, Friends of Historic St. James will be holding a vigil to support saving their historic church.  2942 S. Wabash, 10:45 a.m.