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A hugeass fire ripped through a landmark church on the South Side today and destroyed it. Pilgrim Baptist Church was designed by the famous architectural firm Adler & Sullivan and was about 114 years old. Originally built as a synagogue, the church was a landmarked building that was totalled today when a fire collapsed the church's roof and then gutted its insides.
Pilgrim Baptist Church is famous, along with its 1930s music director Thomas Dorsey, for having been the birthplace of American gospel music. And the art! On display inside was a mural of William A. Scott, one of the first black students at the Art Institute. A Louis Millet designed stained-glass window that'd been in the church since back when it was a synagogue was also lost in the fire. Not to mention, when the building was constructed it housed the KAM Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Chicago. All these reasons are why tourists from all over the globe came to visit the church.
What a tragedy to gospel music lose both this important building and Lou Rawls on the same day. We heard on the news that Rawls sang in Pilgrim Baptist Church but are having trouble finding it online. Can anyone verify?
Image via NBC
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Here's a link to historic images of the church:
Pilgrim Baptist
What does Pat Robertson have to say about this?
Pat Robertson is a moron.
While it’s a shame lose such a historically and architecturally beautiful building in Bronzevill, The black community can stand to lose (not by fire) a lot more churches! This also included other parasitic institutions like liquor stores, currency exchanges, pay day loan shops, and places to play the lotto. Little factoid here; your chances of becoming president of the u.s are greater than winning the grand lottery. See ya in the primaries!
Spook by the Door
Rebuild it. Rebuild it exactly the way it was before. Venice rebuild Fenice (their 1776 opera house) exactly as it was before it was destroyed by fire in 1996. Berlin rebuild Schloss Charlottenberg (17th/18th century) exactly as it was before being destroyed in 1945 by Allied bombers. Other counties do it; why can’t we?
Rebuild Pilgrim Baptist Church. It was an architectural wonder. It was considered the historic birthplace of Gospel – one of the few truly American music forms. It still served the community. It we can waste over $600 million dollars to destroy Soldier Field, we can spend a couple of hundred million dollars to rebuild this arguably important piece of our collective culture. Don’t spend ANY money on redoing Navy Pier – REBUILD PILGRIM BAPTIST CHURCH instead. Or are we just too racist and narrow to sink that kind of money into a Black neighborhood?
Anyone with me on this one?
Your link to the church is actually to a Pilgrim Baptist in St. Paul, MN. Oops!
thanks, lindsay. i was putting the links in and finishing up the post on friday night as guests were arriving at the house.. totally got the wrong link. i fixed it now.
Why would you want to couch that in racist terms?
The congregation is huge, they've already said they were going to rebuild, there's no need to bring in race to the conversation.
It would be questionable to spend city, state or federal money on a strictly religious building, regardless of the history.
I am sure they will be accepting donations, though. Go ahead and donate.
Of course Pat Robertson is a moron. But he's been blaming Katrina on gays in New Orleans and telling any number of groups that they will be destroyed by God because of what they do.
How does he explain THIS?
Pat Robertson IS a moron. How would he explain this? He'd say the roofers--who might have accidentally started the fire by using a torch to repair the roof--were gay.
Were there any other Baptist churches on the south side of Chicago around 1942? Because this link says he sang at "his" Baptist church at age 7 ...
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can you tell me when you are going to start rebuilding the church? i would like to help in some way. i was comming to visit the church this year. can you tell me if some of the old singers was still was attending the church? are you holding church somewhere else? if yes can you tell me where?