St. James Catholic Church Stands Quiet On Easter

By Chuck Sudo in News on Apr 1, 2013 4:10PM

While much of the daily news cycle was committed to the fight over preserving Historic Prentice Women’s Hospital, another preservation battle raged a few miles south.

St. James Catholic Church, located just north of the IIT campus, made Preservation Chicago’s 2013 “Chicago 7” list of endangered architectural landmarks. The Archdiocese of Chicago holds a demolition permit on the church and claims it would cost $12 million to restore the structure. The church spent $1 million in feasibility studies to reach that conclusion and started a $4 million campaign to build a new church nearby.

The current neo-Gothic structure has been padlocked and awaiting its final fate for over two years. Preservationist groups and parishioners have fought to change the Archdiocese’s collective mind and, on Easter Sunday, a crowd of 50 people gathered in front of St. James’ steps to pray the rosary and ask Pope Francis I to stay St. James’ execution. Two weeks ago, parishioners filed a canonical appeal to stay the demolition in the Roman Catholic Church’s court system. But demolition could begin as early as this month.

If the Church begins razing St. James it would end a chapter to one of Chicago’s oldest houses of worship. St. James was designed in Brooklyn-born architect Patrick C. Keely, an Irish Brooklynite who designed over 600 churches across the country including Holy Name Cathedral and Notre Dame University’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Its cornerstone was laid in 1875. According to WBEZ’s Lee Bey, St. James contained “white Carrara marble altars, a tower with a 20-bell carillon in its belfry and a worship space enlivened by Tiffany windows.” (The windows were lost in a 1972 fire.)

Archdiocese of Chicago director of real estate Tom Kennedy told Bey much of the church’s detail is in storage awaiting the construction of the new chapel. The bells in St. James’ carillon will also be dismantled and moved to the new church.