Church in West Pullman


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Church in West Pullman
Posted by: Cragin Spring ()
Date: September 17, 2015 12:10PM

This church at 11625 S State St to me looks like a former Catholic Church. I've searched and came up with many former Catholic Churches in West Pullman but can't find anything on this church. Maybe it wasn't Catholic? But searched other options also including the address. Does anyone know? Would very much appreciate your help. Thanks

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: phunny bunny ()
Date: September 17, 2015 01:21PM

St Louis of France listed it's address as 16 E 117th Street. The parish has been closed for many years. It was one of at least 10 parishes that I can recall in the Roseland/Pullman area.

Enjoy your day.

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: Dunning1 ()
Date: September 17, 2015 11:06PM

According to "A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago," St. Louis of France Parish was founded by Rev. Ambrose Goulet on December 23, 1886 as St. Ambrose Parish. The name was changed to St. Louis of France and a brick church was built on Edbrooke Ave between 114th St. and 114th Pl. in 1889. This church was sold to a group of Hollanders in 1900 to become the new parish of St. Willibrord, and a group of French Catholics worshipped in a hall at 117th and State. In 1909 the Sisters of Notre Dame established a St. Louis high school for girls. Rev. Jules C. Fortin was appointed the pastor of St. Louis and a new St. Louis Church and rectory was built on the northeast corner of 117th and State St., which was dedicated Oct. 1, 1911. Due to a declining enrollment St. Louis School was consolidated with St. Nicholas School in September 1972. It appears that the church closed in February 1973 when the pastor, Fr. Pommier, was reassigned to a reestablished All Saints Parish. The history states that now (1980) the church now houses a congregation known as the Pilgrim Church of God in Christ.

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: Cragin Spring ()
Date: September 19, 2015 12:55AM

Thank you both for the good information. As exploring Roseland I heard and read about all the closed churches and many converted into a Baptist Church or been demolished. Holy Rosary now closed still stands on 113th St. & King Drive. As you go a bit a south at 11357 S King Dr on the corner is another old big church. The cornerstone has been scratched out. Over the main entrance of the church is some kind of writing I can't figure out. It is now a baptist church. I can't find any old information on. Maybe with the lettering over the entrance it may have been Ukrainian?

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: Dunning1 ()
Date: September 19, 2015 10:00PM

According to my 1971 criss cross directory, 11357 S. King Drive used to be St. Spryidom Greek Orthodox Chuch. It appears to have opened in 1928 and closed in 1975. Below is a history of their church I copied from their website:

The parish of Saint Spyridon grew out of a union of love and war. When Greece went to war against the Turks in 1912 and Bulgaria in 1913, young Greek men in Chicago returned to Greece to join the fight. After the war ended in 1913, many men stayed in Greece through the Christmas holidays, found wives, and were married. Upon returning to Chicago, several of these families joined others who had settled in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s south side forming a close-knit community of thirty-five families.

As these families’ children began attending American school and studying in English, their parents were anxious to also educate them in the Greek language and culture lest they lose touch with their heritage. Soon after they founded the Plutarchos Greek School, which operated five days a week after regular school hours. Many Greek churches of the time established Greek schools, but in St. Spyridon’s case, the school came first and then the church. School organizers began raising funds for a church, holding a dinner dance on December 12, 1917, the feast day of St. Spyridon. Appropriately the newly formed church was named in honor of the fourth-century wonder-worker and defender of the Orthodox faith. Raising the funds to build the church took ten years and involved much hardship. Tragedy struck the community when one of its members, a mother of three, was killed by a car as she walked door-to-door collecting money for the new church. Yet the community persevered and the first St. Spyridon church opened in 1928.

Membership in the parish and Greek school quickly grew, and in the 1950s the church building was enlarged and additional property was purchased for the school. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, the Greek Orthodox community left their urban neighborhoods for the south suburbs of Chicago. In 1968 parishioners voted to purchase property for a new church in Palos Heights, and in 1975 they held their last Divine Liturgy in the Pullman church. Once again fundraising began for a new church building. The community quickly raised the money needed to complete its community center in 1977, but lack of funds impeded progress of the church edifice. A breakthrough occurred in 1984 when twelve board members agreed to loan five thousand dollars each to the community of St. Spyridon. Construction of the church was soon underway, and in 1986 the doors opened for worship.

Since that time the parish has grown to over three hundred families. The Plutarchos Greek school is thriving with over one hundred twenty students in Pre-K to 8th grades. In 2005, Archangels Academy, the first bi-lingual Orthodox Preschool of the south suburbs was established and in 2006, the community added a Byzantine Music school and an Iconography school among many of its ministries. Within the extensive iconography in the church edifice, an icon of Saint Spyridon was painted by the director of the Iconography school, Panagiotis Mihalopoulos, one of the community’s own members and self taught iconographer. He exemplifies the spirit of the parishioners with this comment on his work: “I do it for the glory of God. This is my way to help the Orthodox Church. We all help put stones in the walls of St. Spyridon. Only God knows which each stone is.”

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: Dunning1 ()
Date: September 20, 2015 08:15PM

Cragin, as it seems that you are exploring down in the Pullman/Roseland area, and your name would kind of indicate that you're from the Cragin area, I thought I'd share this little item with you. I can't get my hands on the book in question, but you should be able to check this out pretty easily.
One church that was rather famous down in Pullman was the Green Stone Church, also owned by Pullman like the rest of the town. The pastor of that church wrote a book covering the 1894 strike, and after the strike was settled, he of course was no longer welcome in the area.
My paternal grandmother lived on the 1900 block of N. Lowell Ave. in Hermosa/Cragin. On the NE corner of Lowell and Wabansia there was a small frame congregational church. I remember reading somewhere that the pastor who wrote the Pullman Strike History later became pastor of this church. Again, I can't put my hands on where I heard this, but its an interesting connection between Pullman and Cragin/Hermosa.

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Re: Church in West Pullman
Posted by: phunny bunny ()
Date: September 21, 2015 12:06PM

There were many churches serving the Roseland area in the past.

Between Halsted & Cottage Grove, 101th St to 133rd St, an area of about 8 sq miles, there were 14 Catholic Churches. I'm sure there were even more churches of other denominations.

Did other neighborhoods experience this same "dense pack" of religious service?

Enjoy your day.

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