A Century Gone By

Time for another fall break. Just because. Back to posting around Sunday, November 16, the day that I briefly believed, 17 years ago, was going to be the birthday of my eldest child. But no, that was just Braxton Hicks contractions or something.

Actually, I’m going to set something to post automatically on at 11 a.m. on November 11, because I can’t miss that. I’m not sure why I’m sentimental about Armistice Day, a day that my generation never knew, but I am.

Firstworldwar.com, “a multimedia history of World War I,” has a searchable day-by-day history of the war, and the entry for November 11, 1914, tells me the following.

Western Front

Ypres: Some British trenches penetrated by the Prussian Guard, but recovered.

Southern Front

Serbia: The Serbians in retreat; their headquarters moved from Valyevo to Kraguyevats.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

Mesopotamia: British outposts attacked at Saniya.

Naval and Overseas Operations

H.M.S. Niger sunk by German submarine.

Political, etc.

Great Britain: Parliament opened; the King’s Speech

It’s probably just as well that the participants couldn’t know that they still had four more years to go.

Two Ukrainian Village Churches

The Open House Chicago sites were only open until 5 pm on either Saturday or Sunday or both, and it was almost 4 when we headed to Ukrainian Village by El from the South Side and then a westbound bus. A little tiring, but I wanted to see the interiors of Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral before the event finished. It was worth the effort.

Sts. Volodymyr & Olha is a massive brick presence just south of Chicago Ave.

Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic ChurchYaroslav Korsunsky, an architect from Minneapolis designed the church in the 1970s, reportedly in a Byzantine-Ukrainian style the early second millennium AD. I’m no expert on that, but I will say that the interior is stunning.

Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, Oct 18, 2014Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church, Oct 18, 2014 A few blocks north is St. Nicholas. It too is a striking church.

St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral Note the 480-light chandelier.

St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral And the fine stained glass.

St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral Afterward, we didn’t feel like walking the additional blocks to see Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, which we visited last summer when it happened to be open. It’s also resplendent, and has the distinction of displaying an icon that includes not only the founder of the parish, but the architect of the building, Louis Sullivan.

Three Bronzeville Churches

It was a first for me: a church with a lime-green interior wall, all the way around, and a large cross created by colorful lights, as a fixture on the ceiling. To find this church, you take the Green Line south to the 43rd St. station, and then walk west on 43rd. At Wabash Ave., turn left – to the south — and there you are, at 4315 S. Wabash: The First Church of Deliverance.

First Church of Deliverance, Oct 18, 2014

I’ve seen it described as a rare example of Art Moderne in a house of worship. I’ll go along with that. One Walter T. Bailey designed the structure toward the end of this career, which involved a practice in Chicago and Memphis, doing (among other designs) a number of Knights of Pythias buildings, including this one I’d never heard of near Nashville.

Lee Bailey, writing for WBEZ, says: “The church was built in 1939 and designed by Walter T. Bailey, the first African American to hold an architecture license in Illinois. Those terra cotta-clad twin towers were added in 1946, designed by Kocher Buss & DeKlerk. The building’s modernity wasn’t by chance. In the 1930s and 1940s, First Church was an exceedingly modern congregation.

“The Rev. Clarence H. Cobbs was only 21 when he founded the predominantly black First Church congregation in 1929. The church began its radio broadcast in 1934, giving Cobbs and his 200-member choir a national reach and influence. The congregation’s choir revolutionized the sound of gospel music in 1939 when its organist and composer Kenneth Morris convinced Cobbs to install the newly created Hammond electric organ at the church. The church’s gospel festivals in old Comiskey Park in the 1940s drew thousands.

“In 1953, the congregation became the first black church in the U.S. (quite possibly the world) to broadcast its services on television. WLS-TV carried those services live — a significant development, in retrospect — for 12 straight weeks. Songs that later became gospel standards made their debut at the church under Hobbs, including the staple ‘How I Got Over.’ ”

The interior is auditorium-style, and green is the first thing that strikes you. Then the details, especially the luminous ceiling cross.

First Church of Deliverance, Oct 18, 2014Up closer to the front.

First Church of Deliverance, Oct 18, 2014First Church of Deliverance, Oct 18, 2014Nearby, at 4359 S. Michigan Ave., is the Centennial Missionary Baptist Church. Once upon a time, it was the Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist. Actually, not that long ago.

Centennial Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014It too is an auditorium church, but more semicircular. In that way it reminded me of the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, which is downtown.

Centennial Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014

Centennial Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014

A nice woman named Doris gave us a tour, including not only the main part of the church, but some back rooms. Open House Chicago notes that “Designed in 1911 by architect Leon E. Stanhope, the Centennial Missionary Baptist Church was originally home to the Eighth Church of Christ, Scientist. Designed in the neoclassical style, with a striking red domed roof, it was one of the longest-running African American Christian Science congregations.

“The building only recently became home to Centennial Missionary Baptist Church – which itself boasts a distinguished history. Their first house of worship was a building owned by Lorraine Hansberry, and numerous gospel music greats performed over the years.”

The third church we visited in Bronzeville, Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, 4600-4622 S. King Dr., began as the Chicago Sinai Temple in the early 1910s, designed by the prolific Alfred Alschuler. I didn’t take any exteriors, but Design Slinger has some good images.

The exterior is stately, while the interior is gorgeous.

Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church, Oct 18, 2014Design Slinger says: “In 1910 architect Alfred Alschuler drew up plans for a Chicago Sinai building complex that would include an auditorium for worship and a large community center which would house offices, classrooms, meeting spaces, a gym and a pool…. as members moved further south, a large corner lot was purchased at 46th and Grand Boulevard to serve as a new home base.

“Since the congregation was part of the Reform tradition, Alschuler followed a design scheme that was popular at the time with other congregations in not proclaiming that the building was a house of worship, by choosing a historical classic architectural style. The restrained sophistication of Greco/Roman refinement would convey to the passerby that this was a substantial edifice, it could be a bank or a library, but not wear its religious affiliation on its sleeve.”

By the 1940s, the Jewish population in the area couldn’t sustain a synagogue, and the structures became part of the high school run by Franciscans. In 1961, Mt. Pisgah Missionary Baptist congregation acquired the property.

 

Open House Chicago ’14

On October 18, the day after I got back from New York, I should have done the reasonable thing and puttered around the house. The weather that morning, cool and drizzly, encouraged that. But it was Open House Chicago weekend. No time to stay home. Yuriko and I drove to Oak Park, parked the car, and took the El downtown.

I quote myself from last year, since the event was essentially the same this year: “The CAF describes it this way:  ‘A free, citywide festival that offers behind-the-scenes access to more than 150 buildings across this great city. Explore historic mansions, hidden rooms, sacred spaces, private clubs, offices, hotels, iconic performance venues and more much – all for free.’ Note the emphasis on free.

“Sounds like my kind of event. At each place there were volunteers at folding tables taking attendance in the form of asking you your zip code. At a few places, you had to join a short guided tour, but most of the time you just offered your zip code, walked in, and looked around. Not all of the spaces were open 9-5 on both Saturday and Sunday, so it was worthwhile to check the CAF guide to the event, which had such details, as well as useful maps.”

Last year, I went by myself, and hit sites downtown and points north. This year, we also saw downtown sites, but then went south and west. In order, we visited the Lyric Opera, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 190 S. LaSalle, the Inland Steel Building, and the Kemper Building (all downtown); the Forum, the First Church of Deliverance, the Centennial Missionary Baptist Church, the Welcome Inn Manor, and the Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church (all Bronzeville); and Sts. Volodymyr & Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, both in Ukrainian Village (and both places that were closed when we visited this summer).

I used to work in the Lyric Opera Building – 35 N. Wacker, but that’s the office component of the structure. The Lyric Opera of Chicago, while in the same structure, is actually a separate entity, with the theater space owned by the opera company. It’s a lavish place. Looking toward the stage, where work was under way on the set for the next production:

Lyric Opera Theater, Oct 18, 2014Away from the stage:

Lyric Opera Theater, Oct 18, 2014Opulent as it is, the Lyric wasn’t my favorite downtown space this time. Rather, we were surprised to find a former law library on the 40th floor of 190 S. LaSalle

190 S LaSalle, 40th FloorThe story is that the developer built out the space for a major law firm tenant when the building was first developed in the 1980s. Thirty years later, law libraries of this kind are obsolete, and the original tenant’s gone anyway (I noticed that a major commercial real estate company occupies the offices on the same floor as the library space). The former two-level law library’s now a posh meeting space.

190 S LaSalle, 40th FloorIt has some great views, all four directions.

190 S LaSalle, 40th Floor view looking southThat’s looking south, with the Chicago Board of Trade and its Ceres statue prominent in the view to the left and the South Branch of the Chicago River to the right.

Along the St. Croix, 2004

October 28, 2004

Had a good day yesterday. Rented a car at the airport and immediately drove eastward, to a road called Minnesota 95, which parallels the St. Croix River, The road passes through Stillwater, Minn., where I wandered around, eyeing the old buildings and the shop displays. Stillwater’s one of many towns that used to be a working town – a river port in its case, involved in the transshipment of various commodities – that now feeds on visitors from a nearby metropolis.

At about 30 miles distant from the Twin Cities, Stillwater capitalizes on its surviving late 19th- and early 20th-century streetscape by selling antiques, artworks, and other objects. In late October, tourists are a little thin on the ground, and the main street feels a little like a deflated balloon, but it was pleasant. I had lunch in a converted warehouse, originally dating from 1883. Ah, if the walls could talk – they’d probably drone on about shipments of corn or timber or ice, and how cold it was in such-and-such winter, and hot in such-and-such summer. It was a Minnesota warehouse, not a Storyville cathouse.

Outside of town, I stopped a few places with views of the St. Croix.

StCroix Oct 27, 2004StCriox River, Oct 27. 2004 I thought all the leaves would be gone by now, but there’s still some color hanging on. The two lane road to Stillwater and then Taylor’s Falls was a pleasant drive, even under slate grey skies and occasional drizzle.