It’s been a few years since we took a church bus tour — 2014 and ’15, as it happens — so a while ago I looked into this year’s offerings from the newly renamed and relocated Chicago Architecture Center on E. Wacker Dr.

Formerly, Chicago Architecture Foundation. Why did the organization give up the solidity of foundation for the generic center?

Never mind, the tours look as good as ever. The church bus tour selection this year was a cluster of churches in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago. Actually, four Christian churches, one monastery, and one Buddhist temple in a building that used to be a church, but has been modified to meet the needs of the Chinese-American population moving into Bridgeport from nearby Chinatown.

Even now, Bridgeport evokes the Irish. After all, that’s the neighborhood that gave Chicago the Daleys and, going back a little further, Mr. Dooley. Of course in our time, other ethnicities are in the mix, such as the aforementioned Chinese, but also an Hispanic population. As far as I can tell, Bridgeport never really was home to just one group, because even in the early days there were Irish, but also Germans, Poles, Lithuanians, Italians and Bohemians.

It hasn’t always been a peaceful place. “Bridgeport once stood as a bastion of white ethnic communities,” the Encyclopedia of Chicago says. “Racial and ethnic strife has always been part of its history. An almost legendary clash between the Germans and the Irish occurred in 1856. During the Civil War pro-Confederate rallies were held in the neighborhood. In the twentieth century Polish and Lithuanian gangs often clashed along Morgan Street.”

St. Mary of Perpetual Help, tucked away on W. 32nd St. in Bridgeport, originally had a Polish congregation. It’s a magnificent blend of styles, with Romanesque on the outside.
Inside, a handsome Byzantine style.

With impressive domes, though I didn’t manage a good shot of any of their exteriors.
Henry Engelbert designed the church, which was completed in 1892. He’s listed as one of the designers of Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago, but he’s better known for his work in New York City. St. Mary of Perpetual Help’s interior was by John A. Mallin, who did the interiors of a lot of churches in his long career.

Here’s the resplendent altar.

Stations of the Cross, with original Polish.

First-rate stained glass, as you’d expect.

Everything looks impressively new, but that’s because during the decades of the 21st century so far, the parish has undertaken major restoration work both exterior and interior. Being able to raise that kind of money must count as a minor miracle, though probably not in the theological sense.