deconstruction of st. johns church is well underway - bell and tower to come down next week

in the coming weeks, i will be thoroughly documenting the salvage of a 106 year old church in logan square, whose structure is slowly being dismantled. the life of the building is to live on in scattered fragments and in the bricks which will purportedly be re-used in whatever new construction is to come—likely condos.

in deep relief, the corner of 2442 w. moffat street is engraved “1910,” the year that the standing building of st. john united church of christ was constructed in the neighborhood. the congregation, however, existed at that site for 26 years before updating its structure. in fact, the church existed seven years before logan square was even formed, being annexed to the city in 1889.

while the developer will not be salvaging wood on the interior, the church windows have purportedly already been sold. the remarkable stained glass dates to 1922, when different church groups raised money to order the windows from max zettler of munich, germany.

the multi-story red brick façade features understated but decorative brickwork in a stepped border above the arched entryway. the façade of the cathedral tower also exhibits german engraving along a stone header, giving some clues as to the original congregation. corroborating this is an obituary from 1935, which reveals that a reverend hugo stamer organized the german evangelical st. john’s church there with a membership of 11 people in 1882. while he cofounded at least 6 other parishes in chicago, he remained as pastor at st. john for 37 years before retiring.

the parish of st. john was founded also by the efforts of reverend gottlieb lumbrecht, who gathered the small group of the germans living near western and milwaukee avenues before hugo stamer began his work there.

a small structure was initially built on cortland street near western with $400 from the synod, for use as a school and church (the school lasted until 1900). in 1884 the parish acquired five building lots on moffat street, and the church they had been using was moved, given a substructure, and considerably enlarged so that the new basement could contain two schoolrooms. just two years after that, in 1886, a second spacious parish house was built of burnt bricks close to the church. in 1910 the women’s club of st. john church raised enough money ($13,000) to build a new church, the contract given to lane and borkemeyer. on december 11, 1910, the new church was dedicated. it had a tower 100-feet high, and an auditorium with 400 seats.

when this historically important late 19^th century congregation’s building is razed, urban remains will be responsible for documenting and acquiring the copper finials and church bell from the building, not to mention documenting the death of this somewhat overlooked structure. of particular interest will be massive bell, manufactured by henry stucksede bell foundry company of st. louis, mo.

PAUL BIASCO, WRITER FOR DNA, HAS BEEN COVERING THE STORY.