the facade of st. john's church (1910) obliterated in a matter of hours

an alarming number of chicago churches constructed in the 19th and early 20th century have been taken down this year. st. john's (1910) on moffatt street is the latest casualty. when i arrived on its last day, it was already a pile of ruin with the exception of the crumbling facade and severed bell tower (the bronze bell was carefully extracted weeks ago). the final moments of the building's existence were short-lived, brutal and completely unforgiving. 

several gothic style limestone ornamental sections - likely fabricated by the bedford limestone steamworks company (bedford, ind.) were safely removed, and will live on alongside the vast amount of timber, lath, slate roof tiles and speckled face brick collected, cleaned and crated through the church building's painstaking deconstruction, headed by paul irwin of the ccg group.