Stones on Fire
[2nd Presbyterian Church (1873) James Renwick, architect /Images & Artwork: desingslinger]
This was not the first church to be occupied by the second Presbyterian congregation of
Chicago, it was their third and grandest building. Built in 1873 from a design by New York based architect James Renwick, who also did St. Patrick's Cathedral in that city, this building was the second church Renwick designed for the membership.
[2nd Presbyterian Church, 1936 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
The first church he drew up for the 2nd Presbyterians was the congregation's second
church edifice in the city. (Got those first and seconds?!) Anyway, Renwick's 1850 Chicago religious structure actually predated St. Patrick's, but he had recently made quite a splash with his trend-setting 1846 Gothic Revival, Grace Episcopal Church in Manhattan.
[2nd Presbyterian Church, Howard Van Doren Shaw, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
His Chicago design was constructed on a then remote city plot at the intersection of
Washington and Wabash and 2nd Presbyterian became the city's most talked about church building for the next two decades. But not because of Renwick's ground-breaking Gothic Revival design. The architect had chosen a local bituminous stone which contained large dark areas of discoloration and 2nd Pres became known as the "Spotted Church."
By 1871, the congregation had left the once residential neighborhood and headed south
as the city's central commercial core enveloped their old house of worship. So church elders decided to follow their membership, sold the land at Washington and Wabash, and selected a site at Michigan and 20th Street near the upscale Prairie Avenue residential district. However the building was not included in the sale because Renwick's new plan called for the reuse of the exterior stone of the vacated structure for the exterior of the new church. When the Dr. Rev. Patterson gave his final sermon in the old church on October 2, 1871 before heading south to Olivet Presbyterian where he would preach until the new building was ready, the city was on its way to becoming a hot topic around the world.
Just 6 days after that sermon, on the evening of October 8, 1871, a fire started in the barn
behind the home of Catherine and Patrick O'Leary and by the time it was over, the Spotted Church along with the entire commercial district of the city was in ruins. Despite the loss of the original building, Renwick stuck with his plan on using the same type of stone for the exterior and returned to the same west side Chicago quarry for the same bituminous blocks. Then, in 1900, a devastating fire destroyed the interior of this Michigan Avenue building and architect Howard Van Doren Shaw provided an Arts and Crafts inspired design for the rebuilt sanctuary. Renwick's heavy, rusticated "spotted" stone walls survived intact.
There's more about the neighborhood at: The Ghosts of Prairie Avenue.
Posted by designslinger at 10/7/2010 1:42 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Preservation, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Howard Van Doren Shaw churches Prairie Avenue James Renwick
Categories: Architecture, Preservation, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Howard Van Doren Shaw churches Prairie Avenue James Renwick
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