FEATURE Image: Dearborn Street Station in Chicago’s South Loop is an Italian brick Romanesque building with a granite base that was opened in 1885 at the cost of $500,000 (or almost $16 million in 2024). The architect was New York–based Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz who went on to build One Times Square (1904) in New York City from which the annual lit ball has dropped each New Year’s Eve since 1908. see – https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1885?amount=500000 – retrieved February 27, 2024. Author’s photograph, November 2017. 6.44mb
The Hoosier leaving Dearborn Street Station in Chicago (its clock tower visible at right) for Indianapolis. Pre-1978, no mark. Public Domain.The Dearborn Street Station in Chicago with its original hipped roofs, including on the tower, c. 1908. Public Domain.
The Dearborn Street Station is Chicago’s oldest existing train station though it has not operated as one since 1971. It is a U-shaped Italian brick three-story Romanesque structure with a granite base that was originally 80 feet tall to the roof line.
Today’s flat roof is a modification by an unknown architect from its elaborate original hipped roof that was lost in a 1922 fire. The eye-catching Flemish tower, originally 166 feet tall, was also modified after the same conflagration. The station building marks the southern terminus of Dearborn Street which today extends about 4 miles to its northern terminus at the southern boundary of Lincoln Park. Author’s photograph.
Looking south on Dearborn Street to the Dearborn Street Station which ends the 4-mile downtown street at the south. “South Dearborn Street” by Reading Tom is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The station’s frontage on Polk Street extends 212 feet. Originally the station extended 446 feet south along Plymouth Court with the train sheds 600 feet long with 8 tracks. The station’s train shed was demolished in 1976. In 1986 the station was converted to offices and shops (I had my Bank One branch in the Polk Street Station). Today it is the Dearborn Station Galleria in the South Loop Printing House Historic District.
Following demolition of the train sheds in 1976 the first phase of the Dearborn Park residential development south of the Dearborn Street Station building quickly sprang to life.
The 1885 clock tower of the Dearborn Street Station is visible at the left. Open land which for almost 100 years had been the Dearborn Street Station‘s busy train tracks into a shed equal to two football fields in length were cleared off to make room for Dearborn Park residential development. The photograph is dated from 1977 by William C. Brubaker. “Site for Dearborn Park residential development” by UIC Library Digital Collections is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
The Dearborn Station had 8 tracks that accommodated 12 coaches and engines with 122 trains arriving and departing daily. Train lines that entered this station included the Chicago & Eastern Illinois (1877-1976), Chicago and Atlantic Railway (later the Chicago and Erie Railroad) (1871-1941), the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (1859-1996), the Louisville, New Albany & Chicago (or Monon) (1897-1971), Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (1859-1991), the Wabash Railroad (1837-1964), the Erie Railroad (1832-1960) and the Chicago & Western Indiana (1880-present).
Chicago & Eastern Illinois (1877-1976).
C&EI The Danville – Chicago Flyer at Steger, Illinois on November 26, 1965. Public Domain. Map of the Dixie Route to Florida and connecting lines, published by the C&EI, L&N, and NC&StL railroads, 1926. Public Domain.Preferred Share of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Company, issued 1889. Public Domain.
Chicago and Atlantic Railway, later the Chicago and Erie Railroad (1871-1941).
Chicago and Atlantic Railway 1889 ad featuring The New York and Chicago Vestibule Limited. Public Domain.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (1859-1996).
AT&SF passenger train, c. 1895. Public Domain.Map of “The Santa Fé Route” and subsidiary lines, as published in an 1891 issue of the Grain Dealers and Shippers Gazetteer. Public Domain.
Louisville, New Albany & Chicago, or Monon (1897-1971).
Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway, route map, 1903, Unknown author – Poor’s Manual of the Railroads of the United States. Public Domain.
Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company (1859-1991).
A 1976 map of the proposed routes to be turned over by Conrail on the GTW, DT&I and P&LE. Public Domain. Grand Trunk Western Railroad locomotive shop, Battle Creek, Michigan, 1908. GT Western RR was one of the lines into Dearborn Street Station in Chicago. Public Domain.
The Wabash Railroad (1837-1964).
1886 map of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway. Public Domain.System timetable back and front cover, 1887. Public Domain.Wabash system map, early 20th century. Public Domain.
The Erie Railroad (1832-1960).
An 1855 map of the New York and Erie Railroad. Public Domain.
Chicago & Western Indiana (1880-present).
The Kansas City Chief at Dearborn Station on February 5, 1968. The glowing face of the station clock in the clocktower is visible upper-left. Photograph by A Roger Puta. Public Domain.
All lines operating into Dearborn Station, except for the Santa Fe (above), travelled over the C&WI.
Colossal damages in December 1922 fire.
On December 21, 1922, fire destroyed the roof of the Dearborn Street Station. The blaze started on the third floor and raged throughout that top floor. Hundreds of passengers and employees were safely evacuated and there was one reported injury. The Chicago Tribune reported that when the fire reached the central tower it roared up the long shaft which became a blazing torch. The crowds watched in amazement as the tower clock stopped and the hands on its three faces crashed into the raging fire below.Dearborn Station Clock Tower. “Dearborn Station Clock Tower” by Atelier Teee is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
32-year-old architect of Dearborn Street Station came from Illustrious East Coast family of builders and architects.
Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz who built the Dearborn Street Station in Chicago in 1885 was from an influential American family of architects and builders—his father, Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1908), was a founder of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz is best known for designing One Times Square, the former New York Times Building, on Times Square in 1904. He also founded HLW International, one of the oldest architecture firms in the United States. The reconstruction of Dearborn Station in Chicago in 1923 following its devastating fire was done by an unknown architect two years after Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz’s death.
Original facade completed in 1904 of One Times Square in 1919 by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz who designed and built the Dearborn Station in Chicago in 1885. Public Domain.The clock tower of the Dearborn Street Station is seen down Dearborn Street from Alexander Calder’s Flamingo in the Federal Center plaza. Author’s photograph, June 2022.
SOURCES:
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 154.
History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Frank A. Randall, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, pp. 104-105 and 221-223.
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, 5th Edition, Franze Schulze and Kevin Harrington, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 89-90.
FEATURE image: Chicago Loop Synagogue with stained glass window, Let There Be Light (1960) by American Expressionist artist Abraham Rattner (1895-1978). The synagogue was built in 1957 with this wall of stained glass. The colorful and semi-abstract artwork contrasts and complements with the architectural minimalism of the rest of the sanctuary. Author’s photograph.
Text by John P. Walsh.
Chicago Loop Synagogue, exterior. May 2024 97% 7.89 mb Author’s photograph.Chicago Loop Synagogue on Clark Street in downtown Chicago, “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Chicago Loop Synagogue was a midcareer project for a pair of leading Chicago Jewish architects of Modernism — Jerrold Loebl (1899–1978) and Norman Schlossman (1901– 1990). Loeble was a son of Hungarian immigrants and Schlossman was the grandson of immigrants from Germany. Both graduated from the Armour Institute (today’s Illinois Institute of Technology) and became partners in 1925. The third partner changed over the decades and in 2024 the firm is Loebl, Schlossman, & Hackl. Following World War II, the firm was Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett and the team created influential examples of Chicago’s mid-century Modernism. Richard Marsh Bennett (1907-1996) had been chairman of the Yale Architecture Department and stayed with the firm until 1974 when he returned to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The architectural firm’s designs included Weiss Memorial Hospital (4646 N Marine Drive) and The Darien (3100 N. Lake Shore Drive ) also built in the 1950s.
“Hands of Peace | Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.May 2014. 4.28mb DSC_0055 (3). Author’s photograph. May 2014. 4.58mb DSC_0057 (1). Author’s photograph.Glass doors with wooden handles define the main entrance into Loop Synagogue off busy Clark Street. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Ten Commandments. 9/2015 4.73 mb Author’s photograph.
The Ten Commandments meet the visitors in the foyer upon entering synagogue. For the Jews, the Ten Commandments (found in the Bible in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21) are a special set of spiritual laws that the LORD Himself wrote on two stone tablets (luchot) that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. In the Scriptures these laws are called the “Aseret Ha Devarim,” the “ten words” or “ten utterances.” In rabbinical writings, they are usually referred to as “Aseret Ha Dibrot,” and in Christian theological writings they are called the Decalogue which is derived from the Greek name “dekalogos” (“ten statements”) found in the Septuagint (Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 10:4), which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name. To the Jews the Torah has a total of 613 commandments which includes the ten from the Decalogue. See – https://www.the-ten-commandments.org/the-ten-commandments.html – retrieved December 4, 2023).
Chicago Loop Synagogue. Author’s photograph. Author’s photograph. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.The limestone blocks of the North wall are cut at an angle to evoke the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem.Author’s photograph. The Holy Ark is made by Israeli sculptor and ceramicist Henri Azaz (1923-2008). Jutting into the prayer space from the far-left corner of the window, Rattner incorporated the ark that would house the Torah scrolls. He surrounded it with flames – integrated into the glass – leaping up and out, drawing attention to the presence of God in the very heart of the sanctuary. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.The House of Worship is 3 floors, 450 seats, 6 Torahs, and a 40-foot-tall stained-glass window that fills the Eastern façade and the congregation with filtered sunlight. Author’s photograph. The Chicago Loop Synagogue was founded in 1929 to serve the religious needs of those whose business activities brought them downtown.Author’s photograph. “Chicago Loop Synagogue” by _jjph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.Visitors to the Chicago Loop Synagogue are guided by one of its members. Author’s photograph. Author’s photograph.
Abraham Rattner, the Expressionist artist of the wall-filling colorful stained-glass window was born in Poughkeepsie, New York to a Russian-Jewish father and a Romanian-Jewish mother. Rattner studied to be architect, but turned to painting studying at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C. and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Rattner served as a camouflage artist in France during World War I and, after the war, joined many of “the Lost Generation” that writer and critic Gertrude Stein spoke about when referencing the post- war Ernest Hemingway and many others who lived in Europe, mainly Paris, in the 1920s. Rattner lived in Paris for 20 years, from 1920 until late 1939 where, during that extensive time period, he met Claude Monet (1840-1926). To avoid the coming Nazi invasion of France, Rattner and his wife Bettina Bedwell (1889-1947), a journalist and fashion illustrator from Nebraska who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and who married in 1924, returned to America, where they lived in New York City. Rattner was known for his rich use of color and abstraction in his artwork and whose subject matter often had to do with religion. In the post-World War II era he taught at several schools, including New York’s The New School (1947–55) and at Yale University (1952-1953). In 1949 Rattner married Esther Gentle (1899 – 1991), an artist and art dealer, and was a friend of writer Henry Miller (1891-1980) who wrote about their friendship in 1968 in A Word About Abraham Rattner.
10/2015 7.77 mb 91%. Author’s photograph. .
The colors and design elements of this 31 x 40-foot glass artwork signify God’s relationship with the cosmos, humanity, and the Jewish people. After two years working on conceptual and design schemes, the artist Abraham Rattner spent a year fabricating the window – a presentation of cool blues and warm red and yellows studded with purples that take on shapes of planets, trees, Hebrew letters and the Israelite tribes. It was made in Paris’s 15th arrondissement at Atelier Barillet, the house and workshop of master glassmaker Louis Barillet (1880-1948). The artwork was the subject of a 1976 exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and a 1978 exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The window was made to fit inside the prayer space for which it was created. To create the stained glass work, Rattner drew inspiration from the opening passages of Genesis, honing in on the hidden meanings of the words “And there was light” to channel cosmic creative energies of the Divine.
Author’s photograph.
The Tree of Life (above) is also visaged as the Menorah and is identified with the light of innermost perception – the spirit; thought; ideas; life; and of knowledge. This Primal Light, God’s light, radiates outward, extending and expanding throughout the universe.
Author’s photograph.
The Menorah (above) poetically conceived as a tree of life and of light. The Menorah is the classic symbol of Judaism.
Author’s photograph.
The Star of David (above right) and the palm branch used on the Sukkot (Feast of Booths) harvest festival.
Author’s photograph.
The shofur or ram’s horn (above) is an ancient instrument used on High Holidays to call the people to repentance. In close proximity to the shofur is the etrog which is a fruit of the Holy Land which expresses earth’s bounty as well as the overflowing love of a human being’s heart for God.
A view of the sanctuary from its balcony. The near perfect beauty of the Chicago Loop Synagogue is self-evident. Author’s photograph. The prayer room on the first floor is used for daily prayer and other gatherings. Author’s photograph.
Chicago Churches and Synagogues: An Architectural Pilgrimage, George Lane, S.J., and Algimantas Kezys, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1981,pp. 202-203.
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 74.
FEATURE image: CIVIC OPERA BUILDING, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago. The world famous Lyric Opera of Chicago mounts its productions in one of North America’s most beautiful opera houses, the Civic Opera House at 20 North Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Author’s photograph.
Graham, Anderson, Probst & White was one of the largest architectural firms in the first half of the twentieth century. Founded in 1912, the firm was the successor to D. H. Burnham & Co. by way of partner, Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936), and Burnham’s sons, Hubert and Daniel Jr. Five years later the Burnhams left to form their own firm (Burnham Brothers) and Graham partnered with others of the firm’s members: William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924), Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942), and Howard Judson White (1870-1936).Pediment sculpture by Henry Hering (1874-1949). Ernest R. Graham (1868-1936)William Peirce Anderson (1870-1924)Edward Mathias Probst (1870-1942)Howard Judson White (1870-1936)
Plan of Chicago Authors:
The Burnham Plan, co-authored by Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912) and Edward H. Bennett (1874-1954) and published in 1909 encouraged making the Chicago River a focal point of building development. By 1929 massive projects including the Merchandise Mart, Chicago Daily News Building (2 N. Riverside Plaza) and Civic Opera Building (above) stood along the intersection of the three branches of the Chicago River that was part of the plan.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, c. 1890. Burnham was a great collaborator and invited architect Edward Bennett to move to Chicago to collaborate on the comprehensive plan for San Francisco, and afterwards, the Plan of Chicago. While Burnham raised money and visibility for the Chicago Plan, Bennett created the actual layouts and drawings which are so well known today. Public Domain. The architect Edward Herbert Bennett (1874–1954) is best known as the co-author (with Daniel H. Burnham) of the Plan of Chicago, published in 1909. Bennett moved to Chicago from New York City in 1903 when he was 29 years old. Public Domain.
The Civic Opera Building is an office building wrapped around its theatres including a 3,563-seat opera house. It is the second-largest opera auditorium in North America after the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. in 1996 the interior was named The Ardis Krainik Theatre in honor of Ardis Joan Krainik (1929-1997), an American mezzo-soprano opera singer and the former General Director for 15 years, who was responsible for its renovation after 1993.
The Ardis Krainik Theatre in the Civic Opera Building has 3,563 seats and is the second-largest opera auditorium in North America. “Civic Opera House, Chicago” by notmargaret is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Chicago opera companies have included the Chicago Grand Opera Company (1910-1914), Chicago Opera Association (1915-1921), Chicago Civic Opera (1922-1932), Chicago Grand Opera Company (1933-1935), Chicago City Opera (1935-1939), Chicago Opera Company (1940-1946), Lyric Theatre (1954-1955), Lyric Opera of Chicago (1956-). see – https://chicagology.com/opera/chicagooperahistory/ – retrieved September 20, 2024.
Masks of Comedy and Tragedy and motifs of music (lyre and trumpet) and poetry (palm leaf and laurel leaf) which appear in terra cotta on the exterior of the building are repeated in the auditorium. Jules Guérin (1966-1946) known for his watercolors of the Plan of Chicago and murals for other skyscrapers supervised the interior design. “Civic Opera House (Chicago)” by Jeffrey Beall is licensed under CC BY 4.0.Jules Guérin (1866-1946) in 1898. The artist was born in St Louis, Missouri and with his family moved to Chicago in 1880. The American muralist and interior designer was educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and gained prominence for his architectural work such as his paintings for the Plan for Chicago in 1906. Guérin was noted for the large murals he painted for famous public structures such as for the Lincoln Memorial In Washington, D.C. For the Civic Opera Building Guérin supervised interior design. Public Domain. Chicago. Civic Opera House (1929). The east elevation facting North Wacker Drive presents long and enormous covered colonnade. May 2014 2.79 mb Author’s photograph.August 2021.The Civic Opera House main auditorium seats 3,563 and is the second largest opera house in the country after New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House that seats 3,850. 7.94 mb_9304 (1). Author’s photograph.
The impressive building and its ornamentation was the result of British-born business magnate and Chicago financier Samuel Insull (1859-1938) who was inspired by the concept of the Auditorium Building with its theatres and offices in a skyscraper-sized building designed by Adler & Sullivan in 1889 at 430 S. Michigan Avenue. Insull, the president of the Chicago Civic Opera Association, wanted to erect the new opera house as the new permanent home of the Chicago Civic Opera. The building itself is shaped like a chair and nicknamed “Insull’s Throne.”
The Art Deco/Classical building’s ambition is multi-faceted – an opera house, a smaller theater, and enough office space to fill a skyscraper. The theatres are surmounted by a central tower 45 stories high flanked by two wings with the west elevation facing the Chicago River resembling a throne. August 2024 77% 7.81mb_1566. Author’s photograph. Civic Opera Building under construction in Chicago in 1928. Public Domain. Samuel Insull was the founder of Commonwealth Edison Company in Chicago. The Great Depression had a devastating effect on Insull’s utilities and transportation empire, due to what became an overly leveraged financial position of his main holding company (by one accounting Insull had less than a 1% cash stake). Insull’s fortunes as well as his shareholders’ were in ruins overnight and Insull quickly became a despised figure. Born in the U.K., Insull became a U.S. citizen in 1896 and now fled to France and then Greece. In October 1932 Insull was brought up on charges in the U.S. of financial malfeasance – bankruptcy, embezzlement, and using the mails to defraud investors. When he was returned to the U.S. to stand trial Insull was defended by Chicago criminal lawyer and former Illinois Supreme Court justice Floyd E. Thompson (1887-1960) and found not guilty on all counts. Insull ended his days living in Paris on a small pension from his business interests. On July 16, 1938, in the summer heat, 78-year-old Insull died of a heart attack after descending the stairs accompanied by his wife into the Place de la Concorde Métro station. Insull was buried in London eight days later. The once-populist multi-millionaire dubbed the “Prince of Electricity” who had been president of 11 power and transportation companies and sat on 65 boards was, at his death, worse than broke. According to his 1932 will, Insull held $1,000 in assets and $14,000,000 in debts. See – “Fortune Shrank to $1,000, Samuel Insull Will Shows”. Reading Eagle. 12 August 1938 – retrieved June 29, 2024 and https://www.chicago-l.org/figures/insull/ – retrieved June 29, 2024.Floyd E. Thompson was an Illinois lawyer and newspaper publisher who became an Illinois Supreme Court justice (term, 1919-1928) who defended Samuel Insull on charges of financial malfeasance in the 1930’s in a case that returned a verdict of “not guilty” on all counts. August 2024. Civic Opera Building’s west elevation faces the Chicago River. 5.11 mb _1562 (1). Author’s photograph. Civic Opera Building under construction, 1927. Public Domain. August 2021. The 1929 building occupies a block bounded by W. Madison Street (above), N. Wacker Drive, W. Washington Street and N. Wacker Drive. 99% 7.89 mb_9300. Author’s photograph. The Civic Opera building’s Classical window casement is evident facing west at the Chicago River. The building rises 555 feet on hardpan caissons, a soil layer above bedrock. August 2024 87% 7.90mb_1560 (1). Author’s photograph.
SOURCES:
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, pages 14 and 90.
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, 5th Edition, Franze Schulze and Kevin Harrington, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 117-118.
History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Frank A. Randall, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, p. 330-331.
Saliga, Pauline A., editor, The Sky’s The Limit A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Rizzoli New York, 1990, p. 152-153.
FURTHER READING: Forty Years of Opera in Chicago, Edward C. Moore, 1930.
FEATURE image: July 2015. Joan Miró, Joan Miró’s Chicago (sometimes Miss Chicago), steel reinforced-concrete, colored ceramics, 1967, Brunswick Building Plaza, 69 W. Washington Street, Chicago. This artwork is Miró’s only monumental sculpture. 7.04 mb. Author’s photograph.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) is a Catalan who is a major dadaist artist “Dada” is a nonsense word but its artistic movement that started around 1915 in Zürich, Switzerland, has brought into existence many famous artworks by a range of artists. As World War I raged on in Europe between 1914 and 1918, young artists and intellectuals reacted with art, performance, and poetry that was radically experimental, dissident and anarchic. These artists countered the horrors of the war and capitalist culture by moving past a degradation of art to contributing to an anti-art under the banner of “dada.” These ideas and ideals of dada quickly spread to the art capitals of Paris and New York – and beyond.
Joan Miró’s Chicago is the artist’s first monumental sculpture in the world.
Joan Miró’s Chicago is in this dada milieu as it sits in the Brunswick Building Plaza, directly across Washington Street from another Spanish artist’s 50-foot-tall Cor-Ten steel sculpture from the same time (1967): Chicago’s Picasso in Daley Plaza. Miró’s sculpture expresses the neck, bustline, and slim and wasp-waisted hips of a woman’s torso with outstretched arms and a simplified head. She is made of steel-reinforced concrete with brightly colored ceramics that are added to the scooped-out hem of her skirt. Like other of Miró’s sculptures of female figures from the 1950s, the shape of the skirt is that of an overturned broad-lipped cup or chalice. The bronze, crown-like headdress is like the dadaist found objects that populated Miró’s artwork whether paintings, sculptures, ceramics and more throughout his career. Joan Miró’s Chicago possesses qualities evocative of primitive fertility or earth goddesses similar to those found in the ancient Mediterranean world.
One of Dada’s major sculptural forms to emerge and which was masterly accomplished by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), was the “readymade” which used familiar mass-produced objects (i.e., ceramic urinals, household tools, etc.) for high art pieces. The dada expression of the readymade increasingly asked the viewer to take seriously these consumer items and found objects as high art on an equal platform with lofty traditional productions of a monied arts establishment.
Dadaists experimented boldly with new media such as collage (Jean Arp, 1886-1966), airbrushed photography (Man Ray, 1890-1976) and nonsensical poetry (Hugo Ball, 1886-1927). These art forms freely combined as well as crossed over its categories, i.e., nonsensical poetry interpreted in performance art.
Joan Miró, Barcelona, June 13, 1935 by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). Public Domain. This work is from the Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. As the restrictions on this collection expired in 1986, the Library of Congress believes this image is in the public domain. The Carl Van Vechten estate has asked that use of Van Vechten’s photographs “preserve the integrity” of his work, i.e, that photographs not be colorized or cropped, and that proper credit is given to the photographer which is the photograph here.
Miró’s art does not accept the world as it is.
In the 1930’s and 1940’s Miró worked with material such as paper, string and even toothbrushes and, sometime later, natural objects such as rocks and fruits to make loose, playlike assemblies, many of which due to fragility or destruction, did not survive. Miró did not transform or repurpose these found objects – bells, jars, vases – but by leaving them alone saw they retained what the artist called their own “magical powers.” Miró’s more permanent artworks – paintings, ceramics, plaster or bronze sculptures, etc. – possess the same randomness as his looser assemblies which is the artist’s intended reflection of nature’s promiscuous progeny. The artist turns his back on established art principles and pursues his own independence which, following intuition unto slow resolve, improbably marries diverse objects of recognizable forms making for an assembly of more than one class or nature. They are of a realm not always of this world.
July 2015. Miró with City Hall in background. Chicago. 5.77mb DSC_0308 (1) Author’s photograph.
Though Miró completed a maquette of the sculpture in 1967 (called Project for a Monument for Barcelona), its production into a 40-foot sculpture – the artist’s only monumental sculpture – was delayed until 1979. The hundreds of thousands of dollars for the production and installation of Joan Miró’s Chicago was provided by a private-public partnership in Chicago.
SOURCES:
A Guide to Chicago Public Sculpture, Ira J. Bach and Mary Lackritz Gray, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1983, pp. 73-74.
FEATURE Image: Signage of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, Chicago. The church is known as “the birthplace of Gospel music” since Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993) started his first modern gospel choir here in 1931. Author’s photograph, 10/2016 6.06 mb
Built as one of Chicago’s early Reform Judaism synagogue in 1898, the Classical Revival style golden brick and stone building is the last one designed by Dankmar Adler (1844-1900). The building with its form distinctive to other Adler buildings as well as its fine acoustics, was purchased by Ebenezer Church in 1921.In the heart of the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church was formed in 1902. During the Great Migration, African-Americans made Ebenezer their church home in the early 1920’s.Ebenezer developed a reputation as a center for gospel music. Under the direction of Theodore R. Frye, Roberta Martin and, the “Father of Gospel Music,” Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993), the church’s groundbreaking gospel choir introduced a blend of Christian praise and blues at Ebenezer that established the careers of the “Mother of Gospel,” Sallie Martin (1895-1988), Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) and Dinah Washington (1924-1963) who was inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
I’ll Tell It Wherever I Go – Sallie Martin. Sallie Martin helped popularize the songs of Thomas A. Dorsey. Martin also worked with Cora Martin-Moore (1927-2005), Dinah Washington and Brother Joe May (1912-1972), the “Thunderbolt of the Midwest,” when Sallie Martin formed the Sallie Martin Singers. Sallie Martin was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1991. Sanctuary. During the 30-year pastorate of Rev. Frank K. Sims, distinguished guests of the church included Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Ralph Metcalfe (1910-1978), Adam Clayton Powell (1908-1972) and Mahalia Jackson.
“A voice like this comes only once in a millennium,” so said Dr. King about Mahalia Jackson. During the Chicago Freedom Movement in 1966, Mahalia Jackson, who lived in Chicago, joined her friend Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., when he was visited a church to preach a sermon about justice and equality. Like Dr. King, Mahalia Jackson was a devout Christian and Civil Rights activist. At the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, she sang “How I Got Over” and was on the Lincoln Memorial platform behind King while he was pronouncing his “I Have a Dream” speech.In 1966 a banquet honoring Dr. Frank Kentworth Sims on the 7th anniversary of his pastorate of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church featured Nobel Peace Prize recipient the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as the guest speaker and Mahalia Jackson as guest vocalist.
Though there were literally as many church choirs as there were churches, Dinah Washington (1924-1963), then Ruth Jones, made a name for herself as a teenage gospel singer in Chicago. In 1940 Ruth gave a recital that included “Precious Lord Take My Hand,” one of Thomas A. Dorsey’s most popular songs. The music for this version of the Christian prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” was written by Albert Hay Malotte (1895-1964) in 1935. It was released in 2010 on the compilation album, The Fabulous Miss D! (The Keynote, Decca & Mercury Singles 1943–1953), which traces the first decade of Dinah Washington’s recording career on 78s and 45s, starting with her stint with Lionel Hampton (1908-2002) and continuing through the early years of her solo career.
SOURCES:
Alice Sinkevitch, AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 417.
FEATURE image: FISHER BUILDING, 343 S. Dearborn Street, view from the south. Author’s photograph, December 2017.
The success of the Reliance Building at 32 N. State Street built by Daniel H. Burnham (1846-1912) and John Wellborn Root (1850-1891) in 1890-91 and Burnham & Co. in 1894-95 led directly to the construction of the Fisher Building in 1895.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, c. 1890. In 1873 Burnham and Root entered into partnership in Chicago. In 1894 Burnham reorganized his office to include, among other partners, Charles B. Atwood who designed the Fisher Building.
The Fisher Building was also designed for Burnham & Co. by Charles B. Atwood (1849-1895). The Fisher Building was three stories taller than the Reliance Building and possessed even more flamboyant Gothic detailing as it is sheathed in golden terra cotta on its visible façades.
Charles B. Atwood c.1880. Public Domain.
The Fisher Building’s façade with its depictions of sea creatures in homage to the building’s namesake, Lucius G. Fisher (1843-1916), an Illinois paper company magnate and architect, was painstakingly restored and adapted for contemporary use in 2001. The rectangular prism with its Gothicized ornamentation sits on 25-foot piles under spread foundations engineered by Edward Clapp Shankland (1854-1924).
Ed Shankland was Daniel Burnham’s structural engineer through 1898 and worked on the Reliance Building and the Fisher Building.
In the mid 1890’s, the skyscraper was erected quickly with pride. The steel frame’s first 13 stories were erected in two weeks. The building has oriel windows and engaged colonettes at its corner piers. In 1907, a 20-story addition was built to the north by architect Peter J. Weber with Shankland also as structural engineer.
Lucius Fisher (1843-1916). Born in Wisconsin, Fisher was an Illinois paper magnate who commissioned the Daniel Burnham and Company to build the 20 story, 275 foot tall Fisher Building in the Chicago Loop in 1895. Completed in 1896, the landmark Fisher Building is the oldest extant 20 story building in Chicago. Public Domain. In 2002 the main entries on Dearborn Street and Plymouth Court were recreated. At the same time, over 1000 wood-frame windows were replaced or repaired and over 6000 terra-cotta pieces were replaced. Author’s photograph, May 2015. Fisher Building (1895-1896), looking east. To the left is Burnham & Root and Holabird & Roche’s Monadnock Building (1891-1893) and to the right is Holabird and Roche’s Old Colony Building (1893-1894). In the background is Graham, Anderson, Probst & White’s bright red international style CNA Center (1972). Author’s photograph, September 2015.Fisher Building (1895-86) at Plymouth Court and Van Buren Street, looking northwest. Author’s photograph, October 2017.
SOURCES:
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, pps. 62-63.
The Sky’s The Limit: A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, Jane H. Clarke, Pauline A. Saliga, John Zukowsky, New York: Rizzoli, 1990, pps. 33-35.
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, 5th Edition, Franze Schulze and Kevin Harrington, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, pp. 82-83.
Frank A. Randall, History of Development of Building Construction in Chicago, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded by John D. Randall, University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago, 1999, pps. 37 and 164-65.
FEATURE Image: December 2015. Art Deco Elevator Bank (1929). 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2). Author’s photograph.
December 2015. Art Deco elevator bank, 105 W. Madison (1929), Chicago. 3.99mb DSC_0958 (2). Author’s photograph.
In the heart of Chicago’s Loop, 105 W. Madison Street (2 S. Clark St.) is an Art Deco beauty built in 1929 by the Burnham Brothers firm. The sons of Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846-1912), Daniel Hudson Burnham Jr. (1886–1961) and Hubert Burnham (1882-1968) erected the 22-story building with a tripartite façade and window treatments emphasizing the building’s height with glorious details inside and out. 105 W. Madison follows the neo-classic style employing light brown applied masonry with terra-cotta accents on the exterior and an art-deco interior, including this elevator bank on the lobby floor.
Daniel Hudson Burnham Jr. (1886–1961), Tuesday, July 20, 1926, Chicago Tribune. Public Domain. Hubert Burnham (1882-1968). Public Domain.
Richard Hunt (b. 1935, American), We Will, welded stainless steel, 35’x 8’ x 8’, Chicago, Illinois, in July 2016.
Chicagoan Richard Hunt has over 150 large-scale installations around the world. Since 2005, Richard Hunt’s We Will has stood proudly on the sidewalk by the intersection of Randolph Street and Garland Court near Chicago’s Cultural Center and Millennium Park. We Will stands 35 feet tall and is made of welded stainless steel. The public art is a sculpture of scale that is impressive on its downtown Chicago streets.
“I Will” is the long-time mantra of Chicago. Its roots trace to the Great Fire of 1871, and the dogged resiliency of its citizens to rebuild, to reinvent, and to grow to new heights. The sculpture evokes the licks of flame from that devastating event in the 19th century from which the city built back bigger, better, faster, and stronger – and whose title We Will indicates that Chicagoans in the 21st century continue this tradition of resilience and resolve by looking to do so together.
We Will was commissioned by the Mesa Development Company, the developers of a condominium and mixed-use building in Chicago. Hunt has his artwork installed for viewing across the city of Chicago including, in 2021, his Light of Truth Monument to Ida B. Wells in Bronzeville, Jacob’s Ladder in the Carter Woodson Regional Library, Farmer’s Dream at the MCA, and Flightforms at Midway Airport, among others.
“There are a range of possibilities for art on public buildings or in public places. To commemorate, to inspire. I think art can enliven and set certain standards for what is going on in and around it.” – Richard Hunt, sculptor.
Among these celebrated works by Richard Hunt is included the first artwork commissioned for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Titled Book Bird, Hunt’s sculpture will be placed outdoors in the Library Reading Garden of the new Chicago Public Library branch at the Obama Presidential Center campus. The former 44th U.S. president in a Zoom call with the artist recently observed about Richard Hunt and his artwork: “[Hunt’s] personal story embodies what is hoped to be the experience at the center. To have one of the greatest artists Chicago ever produced and to participate in what we hope is an important cultural institution for the city and the South Side …it feels like a pretty good fit to me.”
Richard Hunt was born in 1935 in the Woodlawn neighborhood and lived at 63rd and Eberhart on the South Side of Chicago. His family moved to Englewood when Hunt was 4 years old. Hunt attended public schools and his family was very involved in visiting the city’s cultural institutions, particularly The Art Institute of Chicago and the Field Museum. Hunt received a B.A.E. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957 and, afterwards, studied and traveled in Europe as well as served in the U.S. Army.
In the artist’s long career Hunt has received more than a dozen honorary degrees from leading educational institutions of higher learning across the country. He has also served at several prestigious universities as professor and artist in residence. Hunt made history when he became the first African-American artist to have a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
“There are a range of possibilities for art on public buildings or in public places,“ Hunt said recently in the context of his Obama Center work, “To commemorate, to inspire. I think art can enliven and set certain standards for what is going on in and around it.”
FEATURE Image: Flamingo by Alexander Calder is a masterwork stabile in Chicago’s downtown. It was unveiled on October 25, 1974 in a dedication ceremony with the artist. It is one of Chicago’s iconic outdoor public artworks. 6/2022 7.73 mb
In downtown Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza on South Dearborn Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard is Alexander Calder’s 53-foot-tall painted steel plate “stabile object” entitled Flamingo. The Chicago Federal Center was completed in 1974 with Calder’s artwork. The design project began in 1958 and included three International-style government buildings by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) within a public plaza design that was completed in 1974. Flamingo, commissioned after Mies’ death for $250,000 by the Government Services Administration, was unveiled on October 25, 1974 with the 76-year-old Calder present for its dedication ceremonies and festivities. With the commission Calder understood the significant impact of his artwork for the Federal Center Plaza in Chicago.
Calder’s prolific and impressive art career started in the early 1920s. Fifty years later, Flamingo (a.k.a., “the Calder”) in Chicago’s historic Federal Center Plaza is a later work, whose maquette Calder made before it was intended for Chicago.
During his artistic career’s many decades and years, Calder never stopped developing in his art. The 1974 steel sculpture painted red-orange is four stories tall and makes a powerful impact on the streetscape where it is an integral part. Along with Chicago’s Picasso in 1967 and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (“the Bean”) in 2004, Calder’s Flamingo in 1974 has taken its well-deserved place among Chicago’s most iconic outdoor public artworks.
From the inventor of the mobile, Calder turned later to the development of the stabile of which Flamingo is a masterwork. Starting in the mid1950s and into the 1970’s, Calder produced scores of stabiles in many shapes and sizes for display around the world.
“Most architects and city planners want to put my objects in front of trees or greenery. They make a huge error. My mobiles and stabiles ought to be placed in free spaces, like public squares, or in front of modern buildings, and that is true of all contemporary sculpture.” – Alexander Calder.
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Titled Flamingo, the towering abstracted “Calder red” painted stabile object can evoke reactions to it that are unexpected. Calder’s stabile masterwork was unveiled in October 1974 which was the same year the Sears Tower (in the background) was completed and which was at that time the world’s tallest building (today it is ranked no. 26). From Federal Center Plaza, Chicago’s 20th century architectural history is readily on display in its downtown buildings in a range of shapes, sizes, textures and design styles.
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Flamingo can be intimidating because of its monumental size. Actual flamingo shorebirds vary in size, but are usually no more than 3 to 5 feet tall, and weighing about 5 to 7 pounds. At 53 feet tall, Calder’s immense stabile in Chicago is about the size of a giant sauropod dinosaur which could weigh around 60 tons.
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Alexander Calder trained and worked as a mechanical engineer before he became an artist. The graceful design and construction of Flamingo is expressed by nearly one-inch-thick steel plates buttressed by ribs and gussets joined overhead by lofty arches and resting on three legs as if it is nearly weightless. Even his largest stabiles (of which Flamingo is one) are made so they can be easily unbolted, and taken apart to be transported and assembled at the place of destination.
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In Federal Center Plaza is a complex of three buildings of varying scales by Mies van der Rohe: the broad 30-floor Everett McKinley Dirksen Building at 219 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1964 (at right), the lean 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1974 (not pictured), and the single-story U.S. Post Office building at 219 S. Clark Street (not pictured). Calder’s Flamingo sits on its three pillars like a lunar lander that reflects the arcaded bases of Mies van der Rohe’s buildings that surround it as well as provide a sweeping contrast of curves and bright stand-out color against the surrounding modernist buildings’ monochrome glass-and-steel grid appearance. Calder’s artwork achieved more than the sum of these parts – it transformed Mies’ overall somber architectural trio into a more dramatic and complex quartet that included Calder’s art. The 30-story Dirksen Building is across Dearborn Street.
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Calder’s Flamingo after dark with the one-story Post Office illumined within behind it.
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Calder’s stabile is one of the most monumental public art commissions in Chicago. Flamingo’s height and breadth (it fills a space of about 1440 square feet) achieves a largesse that does not forgo a human scale as it allows pedestrians to freely walk around, under and through it. The 45-story Kluczynski Building is at left.
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Flamingo lighted at night in late November where there is already a snow pile on the sidewalk in Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza presaging the Chicago winter. In summer months there is a regular farmer’s market on the Federal Center Plaza. It is also the location for a variety of political gatherings year-round.The Kluczynski Building is behind.
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In October 1974 Alexander Calder was in Chicago for a “Calder Festival” where two of his major works were being dedicated – Flamingo for Federal Center Plaza (depicted above with the Kluczynski Building) and Universe, a motorized mural for the Sears Tower. Reflecting the artist’s lifetime interest in circuses, Calder joined in the city’s circus-themed parade in his honor. In another major cultural event in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art held a large retrospective exhibition of Calder’s art from October to December of 1974.
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Looking from the Marquette Building south to Calder’s Flamingo in situ in Federal Center Plaza.
FEATURE image: Stained glass, paintings, banners, and chandelier blend together and provide a more complete picture of people and episodes of the faith. North wall and ceiling. Chicago. Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church. October 2016 5.88 mb Author’s photograph.
Exterior of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church with its gold domes. The tradition-minded parish, founded in early 1970s, serves a busy urban community.
Chicago. Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church. 7/2015 7.68 mb The huge mosaic over the main entrance memorializes the conversion of the Ukrainians to Christianity in 988 by St. Volodymyr of Kyiv or Vladimir of Kiev (957-1015). The mosaic was executed by Hordynsky, Makarenko, and Baransky. The church is built in the modern Byzantine style.In addition to the colorful and bright mosaic, the upward angle and its perspective adds to the feeling of entering into a sacred space. Along with the archways and curve of the main golden dome, the eye focuses on the artwork’s bright figures.
WHO IS ST. VOLODYMYR?
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St. Volodymyr is the apostle to proto-Russian and Russian Christianity. He was the great prince of Ukraine in Kiev. It was ruled by the Varangians, a barbarous Viking tribe from Scandinavia – and Volodymyr (or Vladimir) of Kiev was as barbarous as any of them.
In 988, when Volodymyr was about 31 years old, he was converted to Christianity. The missionaries came from the Byzantine world at Constantinople. The results were immediate: Ukraine was now in close contact with the Byzantine world to the south and its Christian church under the pope.
Volodymyr married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, Basil II (957-1025). But it was Volodymyr’s personal embrace of the Christian faith that infused the Ukrainian people with their deep and abiding faith. Having received baptism, he set out to be a Christian and not corrupted by money and power that proved a serious temptation for many church and state leaders in the Dark Ages.
Volodymyr used his temporal powers to evangelize the people – his personal example his greatest asset to its success. Though he encouraged various activities and programs in the lives of the people – including the multi-faceted work of Greek missionaries – it was his sincere, transparent, and fundamental reform of his own life that by far had the greatest impact on the Ukrainian people. More than one thousand years after his rule, Volodymyr is still recalled as a generous, humble and devout soul.
As a Christian ruler Volodymyr had doubts about inflicting the death penalty. Though assured by his Byzantine church counselors that his Catholic faith allowed him to follow the law which allowed for it, Volodymyr corrected them and said that that sort of reasoning was not satisfactory to his faith.
Volodymyr, the great prince of Kiev, died a poor man – not only various from his origin but, again, that of many of the ecclesiastics now in the realm. Before his death, Volodymyr dispersed all his money and personal belongings to the poor and to his family and friends. St. Volodymyr’s feast day is July 15. He is patron of Ukrainian and Russian Catholics.
WHO IS ST. OLHA?
Saint Olha was the wife of the Kyivan Great Prince Igor. Igor signed a peace treaty with the Greeks in 944. The treaty of 944 was drawn up at Constantinople and allowed for Christianity in Ukraine. This toleration already indicates some sympathy for Christianity among the powerful in Kiev. Igor himself, however, in his official position did not embrace Christianity nor officially allow the presence of a structure of Church hierarchy. The treaty was drawn up to quietly allow co-existence of Christians in a pagan Viking culture.
Yet when the Byzantine emissaries arrived in Kyiv, pagan opposition had emerged from the Varangians. The Christians were thrown into abeyance and Igor was murdered in 945. Into this volatile situation the burden of government fell upon Igor’s widow — the Kyiv Great-Princess Olha, and her three-year-old son Svyatoslav (945-972). Her first act was to avenge Igor’s murder.
Olha belonged to one of the obscure ancient-Rus’ princely dynasties, whose Slavic line had intermarried with assimilating Varangian newcomers. Olha’s Varangian names includes Helga and Olga.
Though still a pagan, Olha’s revenge on the Varangians on behalf of her late husband was a victory for the realm’s Christians. Further, having weakened the influence of petty local princes in Rus’, Olha centralized the whole of state rule. She became a great builder of the civil life and culture of Kyivan Rus. Her centralization became an important network of the ethnic and cultural unification of the nation which, when Olha became a Christian, aided in the building of a network of churches. Her essential activities proved key in developing what is the modern Ukrainian national identity. At the same time, important trade with Poles, Swedes, Germans, and so forth, led to significantly expanding foreign connections. One noteworthy development was that wooden buildings were replaced with stone edifices.
Rus’ had become a great power. Only two European realms could compare with it in the tenth century – the Byzantine empire in the east, and the kingdom of Saxony in the west. Both these empires were Christianized and pointed the way to future greatness for Rus’. In 954 Great-princess Olha sailed to Constantinople. Though a display of Rus’ military might on the Black Sea, it was a spiritual mission. Olha’s might and the Byzantines’ wealth and beauty were mutually impressive.
Constantinople was the city of the Mother of God as dedicated by Constantine the Great in 330. Olha made the decision to become a Christian. She was baptized by Patriarch Theophylactus (917-956) with her godfather being the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitos (905-959). She took the Christian name Helen for Constantine’s mother. Following the rite, the Patriarch said: “Blessed are you among the women of Rus’, for you have forsaken the darkness and have loved the Light. The Rus’ people shall bless you in all the future generations, from your grandson and great-grandson to your furthermost descendants.” Olha replied: “By your prayers, O Master, let me be preserved from the wiles of enemies”. It is precisely in this way, with a slightly bowed head, that Saint Olha is often depicted in religious artwork. During her state visit, and following her baptism, Great princess Olha of Rus’ was fêted throughout Constantinople
Saint Olha devoted herself to efforts of Christian evangelization among the pagans, and also church construction, including Saint Sophia Cathedral. Yet, many despised her new found Christianity and paganism became emboldened. They looked to the reign of Svyatoslav who angrily spurned his mother’s Christianity. Meanwhile Byzantine church and state leaders were not eager to promote Christianity in Rus’. In Olha’s lifetime, Kyiv favored paganism and had second thoughts about even accepting Christianity. By order of Svyatoslav, churches were destroyed and Christians murdered. Byzantine political interests found the church and state looking to undermine Olha’s influence and favored the Rus’ pagans.
Olha attempted to help Svyatoslav during a period of wartime, though Kyiv was a backwater to his imperial interests for the next 18 years. In the spring of 969 the Pechenegs besieged Kyiv and Olha headed the defense of the capital. Svyatoslav rode quickly to Kyiv, and routed the nomads. But the warrior prince wished to rule elsewhere than Kiev. Svyatoslav dreamed of uniting all Rus’, Bulgaria, Serbia, the near Black Sea region and Priazovia (Azov region), and extend his borders to Constantinople. Olha warned her son that his plans were bound to fail as the Byzantine Empire was united and strong.
On July 11, 969 Saint Olha died. In her final years, with the triumph of paganism, she had to secretly practice her faith. Before her death, she forbade the pagan celebration of the dead at her burial and was openly buried in accord with Orthodox ritual. A priest who accompanied her to Constantinople in 957 fulfilled her request.
Considered by Ukrainians the holy equal of Great Prince Volodymyr, St. Olha was invoked by St. Volodymyr on the day the people of Rus’ were baptized. Before his countrymen, St. Volodymr said of St. Olha: “The sons of Rus’ bless you, and also the generations of your descendants.”
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A beautiful outdoor garden with the residential streets of Ukrainian Village as its background is the setting for the larger-than-life-sized statue of Major Archbishop Josyf Slipyj (1892-1984). He was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1965 and is a “Confessor of the Faith.” The Founder of the parish, Slipyj blessed the new church building’s cornerstone. Supporting the Ukrainian state and refusing to convert to Russian Orthodoxy, he was continously imprisoned by the Soviet authorities from 1945 to 1963. Through the intervention of St. Pope John XXIII and U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Josyf Slipj was released by Nikita Khrushchev in early 1963 and participated in the Second Vatican Council.Josyf Slipyj died in Rome in 1984 and his cause for canonization as a saint of the Catholic Church has been introduced at the Vatican.
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Parishioners praying and going to Communion at Sunday Mass.
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With the artists’ skills, the bright colors and evocative forms of the artwork surround churchgoers as they move toward the altar at Communion during the Divine Liturgy.
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The colorful and vibrant decorations that include paintings, carvings, vestments, books, stained glass, and more, are integral to the parish’s liturgy and life.
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Two women sit before icons of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha and the Blessed Virgin.
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Every nook and cranny of the church is decorated with colorful images from religious and Catholic Ukrainian history. The natural light streaking down from the main dome’s windows adds a heavenly glow.
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Two female haloed saints in a modern art style are marked by their unique attire as one holds an unfurled scroll with words in Ukrainian. Christianity arrived into Ukraine by way of the Greco-Byzantine world over 1000 years ago.
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A painting of the dormition of Mary is emphasized by, above, an icon of Mary and the child Jesus. Colors, forms, and subject matter are very high quality and soft and peaceful making them pleasant to look at and pray with.
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The wood carvings and full-length portrait icons are gorgeous. The fresh flower arrangements further brighten the scene.
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Visitors are joined by worshippers lighting candles and praying before a large icon of Mary and the child Jesus.
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The main altar gate of carved wood with icons and gold curtain. The Last Supper in center above.
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Residents and (below) a residence’s porch flower garden in Ukrainian Village near Sts. Volodymyr and Olha Church in Chicago.
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High above the sanctuary is a magnificent view of the main dome painted in bright colors with the figure of Christ Pantocrator. Christ gives his blessing as he holds an open book with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and omega. It signifies one of Christ as the Son of God’s titles in the New Testament: “I am the beginning and the end” (Revelation, 21:6, 22:13).
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South Wall.
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Ukrainian Village is a neighborhood first settled by Ukrainian immigrants in the 1890’s. It is about 4 miles to the northwest from downtown Chicago.
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SOURCES:
Houses of Worship: An Identification Guide to the History and Styles of American Religious Architecture, Jeffrey Howe, Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, California, 2003.
AIA Guide to Chicago, 2nd Edition, Alice Sinkevitch, Harcourt, Inc., Orlando, 2004, p. 260.
The Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Coulson, Guild Press, New York, 1957, pp. 577; 760-761.
Chicago: City of Neighborhoods, Dominic A. Pacyga and Ellen Skerrett, Loyola University Press, Chicago, 1986, p. 193.
