A city commission on Thursday unanimously recommended landmark designation for a 118-year-old Hyde Park church.
Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn Ave., sailed through the Commission on Chicago Landmarks meeting to recommend the church for landmark designation, which would protect both exterior and interior elements from future demolition. The final approval now heads to the City Council.
The preliminary designation, inked Feb. 8, covered just the church’s exterior. But in late March, the commission requested consent from the congregation to also include interior “historical and architectural features.”
“The significance of this building is clear,” Patrick Grossi, director of development and policy at Preservation Chicago, said.
The structure, located two blocks north of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, was built in 1906. James Gamble Rogers — best known for his Collegiate Gothic buildings at universities like Yale, Columbia and Northwestern — was the architect.
Hyde Park Union was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture style, as seen in the building’s rounded archways, gabled roof and rusticated stone walls — giving the structure a “sense of majesty and permanence,” according to a city staff report.
That same report notes “the entrance vestibules and sanctuary” in the landmark designation and “the overall historic spatial volume and historic decorative finishes and features.” Of note are the church’s stained glass windows, designed by artist Louis Comfort Tiffany and other prominent stained glass artists.
Susan van der Meulen, an architect and parishioner of Hyde Park Union, called the church “beautiful.”
“It has excellent architectural qualities and beautiful stained glass,” she said.
The Rev. Veronica Johnson, co-pastor at Hyde Park Union, described the church as “historic.” The staff is continually learning more about the building’s history and its connection to nearby University of Chicago.
It’s also the church’s 150th anniversary, which Johnson said will be celebrated later this year. The congregation was originally formed as First Baptist Church of Hyde Park in 1874.
The recommendation raises public awareness about the need to preserve clerical architecture — something Grossi said is being lost, along with clerical art.
Also present at Thursday’s meeting was Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller, who voiced the nonprofit’s continuing support to landmark Bridgeport’s Ramova Theatre.
Miller also applauded Mayor Brandon Johnson and Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright on Wednesday’s La Salle Street announcement. Johnson announced four projects in the corridor that he will put forward for a combined $151.2 million in TIF assistance this spring. The projects would help convert office buildings into much-needed housing in the Loop.
Miller said many of those buildings Johnson announced haven’t been landmarked — like 111 W. Monroe St. — and will soon undergo the landmark designation process.
“These are great strides forward,” he said.
