When the roof of Buena Memorial Presbyterian Church collapsed in 1996, it was the beginning of the end. Years of neglect and deferred maintenance had taken their toll, and the century-or-so-old church was to be demolished.Buena Memorial was located at 4247-4301 N. Sheridan Rd., near Montrose and Broadway, on that little peninsula-like piece of land where The Mark condos now stand.
Additional photos of the interior—including closeups of the collapsed roof—can be seen at King Richard's Religious Artifacts, the company responsible for the salvage operation. Fortunately, a great deal of the stained glass and other fixtures were saved.
A very depressing photo of the final destruction can be seen at Midwest Wrecking.
36 comments:
Well that was certainly depressing, I had no idea such a grand church had stood a mere ten years ago in that space.
I know--it was already gone before I moved to the neighborhood, and I still mourn its loss.
I LOVE this blog. Thank you so much.
"Buena Jeff"
Buena Jeff: Thanks for the kind words!
helen let this one slip - she wanted to make it into an homeless shelter and was working with 4th Presbyterian church on michigan ave to have them fund the shelter - this is one time the community was able to stop her silliness but she got the last laugh by letting the building be demolished and a rich politicial contributor get the land and build the god awful building
I grew up in this church. I loved it so much, and it was a beautiful church to be in and all the people in this church were very loving and caring people. I was thankful to be part of this beautiful church. My sister and I were lucky to be there the day the church was being taken down. We talked to the construction crew and they let us go in to collect some souveneirs. I was so sad to see all the drugs on the ground when we went inside. I could not imagine the church being abused this way,it had so much life inside. I am thankful to have all the great memories of this church. I have the original blueprints as well. I miss this church still today. Judy
Judy--Thanks for sharing your memories! Would you be willing to make a copy of the original blueprints to share here? There are so many people who would be interested to see them. E-mail me at blog@compassrose.com if you get the chance. Thanks!
Hey Green Fairy,
My name is Susan I'm Judy's sister. We had no idea what we were walking into when we visited the site of Buena on it's final demolition day. Our family has a big history there. When our parents moved to Chicago in "62 from Ohio, They lived on Kenmore and montrose, they saw Buena and gave it a try. They loved it immediately. There were so many cool things about how it felt just to walk into the big sanctuary. Giant wooden doors that were from my perspective 50 ft high, which led to a grand staircase into the main sanctuary.
It always felt cold in the church,the way it feels to walk into a museum, yet once settled in sunday school or main services it was warm and inviting. the ovewhelming choking back of tears when Gunther (organist) would play the call to worship and the choir would wail. It really overtook all of your thoughts.
My grandparents actually lived in the church for a while. My grandfather (James Wilson) was the caregiver for many years. When he retired and moved out, it was sad to see the church fall into such a decline. All those years of wealthy members supporting her every need, only to see it demolished still full of contents from the begining.
Judy and I spent who knows how many hours there going through church records, the precious blueprints (they are spectacular), the sunday school rosters, Marriage certificate copies, birth announcements, death notices. My grandparents old apartment (in the rear of the church) just destroyed filthy with the remnants of the drug addicts that would sneak in and use it for getting high, the floor littered with used needles empty bottles of booze, feces, reeking of urine. I could almost hear tears falling from the faces on the stained glass windows onto the then busted up cobblestone aisles.
We said our fairwells to Buena that day, I took a brick, Judy had the blueprints, we drove home nearly silent.
Thanks for this blog. Thanks for remembering what a grand institution she was to Buena park.
I grew up at this church too. I was baptized, had confirmation, attended Sunday school and church from around 1962 to 1975. Miss Shirley (who is still living) brought us kids to church each Sunday. Later, my Family moved up to Wilson AVE. near where Rev. Larkin lived so I jumped in the back of his station wagon to get to church! So sad to hear and see the church is gone. Does anyone know what happened to the congregation? You can email me at firemanjack@tx.rr.com Names from my era were Jack and Jackie Brewer, Mr. Eng, Mr. Gunther, Avon Goodson. Oh, I just remembered playing Basketball there too. Great memories... Jack Martin (52)
Does anyone know what happened to the church records?
Believe it or not, I may have some of them. A tenant of my mother's (living on Buena) left an old box of stuff from the church. Lot's of papers and records. I have it now. Were you involved with the church?
Hello all. Today I took pictures of the contents of box of items I have from the church. There are 6 binders, which I have entitled as follows:
1) 50th Anniversary Optimists Class album 1958
2) Crusaders album 1917-60
3) Guestbook 1945-54
4) Record 1903-17
5) Record 1918-19
6) Trustees records 1939-41
I posted the photos at Alan's Buena Presbyterian photos . The photos are captioned by their binder names. The Record 1903-17 and Record 1918-19 were the most interesting so I photographed these in entirety. The other binders I just photographed sample pages.
I have received feedback from the Presbyterian Historical Society office that they are interested in receiving these items and I would like to donate to them as soon as possible. If any of you have further interest, please let me know. Thanks.
Alan
Thanks so much for sharing! I am probably going to borrow a few of those pics for feature posts.
Please do! If you need me to crop to give you a better image let me know.
I found my grandparents' wedding certificate recently and learned that they were married at Buena Memorial Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve 1921. Their names were Edith Montgomery and Hunter Funk. I'm wondering if they were listed in one of the record books. They came to Chicago from downstate Riggston to marry. None of their family knew.
i took my first communion in that church and went there my entire childhood. i remember thinking i would marry in that church when i grew up. that didn't happen but it breaks my heart to see it gone. such wonderful memories there...........
My in-laws were married in Buena Memorial by Rev. Henry Hepburn. I have a picture of the bride/groom, and wedding attendants+ outside the building showing a listing of times of services. They were married 29 June 1945 and there are no records that I can find from the state of IL. There are no pictures of the wedding inside the church. Would there be any records of marriages during that time period? Miles/Olson are the last names.
I was baptized at Buena Memorial and am trying to locate my baptismal certificate. Can anyone give me clue as to where or who I can contact? My maiden name was Patricia Wegs. I would really appreciate any help.
Thanks
I spent years at the Buena Memorial Presbyterian Sunday School and my mother was prominent in the Crusader Class headed by the ever faithful Maude Patterson. This was the 50s, the time of Dr. David Noble, an erudite, good looking man with a mellifluous speaking voice. He would often get carried away by his sermons, forgetting how to end them, which I found rather amusing from my perch in the soprano section of the adult choir loft. Because my singing voice matured early, I was picked to join the senior choir at the age of twelve. The choir master/organist was the brilliant Dr. Bethuel Gross. A renowned psychologist as well as a musical genius, he would often use the time of the sometimes rambling sermons to catch up on his reading behind the sheltering organ pipes.
The music was phenomenal! BG and his beautiful wife, Doris, presided over numerous soirrees that I was privileged to attend. It was there I discovered the works of Jean Paul Sartre and the comic songs of Tom Leherer.
Buena at that time was starting to feel the effects of the changing neighbourhood along with a growing born again influence emanating from Moody Bible Institute. After Dr. Noble retired, he was succeeded by Rev. Larkin and the vibrant congregation gradually deteriorated to a north side version of the Pacific Garden Mission. Subsequent congregations had enough difficulties keeping body and souls together, let alone the church roof.
As for me? Similarly to Mark Twain, "I was raised Presbyterian, but it wore off."
I came across a beautiful collectors plate for this church, dated 1955, that celebrates the 50th golden jubilee anniversary. Plate is decorated with a black drawing of the front of the church. Anyone interested in this plate? I can be reached at redharry3@hotmail.com if you are interested.
I went there in the 40's. Mrs. Daleburn was Sunday school.
After church, stop at bakery on the corner.
Left Chicago and Stewart School 1953.
Sorry to see it was torn down.
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My mother in law Louise Brown attended this church in the late 1920's. In 1938 she graduated from Moody Bible Institute and spent the next 25 years of her life as a missionary to Chile SA. I'm not sure if the church impacted her or she impacted the church but probably both.
I grew up in that church Sunday services the high school group Tuxes many trips, and the Easter Sunday sunrise service
I grew up near there. In the 70s they would let you (kids)play basketball there. They had a beautiful gym inside.The catch was half hour bible lesson i the middle
Judy, my husband'sgreat grandfather was given a memorial service there Nov 1932. He sang possibly for the church, he sang for Hollywood Presbyterian Church our here in California. Would you have anything on him? Name is Claude Friel. Patylou
This was our church, late sixties, through the seventies. Miss Shirley. Rev Larkin. I used to beat his son in Bible drills at VBS. We were so poor, if not for the wonderful folks at Buena we would have had many hungry nights. So many wonderful memories.
my name is Catherine Lewis, and yes, I attended buena memorial for 2 years. I started in the winter on the one of the snowiest day in chicaog. LIttle did i know that the man who i first saw singing at the church would become my spiritual day. Joe Eng. Such a strong impact on me and my life. I actually write like him. I literally have a long hand writing that emulates his. I use to attend in the morning for sunday school and in the morning for sunday service and in the evening for sunday evening service. I guess you grow into the image of those you love. and i definitely love my spiritual father joe. and my spiritual mom helen. Yes I remember shirley, Jean, Bob, i remember talking to a larkin at the baptist church down the street one day. i actually received the holy spirit in this church and they were responsible for me getting the much needed therapy for depression that i had not told about to anyone who could have made a difference for me in my life. So grateful for there leadership. priceless. Today I am in fort wayne, city of churches and i only listen to radio ministry at this time. but geno burgess. the facilitator of the program is truly "off the chain" with the music ministry. truly have grown by leaps and bounds because of him. but buena gave me such a good start, just invaluable. I could go on and on but i won't . everyone just keep god first and everything should work out find. God bless.
Russell Sullivan said:
I was baptized here in December 1954 by Dr. Noble. My grandparents, Helen and Lou Kother, were members, and probably my father, Russell, was also. However, he was in the Navy and was stationed with my mother elsewhere. I just retired as a Presbyterian pastor and now live in Philadelphia. Thanks for sharing the history of this congregation where I began my journey in faith and ministry. Peace to all!
I lived across the street from the church at 4247 N Broadway and attended Sunday School there from 1942 to 1957.
we didn't have an easy time at the church during the time i was there, the enemy kept tricking us about the actuality of my actual walk with God which confused of all. I want to tell this because i believe it could be cathartic. The enemy will try and trick us and keep us from our destiny, but fight really hard because God has a plan for us all. What i tried to do was do my own will and God immediately shut that down. but the unfortunately thing was when Istruck out to actually to do His will for me, i chickened out, I doubted. But there is still hope, I will tell on the enemy, no secrets anymore. Its never going to be easy, but someone said its as hard as you make it. i don't really know when i will be the singer that God wants me to be, but life when i have let go and let God is better.
I went to Buena from 1958 to 1968. I was 10 when I started there. Went to Pioneer girls we had in gymnasium. Went to church n Sunday school there. So sad when I heard it was demolished. Have so many wonderful memories going there.
Great memories also ..my parents had a business down the street on Montrose in the 50s 60s.. we went there for Sunday school spending Easter and holidays there. The business was closed a few years after my father had past.. My mother couldn't running herself withn3 girls to take care of..
I was so sad when I found out it was demolished..I still have my baptism certificate
I grew up in the church the Easter Sunday sunrise service at Waveland Park Sunday school winter and fall getaways at Lake Geneva, this was in the 60's Dr Larkin was the pastor
I lived next door at 4250 broadway. Did Mr Wilson have a daughter Alice? I went to Stewart grade school k-4 grade. There was a Harry eng in my class. Also had neighbors named Brewer. Father had ms. There were 2 sons Larry and Jimmie, aka jack. It was a lovely neighborhood.
My parents were married at this church in April 1941.
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