Tours

Walking tours

Truc Lam Temple (Ravenswood Club)

Posted by Ravenswood Historical Society Webmaster on April 9, 2010
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , .

 

1521 West Wilson Avenue

Just down Wilson from the Masonic Lodge on Paulina, on the southeast corner of Ashland, is another Masonic hall, the Paul Revere Lodge, now the Truc Loc Temple. The building started out as the “Ravenswood Club,” a private membership organization similar to a country club. It received a state charter in 1898. Initiation fees were $50; annual dues were $40. The club house, which was open daily, had a reception hall, parlor, dining room and billiard hall on the first floor; a dance hall on the second floor; and a bowling alley and kitchen in the basement. In later years the club also offered ping pong and fencing.

Truc Lam Temple, 1512 W Wilson Ave. Credit: Uptown Update

Truc Lam Temple, 1521 W Wilson Ave. Credit: Uptown Update

By 1917 the club was having financial problems and three years later, in 1920, it sold the building to the Paul Revere Masonic Lodge.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to 1601 West Leland Street, Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

  1. The next building is about a tenth of a mile north on Ashland at Leland.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

MAP OF DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION


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Our Lady of Lourdes Church

Posted by Ravenswood Historical Society Webmaster on February 9, 2010
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

1601 West Leland Street

Many stone details and tile and copper trim enliven a yellow brick structure. Also note cast iron lamps outside doors; metal fretwork over front door; and dome with copper lantern at crossing. The church’s cruciform floor plan, large windows, high ceilings and grand size make for an inspiring worship experience.

Henry Worthmann (1857-1946) and J. G. Steinbach also designed, among many other churches. St. Mary of the Angels on Hermitage Avenue just south of Armitage Avenue, and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, 2238 West Rice Street at Chicago Avenue. This church was designed in a Spanish Romanesque style; the architects were equally at ease designing Renaissance and Neo-Byzantine structures.

HISTORICAL FEATURES

In 1929 this church was moved across Ashland Avenue and turned 90o, one of the largest building relocation projects in US history. Due to the need to widen Ashland Avenue, the church: whose front door previously faced Ashland from the southeast corner of Ashland and Leland, was moved across Ashland in early 1929 so that its front door now faces Leland. It was also lengthened 30 feet, increasing the seating from 800 to 1,370.

1601 W Leland, Our Lady of Lourdes. Credit: Uptown Update

Our Lady of Lourdes as it looked on the east side of Ashland, prior to 1929. Credit: Uptown Update

Today, the church serves a very large congregation with a large number of masses, all well attended. One of its most unusual ministries is a small chapel just west of the church’s south end (accessible off the alley west of the church). This chapel, which simulates the Grotto at Lourdes, France, houses the Blessed Sacrament. Is continuously manned by volunteer laity from the parish 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This means that anyone can go to this church at any time to pray in the grotto. It is often quite crowded.

The grotto inside Our Lady of Lourdes. Credit: Flikr

The grotto inside Our Lady of Lourdes. Credit: Flikr

SOURCES

Original Permit was A12954 on 5/28/1913, N5, page 135, 87411, file 39365. A second permit, presumably for the move, was 28038 on 8/31/1928 (Plan AB340; Water 13575; File 196741; N$$, page 201). See also George Lane’s Chicago Churches and Synagogues (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1981), and History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago Volume I, published 1980 by the Archdiocese, pages 701-706.

WALKING DIRECTIONS TO NEXT LOCATION

Continue the tour to Chase Park, diagonal from the church.

  1. The next destination is diagonally across the street, about 33′ from you.
  2. Click the ‘Continue the Tour’ button below when you’ve reached your destination.

Chase Park (Gunther Park)

Posted by Ravenswood Historical Society Webmaster on January 9, 2010
Posted in: A Walking Tour of Old Ravenswood. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

4701 North Ashland Avenue

This park was originally a semi-professional baseball park named Gunther Park. Built in 1905, it had a seating capacity of 5,000. It was home to the Gunther Nine of the Chicago City League, The Chicago Green Sox of the United States Baseball League.
The Gunther Nine played their first game against the Spauldings here in April 1905, winning 4-3, according to Leslie A. Heaphy in her history of black baseball.

Chase Park, 4701 N Ashland. Credit: Chicago Park District

Chase Park, 4701 N Ashland. Credit: Chicago Park District

Attorney Jonas Hoover was enlisted by local residents to sue park owner J. D. Cameron in 1907. The residents objected to the noise from the park.
The Chicago Cubs played here too, taking on the Leland Giants in 1909.
The most noted game here was against the Leland Giants in 1910. The Giants played in a field located at what is now the Wentworth Gardens. The Gunthers broke the 35 game winning streak of the Giants in a 3-1 decision.
The field had a wooden fence in the outfield and a covered grandstand. It was abandoned in 1913 after the construction of Wrigley Field.
In 1914 the Ravenswood Improvement Association and local residents petitioned the Lincoln Park Commission to convert the former baseball stadium into a public park. The park commission acquired the land in 1920. Within two years tennis courts, a playground, an athletic field, a wading pool and a field house were constructed.
Each of the seven neighborhood parks created by the Lincoln Park Commission were named in honor of President Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet members. Salmon P Chase (1803-1873) served as Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1861 to 1864. In late 1864 Lincoln appointed Chase Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Chase was known for defending runaway slaves and was a leader of the anti-slavery movement.
As one of his first acts as Chief Justice, Chase appointed John Rock the first African-American attorney to argue before the Supreme Court.
In 1934 the Lincoln Park Commission was consolidated into the Chicago Park District. The original field house was replaced with the current building in 1976.

SOURCES

Chicago Park District, Leslie A. Heaphy, Black Baseball and Chicago: Essays on the Players, Teams and Games of the Negro Leagues’ Most Important City McFarland 2006

THIS IS THE CURRENT END OF THE TOUR. To return to the Metra Station follow these directions:

  1. Walk north along the west border of the park, Ashland Ave., to Lawrence Ave, a distance of up to a tenth of a mile.
  2. At Lawrence Ave., turn left to the west. Follow Lawrence past Paulina and Hermitage, about two-tenths of a mile, till you reach Ravenswood. The Metra station is across Lawrence on your right.


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