St. Anne’s Church

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St. Anne’s Church,
Life Span: 1875-TBD
Location: Corner Wentworth avenue and Fifty-fifth street
Architect: Greg Vigeant

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1876

St. Anne’s Church

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1877
St. Anne’s Church—Cor. Fifty-fifth and Wentworth av. Rev. Thos. Leyden, pastor.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1880
St. Anne’s Church—Cor. Fifty-fifth and Wentworth av. Rev. P. W. Flannigan, pastor.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1884
St. Ann’s Church—Cor. Fifty-fifth and Wentworth av. Rev. P. M. Flannigan, pastor; Rev. J. Gallagher, asst.

Lakeside Business Directory of the City of Chicago, 1899
St. Anne’s Church—W. Garfield boul. cor. Wentworth av. Pastor, Rev. P. M. Flannigan; Rev. Francis Reynolds, Rev. D. J. Crimmons, Rev. James O’Shea, Rev. F. A. Purcell.

Lakeside Annual Directory of the City of Chicago, 1904
St. Anne’s Church—W. Garfield boul. cor. Wentworth av. Pastors, Rev. P. M. Flannigan; Rev. James O’Shea, Rev. J. R. Kearney, and Rev. Dennis J. Tuohy

Chicago Tribune, August 15, 1875

The corner-stone of St. Anne’s Church, corner of Wentworth avenue and Fifty-fifth street, will be laid this afternoon at 4 o’clock by the Rt.—Rev. Bishop Foley. A special train will leave the Rock Island depot on Van Buren street ‘at 2 o’clock, stopping at Twelfth. Eighteenth, Twenty-second, Twenty-sixth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-ninth streets. A large number of societies from the city and other parts of the State will be in attendance. The ceremony will positively take piace to-day.

Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1880

CHURCH DEDICATION.
St. Anne’s Roman Catholic in the Town of Lake.
The Fourth of July, 1880, will be a memorable day in the annals of St. Anne’s Catholic-Church, it being the day set apart for the dedication of the new and beautiful church which has just been completed in the Town of Lake. From the announcement of the dedication day it was bustle, hurry, and confusion at the corner of Pavilion Parkway and Wentworth avenue, where. the church is located. Workmen were employed all night long the last two nights to get everything in readiness. After early mass in the old church, on the morning of the Fourth, the people walked over in groups to the new church. which was soon completely filled, to witness the ceremonies. A special train from Chicago brought the Rev. Dr. McMullen, Administrator of the Diocese, and those who were to take part in the dedication. The ceremony of blessing the church began at ten minutes past 11 o’clock. The procession, headed by a choir of boys in surplice, passed through and around the church chanting the service, Dr. McMullen consecrating the church with prayer and the sprinkling of holy water. Mass was celebrated by the Rev. Joseph P. Roles, of St. Mary’s Church, assisted by the Rev. P. W. Riordan as Deacon and the Rev. P.J. Conway as Sub-Deacon, the Rev. E. J. Dunne, of All-Saints’ Church, acting as Master of Ceremonies. A very impressive sermon was delivered by the Rev. D. J. Riordan, Chancellor of the Diocese, who gave a history of the early, Catholic worship in Chicago and building of the first St. Mary’s Church. He paid a glowing tribute to the parish and its pastor for the zeal and devotion to the church which they had shown by the erection of an edifice which was an ornament to the locality and a monument to their generosity.

The church, as has been stated, is situated on the corner of Pavilion Parkway and Wentworth avenue, having a frontage of 80 feet on the boulevard and extending back 130 feet. The foundation is stone and the building style is Gothic, having a clear story, and is 50 feet in height on the inside. The roof is supported by eighteen wooden columns, resting upon a solid stone pier foundation. The main entrance from the boulevard is through a handsome arched door, surmounted by a large window. The arch is supported by two marble columns. The entrance from Wentworth avenue is through the tower, and communicates with a large vestibule. Large massive doors open out to guard against accident. Passing from the vestibule through heavy baize doors, which swing noiselesly either way, the main auditorium is entered. It presents a very handsome appearance with its grained ceiling and hard white finished walls, lighted as it is by twenty magnificent stained-glass windows.

The pews and wainscoting are of ash trimmed with black-walnut, which gives the auditorium a very cheerful appearance. Eighteen fluted columns, nine on each side. standing in the broad side aisles, support the roof. The chancel is raised three steps above the floor of the auditorium, and is surrounded by a black-walnut railing. A handsome carpet covers the floor.

The seating capacity of the church is about 700. The church will be warmed by two large heaters located in the basement.

The architect, Mr. Greg Vigeant, is deserving of all praise for the handsome edifice which he has successfully completed at a cost of less than $35,000, including a steeple not yet completed. Until 1868 St. Anne’s Parish was a mission in charge of the pastors of St. James’ Church. In that year the Rev. Father Butler, now on the North Side, was appointed first pastor of Hyde Park and Lake, who was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Bowles, now of Ohio, who purchased the Jewish Synagogue on the corner of Wells and Adams streets, and moved it to its present site on Wentworth avenue. He was followed by the Rev. T. Leyden, who was sent to Woodstock, in this State, in 1877, and was succeeded in St. Anne’s by the present pastor, the Rev. P. M. Flannigan, on Nov. 1, 1877.

Considering that St. Anne’s Parish is almost exclusively made up of the working class, and that they number scarcely over three hundred families, the work they have done worthy of all praise. They have built a church surpassed by few in the city. and it will stand tor centuries a witness to their piety and zeal, and not only have they done this. but they also have paid over $5,000 of old debts, and they have done all this within the short space of less than three years. They are worthy of all praise. certainly, and not only they, but the generous and liberal friends who are not members of the Church, but who helped because they saw that St. Anne’s was a congregation deserving of help. They certainly have done their part and more, and have good reason to be proud of the church which they have built through so much of zeal and self-sacri-fice.

Inter Ocean, May 29, 1893

The residents of Englewood, in the vicinity of Garfield boulevard and Wentworth avenue, have marveled of late at the magnificent and substantial buildings which have been in course of erection for some time on the large grounds known as the St. Anne church property.

When Rev. P.M. Flannigan, the pastor ot the church, began to officiate in this parish he found a small communion worshiping in a little frame structure, while now the spacious church edifice, the fine rectory, schoolhouse and convent, inelud-ing lots, are valued at not less than $300,000. These stupendous results are due to the indomitable energy and inereasing activity of the pastor, the willing, self-denying offerings of his faithful flock, and the phenomenal increase of population in this neighborhood during the past decade.

Organized In 1869.
St. Anne’s is the oldest Catholic church in this part of the city, the congregation having been organized as early as 1869, and until 1879 was served successively by Revs. Joseph E. Bowles and Thomas F. Leyden. Father Flaennigan relates some interesting renilniscences in connection with his long and suceessful pastorate. He monopolized Garfield boulevard as a resident for five years from the time of his installation in St. Anne’s parish in 1877. His was the only cottage on Fifty-fifth street, from which he had a good view of the stock yards, and which constituted the center of a large prairie dotted here and there by a few frame structures principally on State street. There were no street-cars then on State street, beyond the Thirty-ninth street car-barns, a little side line on Root street, furnishing the only passenger transportation for this part of the town of Lake. With all this, Father Flannigan asserts, the church was easier of access in those days than now. The railway trains do not stop at the boulevard now, and the only resort is a long walk to the nearest station or the cable. This, together with the many stops on the way, consumes more than an hour, while, in the “good old times,” the trip was made in less than twenty-five minutes.

The old frame St. Anne’s church and its pastor are identified with the pioneer history of Chicago. No church edifice in the city can boast of such a remarkable history. It stood originally on Third avenue, and was for many years the only synagogue of the Jews of Chicago. In 1868 it was purchased from them by the Catholics and moved five miles south on the site of the present St. Anne’s church, where it remained for thirteen years.

Its Name Was Changed.
But its migratory tendencies were not checked here. The next destination was a mile and a half north again. In 1881 Father Flannigan gave the building to Father Riordan, who had it moved to the corner of Forty-first and State street, and changed the name to St. Elizabeth.¹ When, however, soon afterward the last named pastor determined to build a more substantial sanctuary, he he converted the structure into a parochial school. It was predestined also for secular use, as for a number of years it was leased to the city and used as a public school. It now stands on Forty-first street and serves as an annex school of the St. Elizabeth parish. Thus the little frame church, the oldest Jewish synagogue in the city, became the parent of the two largest parishes in the city.

Father Flannigan’s biography is not less interesting. For nearly, thirty, years a zealous laborer in the Catholic field here. It may be said that no one has contributed more toward its present prosperous condition. He was educated in the diocese of Marquette, and there he also received his ordination. His connection with the diocese here dates from November, 1865, when he look charge of the old St. Patrick’s church, on Desplaines and Adams streets. Two years later he was transferred to the Cathedral of the Holy Name. Later he became the founder af the St. Mary’s church, of Joliet, now the largest suburban parish of this diocese.

Returning for a second time to Chicago, he witnessed the havoc and destruction of the great fire, which also destroyed the fine cathedral on Dearborn street. He was not only instrumental in the speedy rebuilding of this now most ornamental of Chicago’s sanctuaries, but organized later the St. Thomas church, of Hyde Park, after which he was called to his present charge, which he has served so faithfully for seventeen years. The fine Gothic buildings which adorn the grounds, and the great increase in membership must be mainly ascribed to his energetic efforts. Even now it has been decided to enlarge the church next year, as it is inadequate to hold the great crowds on Sundays and festivals. Yesterday there were six services held, five of them erowding the spacious edifice beyond its utmost capaeity. The four buildings alone are now valued at $100,000. Fourteen parishes are the outgrowths either partially or entirely of St. Anne’s church.

Rev. F. L. Reynolds, the first assistant, is a vigorous young preacher, who owes his ecclesiastical training to St Mary’s university, of Baltimore. Much of the visiting of the sick and the poor falls to the lot of the first assistant of such a large congregation. All who come in contact with him love his gentleness and charitable disposition, and in his sermons he displays the careful investigations of the scholar.

Trinity Sunday Sermon.
The sermon at high mass yesterday morning was preached by Father D. J. Crimmins, who came from Milwaukee, where he was educated for the priesthood at the St. Francis seminary? He is an eloquent and impressive orator, his pathos convincing the auditors that the utterances come from an earnest and deeply sympathetic heart. The text for Trinity Sunday was taken from St. Mathew xxvili., 19.—”Going therefore teach you all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.”

Father Crimmin’s sermon was devoted mainly to the refutation of heresies with respect to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which be claimed were due to man’s reliance on sin—darkened intellect, and a lack of the true faith. “Be not surprised,” he said, “if reason fails to comprehend this mystery, for true philosophy acknowledges that she can know only what God himself is pleased to reveal. What seems hard and difieult to human reason becomes easy to the Heaven-born faith of Catholics, aided and guided by revelation. The authority of revelations being divine, what it teaches must of necessity be true. The mystery of the blessed Trinity is the end of all other mysteries, for all other mysteries tend to the glory of the triune God!

“Unitarians, Arians, the Macedonians, and rationalists have opposed this doctrine. If Scripture is their authority its every teaching contradicts their heresies. Revelation everywhere implies a plurality of persons in the Godhead. From Genesis, where we read, ‘Let us make man in our own image and likeness,’ to the last revelations of God in his son Jesus Christ, this truth is attested. In contradiction to the Unitarians we adduce thel form of baptism—which never has changed from the time of its institution—’In the name (not in the names) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. In opposition to the Arian theory we maintain that the New Testament as a whole distinctly teaches the divinity of Christ. From the testimony of the church fathers and the ancient doxology it is seen that this doctrine was pre-eminently fundamental. Comparisons with nature show the existence of a trinity in many things. In a tree we have the roots, the trunk and the fruits, yet only one tree. In the sun we speak of the substance, light and heat, etc.

Corner-stone of Christianity.
The belief in this mystery is of the utmost importance to us. On it are founded the cardinal Christian virtues—faith, hope and charity. Take away this faith from our church, and you remove the corner-stone of Christianity; the whole superstrueture of our religion falls to utter ruin. For such as deny the personality and divinity of the Holy Ghost there can exist no positive knowledge of religious truth. On this is based the infallibility of the church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. He who denies the divinity of the Holy Spirit ceases to be a Christian. There can be no regeneration without the aid of the Holy Spirit, nor can true sanctification take place within the soul.

“Worship with profound veneration and give thanks to the adorable Trinity for the benefits of creation, redemption, and sanctification. Ask from the triune God protection from all dangers and calamities, for grace to persevere, for fervor with which to love and serve him here on earth, that to love and serve him here on earth, that you may also praise and glorify him with the elect in heaves for ever and ever.”

At the 8 o’clock mass 160 children were admitted to their first communion with imposing ceremonies. The tastefully dressed little girls and boys made a pretty picture They had been prepared for this sacred rite for the last six weeks by Fathers Reynolds and Crimmins, who also officiated on this occasion.

NOTES:

¹ On November 19th 1881—the feast day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary—a frame structure which had served for many years as St. Anne Church was rolled from 55th and Wentworth to a new site on Dearborn near Root St and 41st by Rev. Daniel J. Riordan who paid $550 for moving service, but the church was donated. A new church, was built in 1884 on the northeast corner of State and Forty-first streets. The architect was J. J. Egan.—Chicago Tribune, June 23 and November 16, 1884.

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