First Baptist Church III

The very First Baptist Church was built in 1841 on the SE corner of Washington and LaSalle streets. A new church was erected in 1854 on the same location. This building was replaced by the Chamber of Commerce building in 1864. The First Baptist congregation built a new building on the SW corner Wabash and Hubbard Court Streets. The previous First Baptist Church building was purchased by the Second Baptist congregation and was moved to the SE corner of Morgan and Monroe streets.

Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1864

Fair Division. —The West Side and South Side members of the First Baptist Society have agreed upon a fair division of the old church building and its contents. The latter take the inside, and the former the outside—that is the members from the South Division take the fixtures and inside work while the-members from the West Division take the building. The work of demolition is proceeding in a most careful and systematic manner; in a few months the entire church will be reconstructed upon a lot in the West Division.

Chicago Tribune, September 4, 1864

The corner-stone of the new edifice of the First Baptist Church, on Wabash avenue, will be laid on Monday afternoon next at 4 o’clock. This edifice is to cost upwards of $100,000, and will be one of the finest pieces of church architecture in the Northwest. This edifice is to be built entirely of Illinois granite, with a steeple 230 feet in height. The plans will be on exhibition on Monday afternoon, during the exercises. All who feel an interest in the material as well as moral prosperity of Chicago are invited to be present.

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A Stranger’s and Tourist’s Guide to the City of Chicago, 1866

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
This spacious and elegant structure, one of the finest, if not the finest, eclesiastical edifice in the city,is situated on Wabash avenue, corner of Hubbard Court. It was erected in 1865-6, and for architectural beauty, is entitled to the first rank among the religious edifices of Chicago.

The church is built in the early English style of architecture, of Illinois marble, laid in ashlar form. The dimensions of the building are one hundred and sixty- five feet in length and one hundred and twelve feet in width. The church from without has a very massive and imposing appearance. The church is entered through spacious doorways in the centre of the front and main tower. Through a spacious vestibule the auditors will pass by four doors directly into the main audience room, or by commodious stairways to the gallery, which entirely encircles the building. Upon entering the interior, the first sensation is that of wonder and surprise at the size of the auditorium. Upon examining more closely, however, the exquisite taste and beauty of its interior adornments are equally conspicuous. The broad and lofty roof is supported without columns. Massive corbels and heavy moulded arch ribs and span- drels intersect the main ribs that support the vaulted nave,and large carved pendants depend from the high- est part of the arch. The windows on the sides are filled with plain ground glass, fringed with richly stained glass borders, and ornamental gothic tracery of stained glass of various shades in the heads below and above the galleries. The large window in front is glazed with very rich stained glass. It has many appropriate and beautiful emblematic designs worked into the intricate coloring, representing the trinity, the birth, the dove, the sacrificial lamb, the crown of glory, the anchor, the communion service, the cross, the crown of thorns, the spear and other emblems of the Crucifixion, together with a large variety of rich shades. The pews are arranged on a circle radiating from the pulpit, which causes each seat to front the pulpit. They are of walnut, the rails being black walnut, and the panneled backs of white walnut. They are all richly upholstered with green damask. The pulpit and breastwork of the platform are made of black walnut with deep cut gothic panels. The platform is placed much lower than usual, and the pulpit is much smaller than those ordinarily built in modern churches. The baptistry is arranged in the platform of the pulpit. On either side of the baptistry are dressing-rooms for gentlemen and ladies. Directly in the rear of the pulpit there are two sets of large sliding doors, which, when open, bring the lecture room in full view of the speaker. This room affords sittings for 500 persons, while the audience-room and galleries will seat 1,500, making a seating capacity for 2,000 persons. The organ occupies a recess in the rear of the pulpit. It cost $12,000. The case is of black and white walnut, like the general finish of the church. The floor is carpeted with a three-ply green colored carpet, made expressly for the church. The total cost of church was $175,000.

Chicago Illustrated, January 1867

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.—This very imposing edifice is situated on Wabash Avenue, immediately south of Hubbard Court. It is built of stone, and will be one of the most substantial church buildings in Chicago. It has a front of ninety feet on Wabash Avenue, and is one hundred and twenty feet deep. The lecture room and Sunday School rooms are a two story building in the rear of the church. The auditorium is upon the main floor, and is seventy-five feet wide by one hundred and five feet deep in the clear. The main tower is two hundred and twenty-five feet high, and is entirely of stone. The minor tower is one hundred and four feet high. The corner stone was laid in 1865, and in 1866 the church was completed and occupied.

The church is elegantly and comfortably furnished, and capable of accommodating a very large congregation. The organ is the finest in the city, and is an instrument of great volume, variety and smoothness of tone. It is of the same size as that in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York. It has three manuals, and forty-eight stops, and cost ten thousand dollars. Since its erection its powers and qualities have been repeatedly tested by some of the most eminent organists, and has earned an enviable reputation. The church building, site, organ and gallery cost one hundred and seventy-two thousand dollars, all of which has been contributed by voluntary subscription.

The society of this church is one of the oldest in Chicago. It was first organized in October, 1833, and consisted of a few members. In the year 1836 it was able to purchase the lot on which now stands the Chamber of Commerce building, and to erect thereon a large brick church. In this church the society worshipped until 1863-4, when they sold the lot the Second Baptist Church. [See Number 7 of this work]. The society then worshipped for one year in Bryan Hall, and then in the lecture room until the church was ready for occupancy.

The Rev. Dr. W. W. Everts was appointed pastor of the church in 1859, and under his zealous and eminent labors, the congregation has grown until it is now the largest Protestant congregation in the West. It has not only prospered beyond precedent in its own affairs, but has done much and build up other churches in the city and elsewhere. The following clergymen have officiated as pastors of this society in the order named: A. B. Truman, L. T. Hinton, C. B. Smith, E. H. Hamilton, Miles Sandford, E. Tucker, J. C. Burroughs, G. Howard, W. W. Everts.

James W. Sheehan, Esq.,
January, 1867

First Baptist Church II
1864

Chicago Evening Post, February 5, 1872

The members of University Place Baptist Church¹ and those of the First Baptist Church are contemplating a union of the two societies and the erection of a new edifice. A committee of five has been appointed to make all needed arrangements for the fusion. The lot of the University Place Church is a very large one and it is proposed that the First Baptist Church will remove its building on Wabash avenue near Peck court and re-erect it on the proposed site and the two societies merge into one. It is further proposed that upon the old site of the First Church a business block shall be erected which shall include among its apartments a spacious auditorium in which it lectures, services and Sunday-school can be held as desired.

Chicago Evening Mail, March 2, 1872

Everts.—Rev. W. W. Everts, D. D. Pastor of the First Baptist Church of this city has, in a measure been victimized by the contagious suburban fever and we learn that he has recently purchased the Hollister residence adjoining the Baptist Theological Seminary just west of the University and near Douglas Place with the intention of making it his future home. The dust of the avenues down town cannot be endured much longer by the housekeepers and many are seeking relief in the direction of the great South Park. It will be remembered also that the First Baptist Church have the matter of removal in contemplation and the shepherd will then be on the ground to receive his flock.

Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1874

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, near the corner of Hubbard court and Wabash avenue. It may be remarked that previous to its destruction, the congregation of the church realized the palatable fact that it lay in the path of the flames. Calculate as they ought, the worshippers of the church could not escape the conviction that nothing but a miracle (profanely called a freak of the fire). could save their much-loved edifice. As the fire approached, they retired reluctantly from the church. It was not long afterward that the fine building took fire; its tin spires sank hopelessly into the flame, while the solid masonry glowed with a light supernatural and a heat quite inappropriate.

This beautiful temple, than which there were few finer in the city, was opened to the public in the fall of 1866, when Dr. W. W. Everts, the present pastor, was hardly domiciled in the church. Including the lot upon which it was built, it cost 1150,000. It was in the ecclesiastical Gothic style, rock-faced ashlar, with two towers. Incluaing the main edifice in front, and the transverse building in the rear it covered an area of no less than 13,800 feet. The main edifice was 75×108 feet. The auditorium wee 70×105 feet in the clear and 56 feet in height from the floor to the apex, and furnished sittings to 1,550 people in the pews below and gallery above. The transverse building in the rear was 40×112 feet. The lecture-room seated about 600 people, and was so arranged that three tunes that number could be accommodated in it when necessary. The Sunday School room for design, finish and adaptation to the comfort and convenience of the Bible chases, infant classes, and the school proper was considered one of the best in the United States. It would comfortably accommodate about 800 scholars, and the number could be extended to 1,000 without causing serious inconvenience.

The Baptist denomination in this city has suffered severe calamity in the destruction of their beautiful and roomy building. There is no doubt that before long the enterprising and vigorous society will have provided itself with a place of worelaip no less distinguished. If the tower of the new church, for such there will assuredly be before long, lacks the spider-like spires of the old one, it will be an improvement so far as appearance goes. The First Baptist Church, on account of its space and the liberality of the management, was chosen as the place for the celebration of great events in the denomination. Conventions of vast interest have been held there, and outside the immediate uses of the church proper the denomination feel its destruction keenly.

Chicago Tribune, February 14, 1875

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH.
Disposing the Old Site.
Several church-meetings have recently been held by this body for the purpose of deciding what should be done with the old lot on Wabash avenue, near Hubbard court, and, more particularly, whether a portion of its value should be appropriated towards the building of a Baptist house of worship in the central and business portion of the city. At present there is no church of this denomination, except a colored church, in the South Division north of the Michigan Avenue Church. A section of the city half a mile broad by 2 miles in length is practically unrepresented by this denomination. When it is recollected that this is the most densely populated, and the wealthiest portion of tne dty, tbe fact will appear still more remarkable.

The recent effort on the part of Baptists belonging to several of the churches of that denomination, has been to induce the First Church, which formerly occupied the portion cf the city named, to resign a part of its property and give it to any assemblage of Baptist brethren who should lift up a standard in the busy part of Chicago. For a time, soon after the July fire, this could have been accomplished. The church was strong in numbers, hope, and prestige; but as time has elapsed, some of the stanch members have taken letters for the purpose of uniting with other churches; times are bard, business dull, and the future not particularly bright in a business point of view: and all these circumstances taken together have modified the sentiment of the church ; and there is a very natural disposition to hold on to the property in possession of the body until the new church, on the corner of Thirty-first street and South Park avenue, shall be at least in a fair way of completion, without a debt The Society have contracted already for work on the building, which will amount to $65,000. It is estimated that the furniture will cost $15,000 additional, making a total for the house and its equipment of SBO,OOO. The lot on which the building is in process of erection cost $20,000, making a total of $1OO,OOO to be met. The assets of the church are $30,000 insurance on the old building; lot on the corner of Indiana avenue and Thirtieth street, sold to the Fifth Presbyterian Church for $18,000; and the old lot on Wabash avenue, valued at $50,000. But the latter property is not salable at present at anything like the price which it is deemed to be worth, so that the Society must raise by subscription or loan a considerable sum in order to finish its hew house of worship. At the meeting last Wednesday evening the project of giving some $25,000 of the proceeds of the Wabash avenue lot for the beginning of a new enterprise was considered, and finally laid over until another meeting. The opinion of the members present, however, seemed to he against the project at present.

The First Church has a history of which it is proud, as fostering-centre for the propagation of Baptist doctrine and the planting of Baptist churches, and there are many of its old members who are desirous of seeing it maintain some visible witness of its former self on its old stamping ground.

NOTES:

¹ Prior to 1871, the University Place Baptist Church society met in the Chicago University.