08 Jun urban remains salvages interior elements from the historically significant gethsemane missionary baptist church

interior elements from the historically significant gethsemane missionary baptist church were salvaged earlier this week. during the process, i experienced a bit of a freak accident, when i fell off a ladder, bruising ribs and spraining my left arm. having been in the dark and intensely hot crawl space high above the hanging cross (preparing it for removal) for over an hour, i was very dizzy and dehydrated.

i should have rested before moving on to salvage other ornament in the building. due to time constraints, that wasn’t really an option, so when it came time to remove the capital fragments, i was drenched in sweat and covered in black grime from the crawl space. i slipped off the ladder and landed in the theater seating below.

i didn’t think seeking treatment was necessary, so i kept moving. only in the morning – the following day – did i realize that damage was done to my body. i went to the clinic for x-rays.

safety first.

the neon cross came down with ease, but the other elements – original to the building (1869) – demanded more of my attention. i did manage to salvage an ornamental cast iron capital (installed at the time of construction), but at a price. that piece, removed in four sections, will go directly into the bldg 51 museum as a pre-fire chicago artifact.

since my body was broken, i had to force myself to take it easy this weekend, despite my eagerness to get back in and look for the time capsule, explore the attic and determine whether the original facade is indeed still intact – either behind or within the existing facade constructed in 1944.

i’m guessing the wrecking ball will likely arrive sooner than later, so i feel an overwhelming sense of urgency to act quickly.

i compiled a little history on the church over the weekend while “resting.”

the two and a half story pre-fire chicago brick building located at 1352 s. union street is one of the few buildings left standing after the wrecking ball, driven by urban renewal, destroyed nearly all of the maxwell street neighborhood in chicago. constructed as a private, german-speaking high school in 1869 (also served the neighboring zion evenagelical church – since demolished), it later became home to a romanian synagogue, an african-american church, and then briefly an arts center. designed by german architect augustus bauer (st. patrick’s church, tree studios), the german school (the city’s first) is the only surviving example of bauer’s work as a solo architect. the non-religious school was built of brick and stone with an interior containing six great recitation rooms. a small time capsule was placed inside a small vault within the original building cornerstone. by the turn of the century a romanian jewish congregation moved in, and converted the building into a synagogue in 1905. when the jewish congregation later moved to west to lawndale, the building became gethsemane missionary baptist church (established in 1935) with an african american congregation lead by reverend a. sharp. several alterations to the interior and exterior were made during this time, which included an apartment constructed in the rear of the building (1944) for reverend sharp to occupy, along with a newly-built facade in completed in 1945. the building remained in use as the gethsemane missionary baptist until 2002 as the last remaining protestant church in the maxwell street district. in addition, the church is the only extant building in the area that survived the great chicago fire of 1871 (and one of only 112 documented, pre-fire buildings still standing in chicago today) as of 2008, the church building remains unoccupied.