Ida B. Wells says goodbye to historic church

I learned last week that Sixth Presbyterian, a historic church located on the old Ida B. Wells public housing site, was going to be demolished. Bought back in 1993 by the Chicago Housing Authority, the community had hoped to turn the beautiful old building into a social service center.

But since they bought the church nearly twenty years ago, the 1879 building began to deteriorate at a rapid rate. Squatters and homeless people inhabiting the building led to a fire in May

Back in '93, says CHA Commissioner Sandra Young, it would have cost about $8 million to restore. Now, it'd be $20 to 30 million. That's quite a price tag, says Young, who's been a leader at Wells and Oakwood Shores, the new community on site for many years.

Sixth Presbyterian

"It's now becoming a health hazard to the community," says Young. "But I just hate to see it go because of the historical status."

When they mentioned the church at the last CHA committee meeting, immediately, my imagination ran wild. I wanted to explore.

But I'm also a chicken. very afraid of getting in trouble. Even if it just meant a stern warning from the police. So I needed an accomplice. Someone who wanted to go as much as I did.

I emailed photographer, David Schalliol, but he was out of town. He recommended a friend of his, Eric Rogers. I sent him an email. "Dear sir: You don't know me, but are you up for exploring an abandoned building?"

Eric was game. And so we made plans. We went early in the morning and even parked a few blocks away to avoid suspicion.

I taped our exploration and put it with the pictures, so you could come along too.

Forgive the audio quality - it was a bit of a rocky trip, with a lot of climbing on things and stumbling over stuff, airplanes going overhead and lots of windy. Plus, I was taking pictures mostly, so the recorder wasn't carefully managed. Some of these pictures are Eric's and some are mine.

Exploring Sixth Presbyterian from Megan Cottrell on Vimeo.

It's a neat place. A beautiful place. If there hadn't been steel sheeting on almost all of the windows, I would have loved to go inside.

It's too bad it can't be saved. The church has really gone downhill in the last year. Here's a picture from April 2008 taken by Curtis Locke, showing how much it's gone in a short amount of time.

Photo by Curtis Locke

Also Eric was right: the church used to have a different steeple. Here's an old postcard of the church I found on a website, year unknown:

I also located a book written by Pastor John Hopkins Worcester, who was pastor from 1883 to 1893. - five sermons written on "ideal womanhood" preached to this congregation in 1885, focusing on how young women can avoid the temptations of the city and become pillars of virtue instead.

I imagine when Pastor Worcester wrote, he didn't imagine there'd be a young lady climbing up the windows of his beloved church over a hundred years later. 

The expedition gave me a penchant for exploring though. Guess I'm going to have to take off my goody-two-shoes and work on my bad-assery instead.

Maybe I'll invite you along.