The historic Episcopal Church of the Epiphany on Chicago’s Near West Side has had a storied past. But after 127 years, the South Ashland Avenue church closed its doors following last Sunday’s services, reported the Chicago Tribune.
The church’s congregation had dwindled down to around six regular attendees in recent times, so officials decided to shut it down. The church’s future is in the hands of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s Bishop and Trustees, the Tribune reported.
Edward Burling and Francis Whitehouse designed the church, which was built in 1885 and is one of the city’s first examples of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. That style was popular in the 19th century.
A wake was held for assassinated Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Sr. in October 1893 at the church and for slain Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in 1969.
The exterior can’t be demolished because it is a part of the Jackson Boulevard District, a section of row houses on West Adams and West Jackson streets that earned city landmark status in 1976, according to the article.
–Photo by Eric Allix Rogers, Flickr Creative Commons
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