“What secrets lie beneath these very stones?” I ask. We’re standing where the Park View Lutheran Church once stood. It’s a story of faith and change in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood.
Park View Lutheran Church has roots dating back to 1907. Reverend Theodore Graebner sought a place for his congregation. The congregation officially organized in 1908. Services were first held in Nils Andersen’s shoe shop.
By 1910, they built their first wooden church. It stood on a triangular lot at 3921 N. Monticello Street. Just six years later, they demolished the wooden church. A second church was built on the same site.
June 1929 marked a significant milestone. The official groundbreaking took place for a new church. This “French Gothic” style church used Indiana limestone. It was located at 3919 N. Monticello Street. Construction finished in June 1930. The dedication happened then and the parsonage relocated.
Fast forward to 1949. Erick Erickson left a significant “legacy” of $40,000 to Park View. This gift enabled the church to refinance its long-standing mortgage. By 1956, they celebrated the burning of the mortgage. A year later, extensive remodeling occurred. This included new concrete entrance steps and chancel alterations. The church also purchased a pipe organ.
In 1964, Park View Lutheran Church expanded. They bought the neighboring property at 3911 N. Monticello. Plans began for a parish education unit. The Park View School was completed in 1970.
Now for a curious twist. In 2016, the Park View Lutheran Church met the wrecking ball. But before demolition, something remarkable happened. A time capsule from 1929 was extracted from the cornerstone.
Eric, from Urban Remains, documented the extraction. He found only a portion of the facade remained. The Zettler windows had already been carefully removed. The cornerstone awaited removal.
The machine operator quickly removed the wall’s cut blocks. This revealed a layer of common brick atop the cornerstone. Removing the brick revealed the stone hallowed cavity. It contained its capsule. Eric grew concerned. The open-ended cavity was covered by a corrupted steel plate. A roofing shingle sat directly below. The asphalt shingle crumbled easily. A heavily soaked and rotting wood lid rested above the capsule.
Sadly, the worst-case scenario unfolded. The contents of an oversized copper box were exposed. They had been flooded with water. The rare ephemera turned to mush. Only a few pages peeled away from a fused hymnal. The messages from the past were lost forever. We will never know what those Chicagoans wanted us to know. We will never know what was significant to them about their church.
Today, single-family homes stand where the church once stood. MK Construction built these new structures. But the parish house at 3921 N. Monticello was saved. It serves as a reminder of Park View Lutheran Church’s legacy.
So, while the physical structure is gone, the spirit of Park View Lutheran Church lingers. It lives on in the memories of those who gathered here. It lives on in the artifacts that survived. It’s a reminder that even in demolition, stories endure.