Old St. Patrick’s was dedicated Christmas morning 1856. The yellow brick Romanesque church at the corner of Adams and Desplaines streets is Chicago’s oldest public building. Designed by Asher Carter and Augustus Bauer, it escaped destruction in the Great Fire of 1871; its distinctive steeples were added in 1885.

Thanks to the genius of artist Thomas A. O’Shaughnessy, between 1912 and 1922, St. Patrick’s was transformed into “the best known example of Celtic Revival art in America.”* This mother parish of the Chicago Irish, founded in 1846, has undergone a dramatic rebirth since the 1980s.

In addition to reopening the grammar school in 1989, a capital campaign restored O’Shaughnessy’s luminous stained glass windows and recreated his intricate Celtic ceiling stencils in conjunction with the parish’s 150th anniversary in 1996.

Today the parish is home to over 3,500 households. Through a strong sacramental life, enriching formational programs and countless social, educational and volunteer opportunities, the parish remains open to new visions and possibilities in faith.

*Ellen Skerrett, editor, “At the Crossroads: Old Saint Patrick’s and the Chicago Irish” (Loyola Press, 1997)

top

Photographer: David V. Kamba