Customer Reviews

Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago

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If you don't believe that Chicago has some of the best looking Catholic churches in America, you should take a look at this book. Sixty-eight of the almost 400 churches in the Chicago archdiocese are featured, some in much more detail than others.

The author seems to have a thing for older, more traditional churches over newer ones, which is just fine by me. Most of my favorites are here - Holy Name Cathedral is present, of course, as is St. Michael's in Wicker Park, which was burned in the Chicago Fire, and Holy Family, which wasn't, although it was almost torn down a decade ago. St. Ita and St. Jerome on the North Side are featured, as is Our Lady of Lourdes, which was once moved across the street, spun 90 degrees, and then split in half to double its size. The South Side has its masterpieces as well - St. Rita of Cascia, St. Philip Neri, the darkly lit Queen of Peace, with its incredibly ornate flat ceiling, and the fantastically bright and beautiful St. Columbanus. The great Polish churches are well represented: St. Mary of the Angels, modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, closed and almost torn down once; the St. Michael on the Southeast Side; the sad and tragic St. Hedwig; St. Hyacinth - now a basilica, and an enormous one at that, the largest and arguably most beautiful Catholic church in the city; St. John Cantius, another nearly destroyed masterpiece, now completely renovated and with its own order of Latin-speaking priests. I could go on and on.

Two churches are not even active Catholic churches anymore: St Boniface was closed 15 years ago, and the fantastic old St. Martin's just off the Dan Ryan Expressway is now Protestant. And there is the wild story of St. Gelasius, just south of Hyde Park, vandalized, nearly burned down, closed, and now being rebuilt as the Institute of Christ the King.

I think a few really great ones are missed. Namely, St. Ben's on the North Side, whose bell tower dominates Irving Park for literally miles, and St. Martin de Porres (formerly St. Thomas Aquinas) on the West Side. Perhaps St. Sabina's on the Southwest Side belongs, although the interior is all screwed up -I don't think any other Catholic church has a big neon "Jesus" hanging over the altar. St. Mary of Perpetual Help, in Bridgeport, is an outstanding church and certainly belongs in the book, as does the beautiful and unique Lithuanian Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Marquette Park.

On the other hand Loyola's Madonna Della Strada is an oversized white barn, and St. Gabriel in Canaryville, despite being designed by the famous Burnham & Root team, is too small and too low. And St. Peter, downtown, while a fine church, is not really in the "great" category, either. The chapel of St. Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary is a great example of Congregationalist church, being all white and almost featureless, but a lousy example of a Catholic church.

But this is quibbling. All the photos, by James Morris, are in stunning full color, and the text is mercifully short, yet well footnoted. Perhaps a bit overpriced at $60 for about 160 large pages. Robert Cameron's Above Chicago, for example, has the same number of much larger pages but costs half as much. All in all, a beautiful book, very suitable either as a gift or a bit of self-indulgence.

Here is a list of all the churches, copied from the publisher's website:

Downtown Chicago

Holy Name Cathedral (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
Assumption (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
St. James Chapel at Quigley Preparatory Seminary (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
St. Peter (Loop)
Old St. Patrick's (Near West Side/West Loop)


North Chicago

Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Lakeview)
St. Ignatius (East Rogers Park)
St. Alphonsus (Lakeview)
St. Vincent de Paul (Lincoln Park)
St. Josaphat (Lincoln Park)
St. Clement (Lincoln Park)
St. Jerome (East Rogers Park)
Our Lady of Lourdes (Uptown)
Madonna della Strada Chapel (Loyola University/East Rogers Park)
St. Michael (Old Town)
St. Ita (Edgewater)
Queen of All Saints Basilica (Sauganash)


Northwest Chicago

St. Hyacinth Basilica (Avondale)
St. John Berchmans (Logan Square/Bucktown)
St. John Cantius (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
Holy Trinity (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Stanislaus Kostka (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Viator (Irving Park)
St. Mary of the Angels (Bucktown)
St. Boniface (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Hedwig (Logan Square/Bucktown)
Holy Innocents (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)


South Chicago

St. Michael (South Shore/South Chicago)
St. Martin (Englewood)
Nativity of Our Lord (Bridgeport)
Holy Cross-Immaculate Heart of Mary (Back of the Yards/Canaryville)
Institute of Christ the King (formerly St. Clara⁄St. Gelasius) (Woodlawn)
St. Anthony (Pullman)
St. Gabriel (Back of the Yards/Canaryville)
St. Basil/Visitation (New City/Back of the Yards)
St. John of God (Sherman Park)
St. Thomas the Apostle (Hyde Park)
St. Ambrose (Kenwood)
Holy Cross Monastery (formerly Immaculate Conception) (Bridgeport)
St. Rita of Cascia (West Englewood)
Corpus Christi (Oakland/Grand Boulevard)
St. Anselm (Washington Park)
St. Columbanus (Greater Grand Crossing)
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Shrine of St. Jude (South Chicago)
St. Philip Neri (South Shore)
Our Lady of Peace (South Shore)


West Chicago

Holy Family (Near West Side/University Village)
St. Pius V (Pilsen)
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica (Near West Side)
Holy Rosary (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
Notre Dame de Chicago (Near West Side)
St. Adalbert (Pilsen)
St. Paul (Pilsen)
St. Nicholas Cathedral, Ukrainian Catholic Church (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)


Chicago Suburbs

St. Thomas Aquinas Priory Chapel, Dominican University (River Forest)
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary (Mundelein)
St. Athanasius (Evanston)
Chapel at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Barat College (Lake Forest)
Marytown, Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe (Libertyville)*
St. Peter (Skokie)
St. Edmund (Oak Park)
Ascension (Oak Park)
St. Giles (Oak Park)
Immaculate Conception (Waukegan)
Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Divine Word Monastery (Techny)
St. Francis Xavier (Wilmette)
St. Joseph (Wilmette)
Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity (Winnetka)

If you are Catholic, from Chicago and dislike the hexagons that are being passed off as Catholic churches in the last 50 years, you will love this book!

Many inner city and suburban parishes are treated, grouped by geographic location.

Agreed it is a little pricey, but it beats driving all over the city and climbing into the choir lofts to take your own pictures.

A great gift idea for parents, grandparents from Chicago!

Beautiful book, delivered in a very timely fashion in the condition it was promised and.....the book came from someone in my own home town, Wilmette. Pretty amazing! Mary

Wow. Just wow. Who would think that one city could hold so many beautiful churches? Yet here's the proof, in gorgeous color photographs and well-written text to match. This is a large "coffee-table" book, and I guarantee, your coffee table will never look better than when sporting this work.

Okay, maybe I'm biased; I was born in Chicago and spent some of my best years there...and I was married in one of the churches featured in this book, St. Hyacinth's Basilica...but still, you look at this book and you just *know* there's a God. Better yet, spend some time in these holy places.

I bought this as a gift for a friend. It's a great reminder of the church where she got married. It also has the church where her parents and grandparents were married as well, so she was thrilled!

I was very happy to find the book and at less than half the rate of it being new in the store.

The seller even put in a bonus of two architectural magazines I have been enjoying reading.

However, the book was promised to be new. It was slightly used, mostly the dust jacket (outer paper cover), you could tell it had been out a while or sat around a little. The interior of the book was in perfect shape.

The seller contacted me and asked mt change my review, so I am dong so here. It was a good buy, good price, shipped on time. However, it was not new. It was slightly used. That's my only minor complaint, truth in advertising.

Mary Pat and I went to Chicago expecting to see something fabulous. I don't get it. We didn't see any of the churches, but we got a great room at the Fairmont. We had full body massages by a Japanese man.

We got lost trying to find John's mansion in Lake Forest or Kenilworth. Anyway, Mary Pat enjoyed the church pictures. After Ernest Thorp's war book, it's my favorite Wapella literary feat.