Dear HistArch-ers

For those of you who are interested, there is a petition aimed at stopping demolition of the 1869 Gethsemane M. B. Church in Chicago. One of the members of the Maxwell Street Foundation, Lori Grove, told me that her dream is to acquire the property and to have a full-scale, professional, urban archeology project conducted on the associated vacant lots, keeping the historic building intact of course.

According to the Maxwell Street Foundation:

"The Gethsemane M. B. church is a rare, pre-Fire building that survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Built as a German school in 1869 by the congregation of the Zion Evangelical church, it was used as a Jewish synagogue in 1906 and then an African American Baptist church in 1935 until that congregation moved in 2005.  Its sequence of continuous use reflects the ethno-cultural transition of the Maxwell Street neighborhood. It is now the only non-commercail building left from the original neighborhood and one of the few extant examples of the architecture of Augustus Bauer who designed Old St. Patrick's Church and Tree Studios, both Chicago Landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only building in the Maxwell Street neighborhood that remains witness to the complete unfolding of an important social history and cultural phenomenon unique in Chicago."

The petition link provides some more information and is:
https://www.change.org/petitions/leading-the-newman-center-dorm-stop-trying-to-build-on-union-street-off-of-emerald-ave?share_id=tGdTSRuFyS&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

For more information you may contact the Maxwell Street Foundation at [log in to unmask]

Thanks.

Misty Jackson, Ph.D., RPA
Arbre Croche Cultural Resources
214 South Main Street
Leslie, Michigan 49251
517-589-2467
517-525-3060