St. Michael's Church, Old Town, Chicago
Coordinates: 41°54′44″N 87°38′23″W / 41.9123°N 87.6397°W
St. Michael's Church in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago is a Roman Catholic church staffed by the Redemptorist order of priests. The parish was founded to minister to German Catholic immigrants in 1852 with its first wooden church completed that year at a cost of $750 (including the bell). The building stands at an intersection between Eugenie and Cleveland street. The church was built as a haven for German immigrants who were outcasts in Old Chicago. In addition, the town's main church, St. Joseph's Church, was overcrowded. The Redemptorists were invited to administer the parish in 1860 and a large brick church was finished in 1869. When completed, its tower made it the tallest building in Chicago, a distinction it held until the old Chicago Board of Trade Building was completed in 1885.
The church was one of six buildings to 'survive' the path of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, albeit heavily damaged. While most of Old Chicago's infrastructure was made of wood, the church was made of brick which helped it survive the fire. Portions of the building survived—the stone walls of St. Michael's being the only structures standing in the Old Town area. The church was quickly rebuilt.
There is a saying in Chicago that if you can hear the bells of St. Michael's, you are in Old Town.
Old Town in the mid-1950s was home to a large population of Puerto Ricans. Cesario Rivera, Jose Juan Chevere (Chevito), Miguel Chevere, Gilberto Hernandez, Don Jesus Rodriguez and many others organized Council Number Three of the Caballeros de San Juan. With the help of Fathers Leo Mahon, Don Headley and Father Katherine, they started Spanish language masses in a hall next to the main Church. The Daughters of Mary or Damas de Maria were also organized by Blanca Hernandez (Chevere), Clotilde Rodriguez, Monin Jimenez, family members of the Flores, Calixto,Lugo,Lucas, Rivera, Trinidad and Eugenia Rodriguez,the mother of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez who founded the Latino human rights organization: the Young Lords. In fact, Jose Cha Cha Jimenez became the first altar boy of the Spanish mass at St. Michael's council number three. Samuel Stritch, the renowned cardinal, and Jack Eagan along with Saul Alinsky also assisted the Caballeros and Damas de Maria early on within the Cardinal's Committee for the Spanish Speaking. The Caballeros and the Damas de Maria later organized many retreats and pilgrimages to the Redemptorist Retreat Center in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, to Loraine, Ohio, and to Libertyville, Illinois. A large lay ministry for Catholic Action was organized from St. Mike's in Old Town that spread to several parishes in Old Town and the Lincoln Park Community such as: Immaculate Conception,St. Teresa's and St. Sylvester's. There were some objections with a few of the then predominant Polish and German congregation of St. Michael's who dominated that church for many years and didn't want Puerto Ricans in the regular chapel. But the Caballeros and Damas ignored the ignorance of some and sought community with prayer, while recruiting door to door for their meetings and special events. Eventually, St. Michael's Church grew to become the major center not just for the church but also within Chicago's Puerto Rican Community. When Mayor Richard J. Daley's urban renewal program began, it was the Old Town Triangle Organization of the Lincoln Park Conservation Association that took the lead in promoting urban renewal which led to the displacement of thousands of Puerto Ricans and lower income residents of the area. St. Michael's like many other neighborhood institutions took advantage of the program to rehab and to expand. But in the process, most of the Puerto Rican and other Latino parishioners were dislocated as a community and their children lost much needed support networks which contributed to the proliferation of gangs. It is difficult to know how many were displaced because the census then divided and recorded the mixed "Hispanics" by only one race; as either black or white. But it was at least 40,000 and most of today's Chicago's Puerto Rican businesses and community organizations trace themselves back to Lincoln Park. Besides the Young Lords civil and human rights activists, the Puerto Rican children of the St. Michael's Church and catholic school in the 1960s and 70s include a U.S. Representative, an Illinois Circuit Court judge and a NASA scientist. The first official Puerto Rican parade was organized by St. Michael's parishioners, their Damas and Caballeros of St. John the Baptist councils and the Puerto Rican Congress of Larrabee and North Avenue Streets.
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