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St. Joseph Church
St. Joseph Catholic Church was established in
1900 by Lithuanian
immigrants who, like other ethnic groups, wanted to worship in their
own
language. Permission was granted to form a Lithuanian church on the
southeast
side of Chicago via a petition. Rev. Michael Peza was appointed the
first
pastor. Fr. Peza started working to establish St.. Joseph. At first he
said mass at the Louis Tomaszewski Hall at 8801 Commercial Avenue. He
obtained
property on 88th Street between Marquette and Saginaw Avenue. A small
wooden
church was built at 8812 Marquette. Fr. Peza remained as resident
pastor
until 1903. For a couple of years there was ono permanent priest
assigned
to the small parish. In 1905, Rev. Anthony Petraitis was assigned as
pastor
and was to serve the parish until 1931. One of his first tasks was to
build
a rectory at 8801 S. Saginaw in 1908. Father Patraitis, who was an
amateur
astronomer, eventually built an observatory near the church which
housed
the second largest telescope in Illinois. A new church was built in
1949
and a school in 1953. At the time of the diamond jubilee of the parish
in 1975 there were 330 families and 210 children enrolled in the
school.
Due to declining enrollment the school was closed in September 1977. A
few years later the parish was also closed.
Bethel Free Church
Bethel Free Church was first organized on May
25,1907, in
the home of Theodore Carlson, with fourteen charter members. Services
were
conducted in a school house on 103rd Street between Avenue L and Ewing,
beginning Sunday, June 9, 1907. On March 10, 1908 it was decided to
purchase
lots at 10324 Avenue J. Here, a one story building (shown above) was
constructed
and dedicated June 13th, 1908. It was during the pastorate of John
Hawkinson,
1919-1923, that the church was incorporated with the name, "The Swedish
Evangelical Free Church in South Chicago". It was then that the first
church
"constitution" was formed. The need for a larger facility was met and a
new church building was erected in 1925 and dedicated Sunday afternoon,
March 7, 1926. This building was located in the same lot as original
church
building was. In 1934 a second constitution was adopted and the name of
the church was changed to Bethel Free Church. In 1936 the English
language
almost entirely replaced Swedish. On September 13, 1966, the church
voted
to authorize the trustee board to negotiate a loan of $18,000.00. This
money was to be used to remodel the front of the building and to
redecorate
the sanctuary. Bethel Free Church had difficulty finding a new pastor
to
minister to the decreasing number of members of the church. Community
Christian
Church of Chicago, located at 10323 Ewing Avenue bought Bethel Free and
it is now one church under the name Community Christian Church of
Chicago.
The fromer Bethel Free Church building, which is located across the
alley,
is now referred to as the Annex Building.
St. John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist was a Slovak Catholic parish
located
in South Chicago at 9129 Burley Avenue. At one time there were nine
Slovak
Catholic parishes in Chicago and at the time of St. John's 80th
Anniversary
in 1989, there were only four remaining and since that time St. John
the
Baptist has also closed its doors. The church was founded on May 16,
1909
to serve the needs of Slovak immigrants on Chicago's southeast side.
The
first pastor of the church was Rev. John Novotny. The church building
(shown
above) was purchased from a Protestant congregation and intended as a
temporary
location for the parish. It was to be the only church ever used by the
parish. It was a small parish, the church seated 250, and had a meeting
hall beneath the church and a rectory next door. Several organizations
and societies were affiliated with the parish. St. John the Baptist was
unusual because it never opened a parish school. Most Catholic parishes
had a parish school, especially the national parishes, because of the
desire
of immigrants to maintain their native language. Religious instruction
was given in the parish hall but no school was ever opened. Since its
closing
in the early 1990's the building has been purchased by the neighboring
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and is used for various church activities
and programs.
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