Is Bronzeville’s historic Corpus Christi Church slated for resurrection?

Bronzeville's Corpus Christi Church faced an uncertain future when it was closed by Catholic officials three summers ago.

Now the vacated, century-old Italian Renaissance Revival edifice might be headed toward some type of resurrection.

Andy Schcolnik, a longtime Chicago property owner who heads Ansco Construction, bought the church, at 4920 S. King Dr., in April from the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

The purchase also includes a school and a two-building rectory that are also currently vacant. Neither Schcolnik nor the archdiocese would disclose the sales price, but the buildings together had been listed for $1.7 million.

The buildings nicely fall together around an interior courtyard — a real treasure in its own right — that gives the campus a graceful Mediterranean feel.

"If you get off the street and into the courtyard, it gives you a feeling of peace," Schcolnik said. "Almost like the old monasteries in Europe."

It'll take a careful hand and no doubt a lot of money to do it correctly, but the old parish — restored, reused, reinvigorated — would be a huge win for Bronzeville and the city.

And it would also show there can be a future (other than demolition) for Chicago's growing inventory of disused houses of worship.

‘A lot of memories, a lot of history’

Corpus Christi is one of the many big neo-classical churches built during the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese's early 20th Century expansion.

Erected in 1916, Corpus Christi was designed by Joseph W. McCarthy, an architect responsible for at least three dozen Catholic churches, hospitals and other buildings in the region.

His best work also includes St. Philip Neri Church (now St. Josephine Bakhita Parish), at 2132 E. 72nd St., and the old St. Basil, 1850 W. Garfield Blvd. The domed Byzantine Revival structure was demolished by the archdiocese in 1998.

At Corpus Christi, McCarthy designed a grand Bedford limestone church with enough gravitas to compliment the wide boulevard on which it sits, even after the buildings twin bell towers were lopped off in 2004.

A limestone cloister runs along the sidewalk along King Drive, the courtyard.

The worship space inside Corpus Christi included bright, stained glass windows designed by Munich's master, F.X. Zettler, and a vault-like ceiling punctuated by nearly 600 octagonal coffers.

Corpus Christi was closed in June 2021 as part of the archdiocese's ongoing Renew My Church parish consolidation program.

The church's predominantly Black congregation had 3,000 weekly worshipers between the 1930s and the 1950s. In recent years, attendance dwindled to about 200, prompting the closing of the historic church, which is located in one of the city's most storied neighborhoods.

"It's kind of a bittersweet moment," graphic designer Larry Cope, who attended Corpus Christi from the 1960s until the church's closing day, said of the sale.

"There are a lot of memories, a lot of history," said Cole, who now attends a new consolidated parish, Our Lady of Africa, 607 E. Oakwood Blvd. "I'm pretty sure I'm speaking for others in the sense that it's kind of a sad day. It's almost like a second death, in a sense."

Redevelopment, but no demolition

Preservation Chicago Executive Director Ward Miller said his organization encouraged Schcolnik to buy the Corpus Christi complex.

"This amazing structure was facing ... possible demolition as an outcome, without Andy's commitment," Miller said, adding he hopes the church could be concerned into an arts venue.

Cope said he wants to see the entire campus reused.

"It would be nice to see the actual church sanctuary be used for some type of community theater or something like that," he said.

"The other structures could [become] some sort of studio or music studio," Cope said. "Or it can house senior citizens or the homeless — and even to the extent of being utilized as a transitional space for migrants. But I'm just happy to see that this building is still going to stand on the corner of 49th and King Drive, and hopefully it will become a landmark."

Schcolnik said he could envision townhouses within the cloister along King Drive and converting the former school into rental apartments.

"Without butchering it, you can make some changes on the inside [of the buildings], but the facade — like the rectory facade onto Martin Luther King — is beautiful," Schcolnik said. "Easily. You could turn it into townhouses without destroying that facade."

Schcolnik said he wants the campus preserved, and is looking to resell the properties — or just sell-off the church to a new congregation and redevelop the remaining buildings himself.

Is demolition an option?

"No, I don't tear things down," he said. "That's not in my DNA."

Lee Bey is the Sun-Times architecture critic. He is also a member of the Editorial Board.

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