6559 N. Glenwood Avenue

6559 N. Glenwood Avenue is the address of the St. Ignatius Church. and the St. Ignatius Food Pantry

St. Ignatius Church was included in the 2002 Fall House Tour Booklet, Page 15--

Saint Ignatius Church is a distinctive architectural sight. The Jesuits affirmed their belief in this area by choosing to build here when it was mostly open country with forests of birch trees and windswept sand dunes along Lake Michigan.

The Jesuit fathers had founded Holy Family Parish in the late 1880s on Chicago's West Side. They sought a new site to fulfill their dreams of expansion.

On March 9, 1906, they purchased a 20-acre tract of unimproved property from the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Later that year, the original church was built on the east side of Sheridan Road, north of Devon Avenue.

The new church, at its present location, was built in 1917, and was designed by architect Henry J. Schlacks patterned after a church in Rome designed by Renaissance artist and architect, Michelangelo, a friend of St. Ignatius Loyola, himself.

The Chapel

On June 2, 2002, a celebration was held for the re-dedication of a special place in St. Ignatius--the Chapel of Mary, Queen of Angels.

The Chapel was nearly complete at the time of the original dedication of St. Ignatius Church on September 16, 1917. A description of the chapel appeared in the souvenir dedication booklet of that date.

Henry J. Schlacks, an architect now famous for his beautiful churches throughout the Midwest, also designed the Chapel. The ceiling design is the same as that of the church, while the floor is of mosaic tile, made of varied shades of marble.

The current restoration was done by the Fresco Art Company and has returned the chapel to its original beauty. With the replacement and refurbishing of the devotional paintings on the walls and ceiling as well as the newly restored statuary, the chapel has, once again, become the grand shrine of devotion to Mary.