South Loop

South Loop continued...

From the 1870s until 1904, the day's great architects did what great architects do when given great amounts of compensation and creative latitude.

And then it ended. By the 1940s -- for various reasons -- most of the residences in this no-longer fashionable district had been converted to boarding houses, industrial use or, simply, razed.

Fast-forward to the 1960s. The threat of further demolitions brought howls from preservationists. That was followed over the next decades by visionaries who saw the potential in integrating the surviving buildings with new structures compatible in style and scale to the early masterworks.

So what we have today is the Prairie Avenue District, anchoring a South Loop neighborhood covered with townhomes, lofts and condominiums and served by restaurants and social gathering places -- and by two churches that rank among the city's essential stops.

The first, Quinn Chapel (1892), on Wabash Avenue and 24th Street, traces its existence to Chicago's first African-American congregation, formed in 1844 and recognized by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1847.

"The city of Chicago was only incorporated in 1837," notes the Rev. James M. Moody Sr., the church's senior pastor. "So the people who were part of that congregation were part of the city from the time the city became a city."

The original building became a center for Illinois abolitionists, and later a station for the Underground Railroad. After the current church (which can be visited) was completed on the eve of the opening of World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, orators came here.

"In 1893, a woman came to Chicago to make an address for women's voting rights at the Great White City [the main fairground], and she was blocked at the door," says Moody. "Her mentor brought her to Quinn Chapel. The woman was Susan B. Anthony. And her mentor was Frederick Douglass.

"That's what Quinn Chapel as always been about."

Presidents McKinley and Taft spoke here. So did Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Ida B. Wells. Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama planned early campaigns here.

Much of the church's traditional constituency is gone. Redevelopment and the demolition of nearby public housing has had its impact.

"That had an effect on where many of the people who attend the church live," Rev. Moody says, "but they still attend the church."

The other church, attended by the Pullmans and the Armours, is Second Presbyterian, on Michigan Avenue and 20th Street, renamed Cullerton Street. The Gothic church, designed by James Renwick Jr. (New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral, the original Smithsonian building in Washington), was completed in 1874, gutted by fire in 1900, restored and rededicated in 1904.

It still looks and feels like a church that would've been attended by families who lived on Prairie Avenue. (Tours are offered.) The enormous stained-glass windows are by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The murals, the altar, the chandeliers -- all suggest the tastes of the church's membership.

Now, about the houses: Eleven houses and townhouses built between 1870 and 1894 stand within the Prairie Avenue Historic District or on adjacent streets. A 12th, Clarke House (1836, much restored) -- considered Chicago's oldest -- was moved into the district and is a museum within its own park, open for tours. The John Glessner House (1887), at 18th Street and Prairie, can be toured as well.

Also of historic interest in the South Loop are Motor Row, a series of buildings (most on Michigan Avenue) that are interesting architecturally; the former Chess Records building, also on Michigan, which offers tours of the studio that produced music by such artists as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and B.B. King (The building is currently home of Willie Dixon's Blue Heaven Foundation.); and Coliseum Park, a tribute to the Chicago Coliseum, which stood across from its Wabash Street location from 1899 to 1982 and was home to political conventions (including the Bull Moose convention that nominated Teddy Roosevelt), the Chicago Blackhawks (before Chicago Stadium), Roller Derby, the NBA Chicago Zephyrs and rock concerts starring the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead and the Doors. Part of the Coliseum, which reused bricks from a Confederate prison, is on view at the Chicago History Museum in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

There's no shortage of dining spots. On Wabash, Gioco (Italian) and Opera (Pan-Asian) share ownership, while Zapatista (Mexican) is another welcome addition to the neighborhood. Nearby, Chef Luciano, on Cermak Road, saves on rent by offering five cuisines -- Cajun, Italian, Jamaican, African and Indian -- in one restaurant. Add two on State Street: Cafe Bionda, another Italian option; and Opart Thai House. Seekers of live music will find it as well.

Here, too, in the South Loop, is one the city's more emotionally jarring art galleries.

The National Veterans Art Museum began life as an idea in 1980 that became a touring exhibit. In 1996, the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum opened a permanent exhibit at 18th Street and Indiana near the Glessner House; more wars with more veterans brought a name change.

The art on display, all by veterans, can be at once beautiful and horrible.

"Most of the artists here didn't paint these to hang over the sofa," says Jerry Kykisz, a Vietnam vet and one of the founders. "They did it because they had to do it.

"This is what this museum is about -- war veterans having their say about the subject of war. We don't try to sanitize it or censor it."

You won't forget it.

For more information about the South Loop, please contact the Near South Planning Board (312-987-1980), the South Loop Neighbors (312-409-1700) or the Greater South Loop Association.