From Cows to College
[St. Vincent de Paul Church and College (1895-1907) Egan & Prindeville, architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
In 1875 when Roman Catholic priest Edward Smith took a horse and buggy to this
intersection on a hunt for land on which to build a church, there were no overhead wires, cables, traffic signals or even a cross road. This area was out in the Chicago countryside and the property was pastureland filled with grazing cattle.
[St. Vincent de Paul Church (1898) 1004 W. Webster, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Father Smith built St. Vincent de Paul Church, a small, one-story brick building at the
edge of the five acre farm he purchased, for a parish that consisted of six families. By the time the cornerstone of this Bedford limestone building was laid in 1895, the congregation had grown to over 3,000. Designed with Romanesque detailing by James J. Egan and Charles H. Prindeville the new church's size measured up to the explosive 20-year growth of the German-speaking, parishioner population.
[St. Vincent Rectory (1903) and College (1907) /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
The first event held in the new sanctuary was Rev. Smith's elaborate funeral mass. He
lived long enough to see the church near completion but died before its official dedication on May 9, 1898. That honor fell to his successor the Rev. Peter Byrne, who was soon overseeing the construction of a large rectory next door to the church in 1903, followed by a new home for St. Vincent College in 1904. The three buildings, all designed by Egan & Prindeville, formed a u-shape complex which surrounded a landscaped courtyard.
[St. Vincent Church details, March 5, 2010 /Images & Artwork: designslinger ]
St. Vincent College was founded in 1898 as the city's first Catholic institution of higher
education. Upon completion of the new building in 1907, the school received a university charter from the State of Illinois and was renamed De Paul University. At the time it was the largest Catholic university in the U.S., a title which it still holds today on a campus site that has grown well beyond the boundaries of Father Smith's cow farm purchase.
See another Egan design at: Flat Living at Hotel St. Benedict.
Posted by designslinger at 4/27/2010 1:35 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: Egan and Prindeville St. Vincent de Paul Church De Paul University James J. Egan
Categories: Architecture, History
Tags: Egan and Prindeville St. Vincent de Paul Church De Paul University James J. Egan
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