SALUTE TO SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BEING DESIGNATED AS A NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
WHEREAS, On June 20, 2013, Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago will be designated as a National Historic Landmark. This designation will make Second Presbyterian the only church in Chicago to be honored as such. This status represents the highest recognition for buildings and sites that are determined by the United States Secretary of the Interior to possess national significance in American culture and history; and
WHEREAS, The Gothic Revival edifice that currently houses the Second Presbyterian Church was designed by architect James Renwick and was completed in 1847. Renwick also designed the original building for Second Presbyterian Church, that stood at the northeast corner of Washington and Wabash Streets in Chicago until it was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871;and
WHEREAS, After the roof and much of the church was destroyed by a second fire in 1900, it was rebuilt by architect and life-long church member Howard Van Doren Shaw. Shaw collaborated with his friend Frederic Clay Bartlett, a muralist, for the project. Influenced by the English and American Arts & Crafts Movement, Shaw and Bartlett gave the church the design and decoration that it has today; and
WHEREAS, The church houses many artistic works including more than twenty stained glass windows by artists such as Louis C. Tiffany, Healy and Millet, William Fair Kline, and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Second Presbyterian is also home to a hand-carved limestone baptismal font fashioned in Florence, Italy, and a bronze Celtic cross made on the island of Iona. Over 175 representations of angels adorn the church along with 13 Pre-Raphaelite murals by Bartlett; and
WHEREAS, The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 1977 was designated a Chicago Landmark by the City of Chicago City Council; and
WHEREAS, The Honorable Robert W. Fioretti, Alderman of the 2nd Ward has apprised ...
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