One of the first modern Catholic church buildings in Chicago to be constructed to the new liturgical specifications of the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s is St. Barnabas.[i] Built in 1968–69 in the Beverly neighborhood, the church holds a commanding presence on the northeast corner of 101st Place and Longwood. It was the second church constructed for the parish, which replaced its original 1923–24 combination church and school building on the same site.[ii] The church, costing approximately $600,000 to build, was designed by the architectural firm of McCarthy, Hundrieser and Associates, Inc. of Arlington Heights, known as Chicago-area church specialists.
For St. Barnabas Parish, architect Carl E. Hundrieser designed a highly structured New Formalist building. New Formalist architecture of the 1960s offered a creative interpretation of Classical styles using innovative technologies of the mid-twentieth century. Using concrete innovations, architects reinvented classical forms, proportions, and elements that were identifiably modern. At St. Barnabas, an amphitheater plan is within a monumental single square building volume topped with a projecting flat roof. The steel-framed building is one story tall and of cement plaster. Each facade exhibits a series of bays divided with stuccoed vertical piers topped with brackets, characteristic of New Formalist architecture. Metal window walls are found at the entries to the church, while elsewhere are tall and narrow arched stained glass windows surrounded by white Portland cement plaster panels. Atop all windows are fascia panels with vertical fluting of the same white cement plaster. The creative use of Trinity White Portland Cement in St. Barnabas Church landed the design in a national advertisement in the November 1970 issue of Architectural Record. The ad celebrated the building’s contrasting white Portland cement plaster which dramatized the effect of the colorful stained glass windows.[iii] Connected to the main sanctuary through a breezeway is a cylindrical wing, which holds a small chapel. This series of organized spaces is also typical of New Formalist architecture. The church at was dedicated on January 19, 1969.
St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church at 10134–40 South Longwood was the last building completed for the evolving parish complex; it consists of a church, convent, school, and rectory. Although it is common for Roman Catholic parish complexes in Chicago to occupy a contiguous site, St. Barnabas Parish is along both sides of prestigious Longwood Drive from 101st Street to 102nd Street. The proximity of its buildings was a result of purchases and construction over a forty-year period, determined by the needs of the growing parish.
In 1946–47 at 10161 South Longwood, the parish constructed a convent for the staff of its school. Prior to the new convent, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, had been residing in a home at 9901 South Longwood purchased in 1924. The stately and symmetrical Georgian Revival convent was designed by the architectural firm of Barry & Kay, prolific designers of Catholic buildings in Chicago.[iv] Ground was broken for the elegantly detailed convent on July 6, 1946.[v] Although initial costs for construction were estimated at $150,000, the convent reached $325,000 when completed in December 1947.[vi] Eighteen nuns were scheduled to live in the building appointed with a chapel, community room, recreation room, laundry, two hospital rooms, two music rooms, and the parish kindergarten.[vii]
Even though they were strapped with the convent’s inflating expenses, the parish had to consider building a new school to meet its burgeoning enrollment. In December 1953, a building permit was issued to construct a new school at the southeast corner of 101st Street and Longwood.[viii] The architectural firm of McCarthy & Smith was chosen to plan the Late Classical Revival school. Today, St. Barnabas School is a two-story brick and stone building with a commodious U-shape plan, modern flat roof, and a Classic-inspired central entry. Of interest is a stepped stainless steel spire on top of a modern corner square tower adorned with honeycomb brick openings. When first opened in 1954 at 10119 South Longwood, the school had twelve classrooms and cost $450,000.[ix] By 1958, the design by Joseph W. McCarthy and Associates was expanded to accommodate 1,000 students in its twenty-four classrooms and had a combination auditorium and gymnasium.[x] It was dedicated on April 5, 1959.[xi]
The final building in the St. Barnabas Parish complex is the rectory. Two existing residences have served as rectories for St. Barnabas. The first, The Frances A. Marsh House from 1889 at 10154 South Longwood was purchased in 1924 and sold in 1947. In the latter year, another home was designated for use as a rectory and remodeled by the architectural firm of McCarthy and Smith.[xii] The Edward L. Roberts House, a Shingle style home built in 1892–93 as a showcase for a lumber mill proprietor, remains today as the St. Barnabas Rectory. In 1949, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the parish, it was said that “the present Rectory was acquired, refitted and occupied, all for a sum considerably less than the cost of a new building of equal capacity and location.”[xiii] The St. Barnabas Rectory is at 10134 South Longwood.
St. Barnabas Parish is the first Irish-Catholic parish in Beverly–Morgan Park. In the spring of 1924, Irish-Catholic families in Beverly organized a new parish led by its pastor, Rev. Timothy J. Hurley. Catholics were a minority religious group among large numbers of Protestants in the 1920s. When an initial site was chosen for a new church at the southwest corner of 100th Street and Longwood, community residents had the property condemned for a park in hopes of dissuading the congregation from building in Beverly. Hurley’s efforts were not thwarted; a new site was chosen, and construction began on a combination church and school building. Although the first church building is gone, Hurley Park commemorates the efforts of this pastor and its founders. Today, St. Barnabas remains one of Chicago’s largest Irish-Catholic parishes.
[i] Kantowicz, Edward R. The Archdiocese of Chicago: A Journey of Faith. Chicago: The Archdiocese of Chicago, 2007, p. 109.
[ii] The original church was an Italian (Lombard) Renaissance Revival style building designed by architects Arthur Foster, Ellert & Sandel.
[iii] Advertisement, “Creative architecture often finds expression in white cement plaster.” Architectural Record. November 1970, p. 19.
[iv] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 72148. Ledger Book 56, p. 260. July 11, 1946.
[v] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 100. A jubilee booklet from 1949 has a conflicting date of June 21, 1946.
[vi] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 100.
[vii] “St. Barnabas Catholic Church, Beverly Hills, 1924–1949.” Silver Jubilee Souvenir Booklet. September 25, 1949. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.
[viii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. B104521. December 23, 1953.
[ix] “Plan to Build 12 Room School at St. Barnabas.” Chicago Daily Tribune. February 22, 1953, p. SW7.
[x] “New Parochial School to Hold Open House.” Chicago Daily Tribune. November 23, 1958, p. SW4.
[xi] A History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Volume I, p. 101.
[xii] City of Chicago Ancient Building Permit No. 47439. December 12, 1947. Cost $4000.
[xiii] “St. Barnabas Catholic Church, Beverly Hills, 1924–1949.” Silver Jubilee Souvenir Booklet. September 25, 1949. In the Collections of the Ridge Historical Society, Chicago.