All Saints Episcopal Church
Chicago
All Saints Episcopal Church, located at 4550 N. Hermitage St. on Chicago’s North Side, is the recipient of the Landmarks Illinois’ 2017 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Restoration. Built in 1884, the church served as a key community anchor in Ravenswood and is considered the oldest wood-frame church building in Chicago. By the 1980s, however, the congregation fell to 30 parishioners and was threatened with closure. The dedication of its members, the selection of a new leader and a refocusing of its mission grew the parish and allowed them to take on the challenge of restoring their church. This ambitious project included replacing the wooden foundation with concrete, stabilizing the original bell tower with an innovative system of steel straps and removing 100 years of stucco to reveal the original wood siding. The completed restoration is now an outward reflection of the revitalization of the church’s membership and mission over the past 15 years.
The team responsible for this project includes: The congregation of All Saints Episcopal Church, BauerLatoza Studio, Ron Young Construction, Manske Diekmann Thompson Architecture, Wiss Janney Elstner, Opal Glass Studio, and Steven Christy.