The majority of our first-time CornerSpotter participants hit the nail on the head with this one. Known either as the Chicago Avenue Church or Moody Church, the massive structure at the Northwest corner of Chicago & LaSalle stood for decades after its 1876 dedication. The main accommodation for a burgeoning Moody congregation, it's now-unheard-of 10,000 person capacity was sometimes insufficient for Sunday gatherings. In 1915, the church struck out for virgin land at North & LaSalle, and their encampment eventually became the present-day Moody Church, one of the largest Romanesque structures in the country. Moody's Houghton Hall, a women's dorm, moved in on the Chicago & LaSalle site. A few readers mistook the above location for the site of the present church, and one posited that it was the original Moody Church at Illinois and Wells, lost in the FIre. That ill-fated structure sat 1,500— a small fraction of the Chicago Avenue Church. Overall, we have to declare mission accomplished. We're quite impressed your store of knowledge, dear readers. Thanks for playing!
·Hint: The Church is Gone but the Area's Religiosity is Intact [Curbed Chicago]
·CornerSpotter [Curbed Chicago]
Filed under:
Loading comments...