St. Mary's Church, 901 S. Wabash Ave. (1870-1971)
St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 901 S. Wabash Ave. was constructed in the late 1860s as a Protestant church. But when Holy Name Cathedral was destroyed by the Chicago fire just before its completion, the church on the southeast corner of 9th and Wabash was purchased by Bishop Thomas Foley as a temporary Cathedral for Chicago Catholics.
In the hours after the Chicago Fire, the doors were opened to refugees. One of the victims seeking shelter there was Mary Harris Jones, also known as "Mother Jones," the union organizer and labor leader of the early 20th Century.
In 1882, African-American Catholics formed the St. Augustine Society and held a fundraising bazaar at St. Mary’s Church. The society slowly gained followers as they visited the sick, fed the poor, and buried the dead. As their numbers grew, they desired to form a congregation of their own.
In 1889, the St. Augustine Society requested Bishop Foley to secure Rev. John Augustine Tolton, first African-American priest ordained for the United States, as their spiritual director. Tolton was born a slave in Missouri, baptized a Catholic as a youngster, and sent to Rome to study for the priesthood by St. Peter’s Catholic Church of Quincy, Illinois. He was ordained as the first African-American Catholic Priest by Cardinal Parochi on April 24, 1886.
The Chicago Times of September 13, 1891 wrote: “In Chicago the colored Catholic population is small and their needs are amply ministered to by Father Tolton (colored), in the basement of St. Mary’s church on Wabash Ave. It was by their own wish to be formed into a congregation by themselves, but if prevented from attending their own mass they were always made welcome at any of the other churches. In this way there has been no cause for friction, and white and colored live “in perfect harmony” with the other.”
Father Tolton, the first African-American Catholic priest in the United States held services for one of the first African-American Catholic congregations in the United States at St. Mary’s Church until a church of their own, St. Monica’s at 36th and Dearborn was opened on January 14, 1893.
St. Mary’s continued to serve South Loop Catholics until it was demolished in 1971.
Sources: Old St. Mary’s Church, St. Monica St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Chicago, Library of Congress, AIA Guide to Chicago, Autobiography of Mother Jones, Library of Congress, Wikipedia, WPA/Chicago Plan Commission Maps 1942.
Photos: Library of Congress
