Grace English Lutheran Church

Grace English Lutheran Church was organized in 1882 as the first English-language congregation of the Northern Illinois Synod of the General Synod in Chicago.

Grace's original building was constructed on the southwest corner of Chicago Avenue and Franklin Street in 1883.

Owing to the encroachment of businesses on the Chicago Avenue address, the congregation looked north to the Lake View neighborhood for a new home. In November 1886 services were begun in Garfield Hall, at the corner of Garfield Avenue and Larrabee Street. The Chicago Avenue building was rented for a time to the Salvation Army.

In 1887 a new chapel was built at Belden and Geneva Terrace (formerly called Hamilton Court). The main building was built in 1888-1889. The Chicago Avenue building was sold in May 1884. The building was razed and much of the materials were used in the new chapel and the windows in the church. The building (pictured above after remodelling) was raised and improved in 1918.

In 1952 a new constitution was adopted, changing the name to "Grace United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chicago, Illinois."

In the late 1960s, the Chicago Folk Service was introduced and Grace began to focus on serving the youth culture and street culture. As the middle class residents moved to the suburbs, the Lincoln Park area became the focus for Chicago's hippie culture. Grace attempted to serve the many teenage runaways in the area.

By the early 1970s, however, property values skyrocketed as affluent young adults moved to the neighborhood, displacing the hippies. Grace was unable to make a second program transition within 10 years, leading the congregation to disband on December 31, 1975.

Original records
Original records for the congregation are located at the ELCA Region 5 Archives in Dubuque, Iowa. The ELCA Archives has congregational histories and other materials relating to Grace.

Sources
Historical Souvenir of the Lutheran Women's League, 1903.

Grace English Lutheran Church, Fiftieth Anniversary and Golden Jubilee of Grace English Lutheran Church, 1932.

Grace Lutheran Church, 75 Years, 1957.

Case Study: Urban Church in Transition: Death and Rebirth?, ca. 1976.