Demolition of the Ravenswood Presbyterian Church at 4300 North Hermitage Avenue in Ravenswood is now underway. A pair of permits were issued on December 3rd, allowing contractor Dexco Corporation to get to work on the church and the caretaker’s home behind it.
Saturday, December 6, as the demo contractor prepped the two excavators for action. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Demolition began Tuesday on the two-story frame home, which was quickly dispatched. Razing of the brick school building is happening now, beginning with removal of a steel fire escape hanging from the west façade. Once that was safely removed, the demo crew began tearing into the north end of the school, which sits on the west side of the property, next to the church. They’ll work their way south along the alley until they’ve finished the school structure, then move eastward toward the church and sanctuary.
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
The fire escape at right was removed before demolition of the school building began. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
The school building has been gutted ahead of demolition. Photo by Daniel Schell
No timeline has been announced as to the duration of the demolition work, but there is a lot of brick and stone that will hopefully be sorted and salvaged; that process in and of itself could prove very time-consuming if performed on site.
Tuesday evening. Photo by Daniel Schell
Rubble from the caretaker’s home, and demo work on the second floor of the school. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
The developer, named only in the permits as 4300 N Hermitage Inc of Skokie, purchased the property in June for $4.375 million, according to real estate records. They are expected to erect several single-family homes as-of-right on the lots, located on the northwest corner of North Hermitage and West Cullom Avenues, though details have not been confirmed for the new residences.
Erected 1914. Rebuilt 1949. Demolished 2025. Photo by Daniel Schell
Demolition fencing surrounds Ravenswood Presbyterian Church on October 21, 2025.
The church was designed by the Chicago architectural firm Pond & Pond and completed in 1914. The stone-faced building was extensively remodeled in 1949 by architect Benjamin Franklin Olson, who replaced the earlier parish house and modernized the sanctuary. Both dates are commemorated on a cornerstone near the church’s main entrance.
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This is such a shame, we’ve seen so many other churches like this be converted into a lot more than 4 housing units
For example, the other article that was posted today
Agree 😭. Look at the church conversion project above. That is a smaller church and the sanctuary alone will contain 10 new units, in addition to the 12 units in the connected 3 storey building. As I said in the previous update on this church , the school building could be easily converted to residential units and the main church volume could be subdivided into 3 or 4 levels with soome floor beams inserted. That solid stone walls would be more than enough to support new floors.
A block away on the same street at the corner of Hermitage and Montrose is a garish suburban mcmansion built about 10 ago. That lot was also the site of a former church that was demoed some years prior. This area of Ravenswood used to have many more churches. Just a few blocks north and east of this church was another church that also bite the dust, the last congregation was The First Spanish Christian Church . It was featured on yimby here on the May 16, 2024 article. The site is now 3 stick frame plastic houses with hostile garage curb cuts.
One doesn’t just “insert” some floor beams. The walls are not designed for that kind of load bearing esp if you start making slots for the beams. You’d have to build an entire interior steel structure to support 3-4 floors and those beam’s columns would have to sit on additional foundations.
It’s sounds so easy to say they can do this or they can do that but in real life changing the use of a structure so radically is not only expensive but requires a specialized architect/builder team.
Did you see the above article of that other church at Palmer Square? That is exactly what I’m talking about. It’s not exactly rocket science level of engineering. That sanctuary is going to get floor inserted in the cathedral ceiling and bump up the roofline with shed dormers. Many churches around Chicago and the county have been successfully adapted to residential units. The former St Boniface Church at Noble Square corner of Noble and Chestnut has been saved and readapted to housing. It was long abandoned and in a much worse deteriorated conditions than this building here which the congregation moved out only in a year ago. This church has 4′ thick solid stone buttressing piers and walls. the interior partitions could be made from cold formed light gauge steel frames to minimize weight and strategic beams here and there.
There’s so much embodied energy in these heavy buildings. It is absurd to waste so much spent carbon, but I bet the greedy developers with market their new Mcmansions as “green”.
Every structure is different and you make it sound oh so easy. Yes, it’s doable as attested by the Boniface conversion and others like Wood St and Division, but it’s a specialized project. The guy that did Boniface also recently did an historic mansion conversion in WP to condos, again, not something just any G.C. can accomplish. Plus there’s the costs of such a specialized conversion like those condos in Boniface so you have to take R.E. market into the equation.
You’re emotions have trumped understanding the reality of the world.
PS why couldn’t I reply to your reply to my post?
“Erasure” is a bizarre word to use
Too bleak?! It’s rather truthful and accurate no?
You take issue with “erasure” but not with “undwerway”?
The post-war rehab stripped away most of the physical charms of the building, IMO. What I will miss is the variety this building (and school) offered. That neighborhood is rapidly becoming a McMansion desert with a sprinkling of Pilates studios and high end chain stores. I hope the creeping Napervillization of Ravenswood slows down a bit.
There are high-end chain stores here?
Even tho it was remodeled in 1949, that is still 3/4 of a century by now. They use durable high quality limestone that stand the test of time well. It will have lasted for hundreds of years. The next decommissioned church to look out for in the area is Our Lady of Lourdes at Ashland and Leland Ave that was closed recently. The church parking lot across the street on the east side of Ashland has been approved for apartment construction. The former school building conversion to apartment has also been recently completed. I hope the church building itself will be saved and get Landmark status.
Yes this stretch has become a Mcmansion faux farmhouse corridor, case in point that house at the corner of Montrose and Hermitage with its 20′ tall evergreen fencing wrapping around the property to block out the neighborhood.
I remember when that home was built, it could’ve been 12 homes, but instead it is a single mansion right outside a bus stop.
The loss of a historic building is one punch, but the second is that this will be replaced with single family homes instead of 2-6 flats or even a courtyard apartment like the one a few buildings north.
Dictionary definition of gentrification as these will be outrageously expensive homes.
awful just awful.
It’s weird that people are complaining about the price of preserving and repurposing the Palmer Square church (today’s other post), when this is the alternative.
If this church had been preserved and repurposed they would complain about the price too.
I would’ve been cool with repurposing this one like Palmer Square. Such lovely brickwork. Oh well.
As a kid, we had Sunday School in the basement. Best part orange juice and butter cookies, Yes, Jesus was alright with me.
I’m Agnostic so I don’t mind seeing this go away. Lol