The Ridge Historical Society
Lost or Found? – FOUND – Building #2 (Part 1)
By Carol Flynn
A few months ago, the “Lost or Found?” series was started on this Ridge Historical Society (RHS) Facebook page as part of the current exhibit at RHS, “Louise Barwick’s Lost Ridge.”
Historical images of buildings in Morgan Park from an 1889 book of photographs are being shared. Some of these buildings still stand but some are gone. Viewers are invited to identify the buildings, and their locations if the buildings still exist.
Several commenters correctly identified the second building in the series as “found,” that is, still here, although it has been moved from its original location and substantially altered from its original look.
The building is known today as “Casa del Loma,” translated as the “House on the Hill.” It is located at 11057-59 S. Hoyne Avenue, just to the north of the Walker Branch of the Chicago Public Library at the northeast corner of 111th Street and Hoyne Avenue.
This building has one of the more interesting histories in the community, with two other “lives” before it was transformed into the Casa. In 1927, the Weekly Review, the local newspaper that eventually became the Beverly Review, published a special supplement on the building, giving its detailed history.
The building was originally built as the physics laboratory for the Baptist Union Theological Seminary. The Seminary was founded in 1865 as part of the “Old” University of Chicago, that is, the first attempt to form an institution of higher learning in the city, started by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas.
Originally classes were taught in buildings near Douglas’ Oakenwald estate at 35th Street and Cottage Grove. In 1877, a generous offer of free land (five acres) from the Blue Island Land & Building Co. (BILBCo) caused the seminary to relocate to Morgan Park and build its facilities there.
This was part of the BILBCo’s plan to establish Morgan Park as a prestigious religious, education, and temperance community. It was anticipated that additional educational facilities would follow, creating a new University of Chicago. Morgan Park Academy, started as the Mount Vernon Military Academy, and the Chicago Female College, were already established in Morgan Park.
An imposing three-story office and classroom building, now long gone, was built on the site, and in the early 1880s, the “physical laboratory” was built on a corner of the land, on the west side of Hoyne Street across the street from its present location, facing 110th Place, which was called Arlington Avenue back then.
However, the plans for establishing the “new” University of Chicago in Morgan Park never became a reality. The land in Hyde Park was chosen instead, due to another generous gift, this time from the Rockefeller family.
In 1892, the Baptist Theological Seminary became part of the Divinity School of the new University and relocated from Morgan Park. Other institutions used the Morgan Park buildings for a while, but shortly after 1900, the main building was demolished.
The old laboratory was then purchased by the Church of the Mediator at 10961 S. Hoyne Avenue, and physically moved across the road to its present location.
Buildings were often moved back then, as this was easier than building a new building. The process was to raise the building on to cut logs used as rollers, and have horses pull the house to its new location, where a new foundation had already been dug. This process could take days depending on the distance the building had to be moved, but in this case, it was just across the road.
The Church of the Mediator was a thriving church one hundred years ago, and it still stands but has not been used since the congregation closed its doors in 2007.
The laboratory building became the parish center. It was not used for religious activities but became more of a community center. A dancing school, amateur theatricals, bazaars, and other functions were centered there. The building needed only slight alterations to be used for this new purpose.
Eventually, additions were made to the church itself, allowing the parish to hold events on site, and after about twenty years, the building was no longer needed as the parish center.
It was then sold to Charles Curtis and Blanche Dunlap Battles, who converted it into Casa del Loma, also known as the Battles Apartments.
In the next post, the building’s transition from a physics laboratory/parish house to modern, state-of-the-art apartments in 1927 will be shared.
The RHS exhibit is free and open for viewing on Tuesdays and Sundays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., or by appointment. RHS is located at 10621 S. Seeley Avenue in Chicago and may be contacted at 773-881-1675 or ridgehistory@hotmail.com.