CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Community groups trying to save a Pilsen church are again hoping that it can be given landmark status.
They say the chances are improving.
St. Adalbert’s Catholic Church was closed in 2019 as part of a consolidation by the Chicago Archdiocese. But, Polish and Latino community groups were trying to save it even before that.
Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said it’s a historic, architecturally significant structure that’s been a center of the Pilsen community.
“All of our communities, come together, asking the City of Chicago, Commission of Chicago Landmarks, the Department of Planning and Development to landmark St. Adalbert’s Church and to landmark it soon before things get further disconnected and taken apart,” Miller said
25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez said the Commission on Chicago Landmarks will have a special meeting Monday to discuss preliminary landmark designation. That’s further in the process than they’ve ever gotten before.
“Our community deserves the same respect, consideration and investment…Landmarking will not only help us avoid what we saw this week, which was the removal of religious, sacred items without the due process, without any accounting, without any consultation, which is detrimental, not only to our community but to the history of our community,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Community members have been protesting to have the church reopened. There have been groups praying the rosary there, hoping to save it.
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