Southside Landmarks
 
These buildings, scattered over a great swath of the Southside starting at 19th Street and going as far south at 73rd, are most easily accessible by car or a few at a time by public transportation.  
 
Built in 1874 and rebuilt in 1900, Second Presbyterian Church (1936 S. Michigan) is a monument to the wealthy, native-born white Protestants who once defined the religion and architecture of the Southside.  It boasts a neo-Gothic exterior and a turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts interior.  It is an official Chicago Landmark.
 
A half-mile south of Second Presbyterian stands Quinn Chapel AME (2401 S. Wabash), the oldest African American church in Chicago.  The church has roots in a prayer group that met starting in 1844.  The congregation joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1847 and moved, after a fire, to its current location in 1890.  The church building, a Chicago Landmark, was completed in 1892.
 
At the corner of 33rd Street and South Indiana Avenue is the site of the former Pilgrim Baptist Church, one of the city’s most prominent early African American congregations.  Formerly a synagogue, Pilgrim was considered the birthplace of modern Gospel music under choir director Thomas A. Dorsey.  The church burned down in January 2006.
 
Holy Angels Parish (607 E. Oakwood) is a center of African American Roman Catholic life in Chicago.  After its Gothic-style building burned down in 1986, it rebuilt in a contemporary style with Afro-centric interior designs.  It is home to the largest African American Catholic school in the country.
 
Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church (4622 S. King Dr.) was, like Pilgrim, formerly home to a synagogue.  It is an example of the kind of religious recycling that has happened throughout the Southside.  The nearby First Church of the Deliverance (4315 S. Wabash), on the other hand, was built by an African American architect for an African American church.  This church pioneered the use of television in worship and evangelism.  It’s an official Chicago Landmark.
 
St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church (6105 S. Michigan) began as Ss. Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church.  Today the church is a mostly African American congregation in a largely white denomination (the Episcopal Church), a phenomenon not uncommon on the Southside.  The church is deeply involved in local development and neighborhood revitalization.
 
Mosque Maryam (7351 S. Stony Island) is the national headquarters of the Nation of Islam.  Also a former Orthodox church, the mosque was purchased and rededicated under the leadership of Elijah Mohammed in 1972.  Its unique features include a rotating illuminated star-and-crescent on the dome.
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