Chicago’s Second Presbyterian Church now a landmark

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin is praising the Department of the Interior’s decision to designate the Second Presbyterian Church on Chicago’s South Side a national historic landmark.

The designation was one of 13 made Monday by the Interior Department. The church will receive a designation letter, a plaque and preservation advice.

The neo-Gothic church was designed by famed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Near the turn of the 20th century, the congregation was populated with the likes of railcar magnate George Pullman and department store owner Marshall Field.

The sanctuary boasts Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass windows, an Italian limestone baptismal font, murals by Frederic Clay Bartlett, windows made in the workshop of English decorator William Morris and representations of angels.

Durbin said the church represents a critical chapter in Chicago’s history.