First Catholic church comes to Mount Prospect in 1949
Catholicism came to Mount Prospect in 1949 when St. Raymond de Penafort celebrated its first Mass in the basement of Mount Prospect School District 57's 1920s-era brick Central School, located on the site of the current Mount Prospect Public Library.
Its pastor was the Rev. Thomas J. O'Brien, former chaplain of St. Theresa Hospital in Waukegan.
Because Mount Prospect was still a predominantly German community dominated by Lutherans, land for the church had been purchased secretly by a lay agent for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Much of the property had been donated to the community in the 1920s for a school, but the city fathers considered the location too close to the business district. So they sold eight lots at auction for $15,000.
The archdiocesan agent then bought up other lots within the block before the announcement of the coming church was made.
Catholics were often unwelcome in the Protestant-dominated suburbs, according to Ellen Skerrett, Edward R. Kantowicz and Steven M. Avella, authors of "Catholicism, Chicago Style."
"Whereas Catholics regarded the formation of (parishes in the suburbs) as a new beginning, a sign of progress and faith in the future, for some Protestants it represented a serious fissure in the fabric of suburban life," and they were, if not hostile, certainly reserved toward the Catholic newcomers.
In June 1952, a tiny sanctuary with a choir loft was dedicated. By March 1953, they were excavating for an eight-classroom school building, which opened in September 1954.
One mother recalled that her second-grade son was one of 72 students in his classroom, taught by a single Sisters of Mercy nun. By the time that same boy entered eighth grade in 1960, there were so many students that they went half days so everyone could be accommodated.
The parish quickly outgrew its tiny church, with overflow Masses being held down the street at Lincoln Junior High School. By 1960, a new church was being built.
O'Brien, using intermediaries once again, purchased the heavily-wooded half-block to the south for $100,000 and built a parking lot for 500 cars. He also purchased one of the two remaining private homes on the block and moved in, leaving his two associates in the rectory a block away.
O'Brien died soon thereafter. His replacement, the Rev. Leo P. Coggins, decided to consolidate the two remaining Tudor homes on the block and make them into offices, meeting rooms and living quarters for the priests.
But the Steinmiller family still owned one of the houses. The parish owned a five-bedroom house at 218 S. I-Oka and Coggins worked out a deal to sell it to the family, with eight children, while buying their three-bedroom home.
About the same time, the school's enrollment peaked at 1,358 students, taught by 12 nuns and 13 lay teachers.
Enrollment dropped in the 1970s, so there was room to add a kindergarten in 1975 and a preschool in 1979.
During the 1980s, the empty convent built at the corner of Milburn and I-Oka Avenues in 1957 was transformed into a parish ministry center and a $750,000 renovation of the church was completed, including Robert Harmon-designed stained glass windows.
In the late 1990s, $7.2 million was raised and the original church, which was used as a parish hall/school gym, was replaced with a new school library, computer lab, science lab, cafeteria and junior high school classrooms.
At the south end of the block, the Parish Life Center, a gymnasium with a stage, was built, as was a parish gathering room immediately north of the church. The work was completed in 2001.
All of those state-of-the-art improvements certainly must have played a part when, in 2009, St. Raymond School earned the distinction of being designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, a moment of immense pride for the parish.