They can be found tucked behind new strip shopping malls or across from sprawling subdivisions.
Sometimes their rising spires are obscured by tall office high-rises.
And their once-pastoral grounds, many with aging cemetery plots, in some cases have been cut thin by new highway expansions.
But even with the encroachment of suburban sprawl, turn-of-the-century churches stand as sentinels against development, reminding passers-by it wasn’t long ago that today’s modern suburbs were once simple farming communities.
“The suburbs tend to pave over their history,” lamented E.C. “Mike” Alft, a historian and teacher from Elgin who has documented the changing suburban landscape in articles and books.
So besides serving a purpose today as functional houses of worship, the area’s 19th Century churches also serve as a reminder of the past.
And they can still be found across the suburbs, from Buffalo Grove and Mundelein, to Schaumburg, Hanover Park and Naperville.
The Ivanhoe Congregational Church in unincorporated Lake County near Mundelein, for example, was founded by Vermont farmers in 1838 and was rebuilt in 1856.
That church still stands, although its congregation of approximately 300 people work not as area farmers and blacksmiths, but as engineers and bankers.
“There’s all kinds of building going up in the area,” said Rev. Wayne Nowack. “I couldn’t say it’s down the street, but it will be in another year or so. There’s a lot of construction going on.”
Up until now, Ivanhoe has managed to maintain a rural feel, even as housing developments and business headquarters open up nearby. But those days are numbered, Nowack said.
Two blocks from the church on Illinois Highway 176 near the intersection of Illinois Highways 60 and 83, “There’s a big sign listing all the things that are going to be built on the corner,” he said. “There’s going to be a new service station and carwash, a banquet hall.”
Although the onslaught of development reduces the area’s rural feel, in another sense, it can aid an old church, Nowack said.
“It’s kind of disconcerting to see entire fields turned into housing developments, but on the other hand, it has given a certain vitality to our church because it brings new people in.”
The Union Church of Hinsdale notes a similar phenomenon, with the recent influx of younger church members, according to Gregory Skiba, minister of Christian education.
“Baby Boomers with young children have joined in the last three years. This has made for significant greening of the congregation,” said Skiba, noting the church has added about 300 new members.
Union Church was founded in 1866 as a Congregational Church. The original members were eight men who were part of other Congregational Churches from as far away as Connecticut. They gathered at the railroad depot in Hinsdale to enact the church’s constitution.
In 1918, the church became a Union church when members of a nearby Presbyterian Church joined it. The church itself was built in 1916. It has been added to and expanded since. The membership today is 1,620.
Growth has even prompted some old churches to build new additions. St. Peter Lutheran Church in Schaumburg, for example, recently announced plans to construct a new church building in front of its parochial school to accommodate the growing Missouri Synod congregation.
The original wood structure of St. Peter, which now serves as a museum, was built in 1847 and replaced by the present stone church building in 1863, said Karl Schmidt, a part-time minister at the church.
The original structure, which stands just north of the 130-year-brick church, contains several artifacts of Schaumburg’s farming past. The church property also has become the repository for Schaumburg’s original school house, which the village had been prepared to raze to widen Schaumburg Road.
Schmidt said the old church building will be retained as a chapel for special occasions, such as weddings.
Just as they are responding to the arrival of suburbanites today, the old churches got their start by responding to the arrival of farmers in the 1800s.
At Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Naperville, the first parishioners were German immigrants.
Initially, priests from Joliet came to say mass. Later, priests stationed at the church traveled to Aurora and Carol Stream to minister to the faithful in those communities.
“I always think that is amazing,” said Rev. Frank Vitus, assistant pastor. “Talk about zeal and dedication. They traveled on horseback over bad roads. I just have to walk from the rectory to the parish.”
The first church, which accommodated 300 parishioners, burned down in 1922. When it was rebuilt, there were seats for 800.
“I’ve heard that people couldn’t understand why there was a need for such a big church,” Vitus said. Today the church claims about 5,000 families as members.
The shopping center and townhouse development near Immanuel United Church of Christ on Barrington Road in Streamwood was the site of an old German farming community known as Hoosier Grove.
The 450 parishioners at the old steepled church built in 1868 don’t view the rapid development around them as a threat, said Rev. Donald Riemer, pastor of the church. But there is a sense that a piece of history is about to disappear around them.
“Some had enjoyed the quaintness of the farm across the street,” Riemer said. “Now they’re promising 5,000 people across the street.”
