Mezzo-soprano Louise Rogan may not have been singing to a jam-packed auditorium, but the audience that heard her recent lunchtime concert at Grace Place in Printers Row was just as appreciative as she performed works by Bach, Mozart, Schumann and Chausson extolling the “wonders of love.”
The recital by Rogan, 23, who has since graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University was the penultimate in a lunchtime concert series called Music@Grace. The program, a joint effort with the university and Manna: Campus Ministry in the South Loop, gave student musicians a chance to perform for the public rather than just their peers. It also offered nearby residents another example of the diverse offerings at Grace Place, the neighborhood community center that is also home to Grace Episcopal Church.
Since the South Loop transformed from an industrial corridor inhabited by a few pioneers into a trendy urban destination. Grace Place—with its mission of diversity and inclusion—has been its anchor.
“It’s the central meeting place where we find out what’s going on,” said Dennis McClendon, president of the South Loop Neighbors organization. “It’s where the Girl Scout troop meets or where there is an outreach for the homeless. It’s where we discuss issues with our alderman. The park across the street was largely planned in meetings at Grace Place,” McClendon said.
The church, which was founded in 1851 and moved to Printers Row in 1983, has a significant impact on the community despite having a small congregation. There are just 70 members, said the Rev. Ted Curtis, who for nearly 20 years has been rector of the church. The site at 637 S. Dearborn St. is its sixth location.
“That’s just the way it is,” Curtis said. “But we have generous parishioners and we have endowments from past parishioners from the 19th and early 20th centuries that allow us to minister in this place.”
Other tenants in Grace Place—like-minded not-for-profit organizations—share expenses with the church. Among them are the Episcopal Peace Fellowship; American Friends Service Committee; Onnuri Church, a Korean congregation; and United Power for Action and Justice. The Industrial Areas Foundation recently signed an occupancy agreement.
When the church moved into the neighborhood nearly 30 years ago it moved in next to Kasey’s Tavern, which dates back more than a century. The worship space, however, is on the second floor of the loft-style, three-story, red-brick building. That puts the tavern at a distance of more than 100 feet from the church as required by state law.
“Episcopalians are allowed to smoke, drink, dance and cuss,” Curtis joked, “and Kasey’s and Grace have been very good neighbors.”
Tom Bystol, Kasey’s manager for five years, agreed. “We get along really well,” he said.
When his building would not allow him to install a satellite dish on the roof, Curtis allowed him to install one on the roof of Grace Place, said Bystol. And when someone kicked in one of Grace Place’s front windows, Bystol and his doorman chased the culprit.
Grace Place’s spirit of inclusion is also reflected in the architectural design of the worship space. It is an open, circular room.
“There’s no walls to keep people out or stained glass windows to filter out the world,” Curtis said. “There are no barriers. We are one with the neighborhood.”
Curtis said when came to Grace Place from Cleveland in 1991, the first thing he wanted to do get to know the community. So he would stand on the sidewalk and see who walked by—then, he says, it was mostly “homeless men and families with kids in strollers.”
Grace was instrumental in creating housing for the homeless and working poor in the South Loop and was one of the founding members of Central City Housing Ventures. Curtis was president of the organization in 1996, when it received a $9.5 million loan from the city’s housing department to build a 170-room single room occupancy building at 1801 S. Wabash St.
Several Grace Place programs have become neighborhood fixtures, including First United Methodist Church’s free breakfast for the homeless on Saturdays; the Grace Place Playgroup, which is run by parent volunteers and is in its 18th year; and Girl Scout troops.
“One woman came in recently and introduced herself as a worker with the U.S. Census,” said Curtis. “I asked, ‘Don’t I know you?’ and she said she had been in a Girl Scout troop that met at Grace Place 15 years ago. Way cool.”
The newest initiative at Grace Place is reaching out to college students like those who participated in the lunchtime concerts. The effort also includes students attending the South Loop campuses of DePaul University, Robert Morris and Columbia College.
“It’s all about the church meeting students where they are,” said Megan Jones, the first campus pastor with Manna, which also has its offices at Grace Place. “It’s an effort to make connections with them and build relationships with them where they are.”
Curtis said they have added energy and vitality to the community and as they come into their own as adults, he wants to help them answer the questions, “Who am I and where am I going?”
