St. Simeon Mirotočivi Serbian Orthodox Church, at 3737 E. 114th St. on Chicago’s Far East Side, is being considered for preliminary city landmark status alongside neighboring Serbian Hall. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the city’s Historic Preservation Division recommended the step and that the Commission on Chicago Landmarks could vote next month to begin considering the properties.
Preliminary consideration is not final designation
A vote to begin consideration would not make the buildings Chicago landmarks. It would start a review process: city preservation guidance says permit applications for a proposed landmark are evaluated for effects on significant historical and architectural features, and work affecting those features requires Commission approval. The city’s designation-process guidance describes the steps toward a decision. Whether the commission will initiate consideration, and whether it will ultimately designate the properties, remain unresolved.
A neighborhood-funded church with a Serbian design reference
St. Simeon was built in 1969, drawing on the design of the early-15th-century Church of the Presentation of the Mother of God at Kalenić Monastery in central Serbia, according to the Sun-Times. The paper reports that the Chicago congregation raised construction money through members’ paycheck pledges, with many worshippers employed at area mills. Serbian Hall, which is also part of the proposed consideration, was completed in 1965.
The church sits within a longer, varied history of Orthodox worship in Chicago. The Serbian Orthodox Church’s archived account says Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral, designed by Louis Henry Sullivan, was consecrated in 1903. It is an earlier Chicago example, but differs from St. Simeon in date, architect and denomination; it does not establish a direct connection between the buildings. The Diocese of New Gracanica-Midwestern America’s directory also lists Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral at 5701 N. Redwood Dr., a separate Serbian Orthodox congregation.
