Church
St Michael Catholic Church in Old Town
1633 N Cleveland Ave, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
Twin-spired brick landmark whose walls survived a great fire and whose bells once fused into ruin.
This guide to St Michael Catholic Church in Old Town traces Michael Diversey, a German-born Chicago beer baron and alderman who handed a scrap of land to German Catholics in 1852, and the suspicion that split the German and Luxembourgish families praying side by side soon after. It follows the parish through eight years of departing pastors and an imported order of missionaries, up to the tower's completion in 1869 as the tallest structure in the country. Stand at the base of that brick tower and look up.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.