St. Ignatius is a jesuit high school located on Roosevelt Road at Blue Island Avenue. The main building, built in 1869, and the adjacent Holy Family Church, built in 1857, are architectural treasures. Those two buildings, however, are not the focus of this page. Placed around campus are bits and pieces of ornament from other architectural treasures that haven't survived as long as St. Ignatius. It is an architectural graveyard.

As St. Ignatius itself is a bit too well known to qualify for the "forgotten" aspect in this site's title, there is no sense in discussing it here when there is plenty of good information out there. For the history of St. Ignatius, there is a Wikipedia page, a succinct entry on the Chicago Landmarks page, and the school's homepage if you're into rosy institutional doubletalk. Also, check out the Encyclopedia of Chicago entry about Loyola University, the original occupant of the building; lastly, there is an entry in the Historical American Buildings Survey. For information about Holy Family Church, there is a good history at The Center For Religious Architecture, as well as three images taken between 1944 and 1958 by Charles Cushman, who else? On to the content!

Above and below: These five plaques are among many that were salvaged from bridge houses on the Ogden Avenue viaduct, built in 1932 and demolished in 1992. Photographer Ron Schramm documented these plaques in their original state, as well as the demolition of the Ogden viaduct. These photographs are published exclusively on our Ogden Avenue page. In addition, Mr. Schramm informed us that many of the Ogden plaques are in storage under the Roosevelt Road viaduct.

Left: Chicago Stadium near the completion of construction, 1930. Right: Postcard of the Stadium, 1950. The location of the bas-reliefs at St. Ignatius can be seen between the top of the long vertical windows, just under the cornice.

When I used to play hockey, I'd hear constant stories from old-timers about how great it was to see Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito, or even Chris Chelios play at Chicago Stadium. Now, I've seen hockey games in tight, cramped old arenas and I know firsthand they have their benefits over modern arenas. But those benefits are unquantifiable in comparison to increased revenue. Buildings are built in Chicago to make money first; aesthetics and history are distant concerns. Chicago Stadium was demolished in 1995, the site is now a parking lot for the United Center.

Above: Bas-relief sculptures from Chicago Stadium, appended onto St. Ignatius' gymnasium. The Stadium was designed by the firm of Hall, Lawrence, and Ratcliffe, however we cannot determine who was the sculptor of these pieces. The sculptures depict well sculpted mostly nude athletes performing a variety of activities. Is the guy at far left spectating?

Left: Part of the cornice from Adler & Sullivan's Stock Exchange Building is on display here. It is the 10-foot tall flowerpot in the bottom left of this image. The building, built in 1894, was well-chronicled before it was razed in 1972. Standing next to it gives one a great sense of scale. A small decorative feature, relative to the rest of the building, alone will dwarf you.

Right image: Richard Nickel, UIC - Chicago Imagebase.

Above: This severed German head (left) was originally part of the loggia on the Garrick Theatre (right). The building was torn down in 1960 to make way for a parking garage, but was not without its supporters. The Garrick marked one of the earliest organized attempts by the public to preserve a historic building. A small section of the loggia was salvaged and installed on the facade of the Second City Theatre. A seemingly identical head was spotted in front of 1945 N. Lincoln, incorporated into a brick wall. The above right photograph was taken by Richard Nickel shortly before the building was demolished.

Right: I have no idea where this small piece of ornament was originally from. Most, but not all of these pieces have accompaning plaques with information as to their origin.

More examples of both of these pieces can on the Harold Washington Library. These look new enough to have been cast when the building was erected, so they were probably never actually on another building. The design of the HW library incorporates elements and motifs from other notable Chicago buildings; perhaps these were copied from another source? Thanks to William Huchting for writing in about these.

Left: Again, no idea. There are at least four of these on the building. There is a possibility that they did not come off another building.

Right: I'll let the plaque at the bottom of this statue do the talking; The Chicago Herald, cast bronze, sculpted by Johannes Gelert in 1890; was originally mounted on the Herald Building, designed by Burnham & Root, at 165 West Washington Street.

Image: DN-0056677, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society.

Burnham & Root's Record-Herald Building, 1911. There are two dates at the top of the building, 1881 and 1890. It was possibly built in two stages. It was torn down at some point between 1911 and...now. The less you know...

These two art deco style relief sculptures were originally from a building at 47th and Michigan. We can't find much else about them other than an educated guess that building was residental. Probably a fairly large and ornate apartment building at a promient intersection in a dense commercial area. Then again, could be wrong.

Left: I'll be honest. I got sloppy with this one. I remember a plaque for this one, but I took poor notes. Info coming soon!?

Right: There are many of these Ionic capitals placed among the Ignatius campus. Greek Revival architecture was an incredibly popular style, meaning that these could have come from any number of sources.

Last updated 9 April 2008.
Page authored 28 July 2007.
Written by Serhii Chrucky.

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