Category:New England Church, Chicago (1870 bldg.)

English: The 1870 building of the New England Congregational Church in Chicago was erected as the third church building of this name between 1868 and 1870. Its congregation was an offspring of the first congregational church in Chicago. The New England Church congregation was effected on 15 June 1853. The same year the congregation erected a building at the corner of Indiana and Wolcott streets, later replaced by a larger new house of worship, which was consumed in the 1871 Great Fire. When this second church grew too small a new site was purchased at the corner of Dearborn Street and Delaware Place, and a the third church building was dedicated on 2 January 1870, its erection having occupied nearly two years. The architecture was of Gothic revival style, with a commodious chapel on the northeast. The main entrance, which was on the western façade, was surmounted by an arch, flanked by granite columns, above being a rosette. Light was admitted to the audience room through three rosettes and numerous windows of richly stained glass. The ceiling of the auditorium was supported by rafters of dark wood, and a magnificent organ, costing $7,000, is against the eastern wall. A baptismal font of antique fourteenth century design, brought from the old Scrosby church in England, was one of the features of the church's interior.