“In the 1990s, Joe Partipilo’s collection of antiques was growing at the same time the Lutheran church was shrinking its real estate footprint in Chicago. ‘I was looking for a place where I could live with my collection,’ Partipilo says now, and the Lutheran denomination was selling off a handful of neighborhood churches to replace them with a single larger one. That’s how Partipilo came to own a brick church from 1913 on Cornelia Street in North Center.
“Since 1999, it has been both his home and a showcase for the objects he collects and, for the past 45 years, sells. His store, Olde Chicago Antiques, was first on Belmont Avenue, later on Kedzie Avenue and now is in the town where he’s semi-retired, Two Rivers, Wis.
“A quarter-century after Partipilo converted the former Lutheran church, its interior still has its stained glass windows on three sides of what’s now a vast living space. Also intact are the carved and curved wood beams supporting a ceiling that peaks at 25 feet.
“The pointed arches and soaring tower make the red brick church a distinguished corner-holder in true Chicago neighborhood style.
“As Partipilo recalls it, he was the only one of several bidders on this building who didn’t plan to tear the church down to replace it with multiple housing units, ‘and the church was happy to hear that.’
“All the stained glass was in excellent condition and has been retained by Partipilo. It’s beautiful and filters incoming daylight into colors, while at the same time ‘it gives you privacy,’ he says. ‘People can’t see inside.’
“Partipilo, who has an architecture education, broke down the large space by installing a kitchen where the altar used to be. … The kitchen contains the most modern elements in the house, but stays with the high, airy ceiling of the original thanks to the arches on the upper portions of its walls.
“‘I’m the type of antique dealer that has antiques in his home,’ Partipilo says. ‘A lot of dealers don’t want to live with them, but I live with them every minute, every day.'” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 6/25/26)