“A 19th-century Catholic school building in Bronzeville that was headed toward demolition and replacement with new apartments has received a reprieve of sorts while the developer tries to resell the Oakwood Boulevard site.
“The Holy Angels school building went back on the market yesterday, priced at just under $1.1 million. In September, the Archdiocese of Chicago sold the building, which dates to the late 1880s, to a legal entity associated with developer Eagle OZ, which focuses on development in opportunity zones. The sale price was $725,000, according to the Cook County Clerk.
“Brian Flannery, who lives in a vintage row home near the building and is on the board of the Oakwood Boulevard Neighbors Association, disagrees. Calling demolition of the Holy Angels school ‘a salvation project for a blighted building is criminal,’ Flannery said. ’It can be saved.’ With his wife, Flannery has brought both their present home and another in Pullman back from decrepit states.
“Flannery and Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, both said they would prefer to see the school building, which opened in 1887, kept standing by any future owner.
“Closed since about 2018 — Holy Angels School is now housed in a former Chicago Public Schools building a block away on 40th Street — it has extensive asbestos and deterioration inside, Nahon said.
“Miller said neither of those is insurmountable. Holy Angels “absolutely could be reused,” he said, “and it should be. We’ve seen so many buildings that were (said to be) unusable put back into use.”
“School buildings in particular are often good candidates for residential repurposing, Miller said, in part because each classroom can be remade into an apartment with a kitchen and bathroom. Developers have done it in Noble Square, West Pullman and Uptown, among other places.
“A buyer has until June to take over the existing permits, according to the property listing. But after June, a new owner could face a harder battle to get demolition approved. Among the hurdles: Ald. Lamont Robinson, 4th, rescinded his support for the project in mid-2024, after witnessing community members’ vocal opposition to it.
“Holy Angels, opened by the Sisters of Mercy in 1887 to serve a largely Irish congregation, weathered racial change decades later in a way that many other institutions did not. When Black residents arriving during the Great Migration were mostly required to live in what’s now Bronzeville, a white nun, Sister Hortensia, confronted the flight of the school’s original population by adding Black nuns to the teaching ranks and rebuilding the student population, from 110 to 1,200 in a decade.
“According to a 1957 Chicago Tribune article, Sister Hortensia took to heart the advice of the archdiocese’s Cardinal Stritch, who said, ‘Remember that these people are no different from you.’
“That the building withstood the painful segregation years in such a way makes it a kind of landmark of resilience. Tearing it down in a now-resurgent Bronzeville, Flannery said, would be ‘ignoring the history and culture of this neighborhood.'” (Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1/3/25)
Preservation Chicago is advocating for a good preservation outcome. The former Holy Angels School at 545 E. Oakwood is an ideal candidate for residential adaptive reuse. There many examples of similar buildings that have been successfully adaptively reused for residential. It is disappointing that buildings like this are allowed to sit vacant and idle for many years, instead of being repurposed.
Read the full story at Crain’s Chicago Business
- Developer looks to resell historic Catholic school building in Bronzeville slated for demolition, Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business, 1/3/25
- Historic Bronzeville school back on market after demolition outcry; Developer Eagle OZ had plans to replace the former Holy Angels Catholic School with a 48-unit apartment building, TRD Staff, The Real Deal, 1/6/25
- ZBA approves variations for 545 E. Oakwood, The residential development would have 48 apartments, Lukas Kugler, Urbanize Chicago, 4/10/24