Fourth Presbyterian Church, 1965

Home to wealthy congregants and influential pastors, Fourth Presbyterian soon earned a civic and national reputation befitting its magnificent Gothic structure. Called “a social settlement with a spire,” the church reached out to the poor in the nearby “Little Hell” neighborhood. It helped create the Presbyterian Hospital in 1884, and it seeded sister churches in the city's immigrant enclaves. Social activism continued during the twentieth century, as members tutored Cabrini Green children and Cook County Jail inmates. In 1979 the church helped to create Atrium Village, an innovative mixed-income housing development.

Known throughout its history for preaching, community outreach, education, music, and the arts, Fourth Presbyterian Church has positioned itself as a model for mainline Protestantism in the new century.

R. Jonathan Moore