{"nrhp_refnum":"77000481","name":"St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"718 W. Adams St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.879129367000075,"lon":-87.64451108199995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-07-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a brick and limestone-foundation church at 718 West Adams Street, at the corner of Adams and Desplaines Streets on Chicago's near west side. It was built in 1854-1856 to designs by Carter and Bauer.","why_significant":"It is the oldest church building still standing in Chicago and served the city's original Irish parish, making it a living reminder of Chicago's Irish heritage. It is also a rare Midwestern example of early, mid-century Romanesque style. It is an early work of Asher Carter, the second architect to practice in Chicago.","narrative":"St. Patrick's Church occupies the northwest corner of Adams and Desplaines Streets on Chicago's near west side. Construction began in 1854 and, apart from the upper tower stages, finished in 1856, at a cost of $35,000. Carter and Bauer designed it in an impure mid-century Romanesque style, with brick walls, arched corbel-tables, buttresses, round-headed windows and octagonal front towers. The plan has no transepts, and the entrance faces Desplaines Street because the choir and apse project from the west end. The parish was founded in 1846 to serve English-speaking immigrants, largely Irish, and the land was bought in 1850. It is the oldest church building in the city. It also stands as one of few Romanesque examples in the Midwest and an early work of Asher Carter, who settled in Chicago in 1840 and was the second architect to practice there after Van Osdel. The towers were later altered with a belfry, spire and dome.","period_of_significance":"1854-1856","architect_builder":"Architects Carter and Bauer (Asher Carter and Augustus Bauer); masons Heald and Waterhouse; carpenter W.E. Dunn","architectural_style":"Romanesque (impure mid-century Romanesque)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied and in religious use; the form's data sheet gives function as church, then and now.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.169014-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/72/8921/28892172/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/77000481.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000481/799f701ec7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000481/799f701ec7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"This illustration was made by Peter Potrowl. Please credit this with : © Peter Potrowl in the immediate vicinity of the image. A link to my website sitemai.eu would be much appreciated but isn't mandatory. An email to Peter Potrowl would be appreciated too. Do not copy this image illegally by ignoring the terms of the license below, as it is not in the public domain. If you would like special permission to use, license, or purchase the image please contact me Peter Potrowl to negotiate terms. More free pictures in my website. Donations are accepted here and here.","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_-_St._Patrick%27s_Church_-_2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">This illustration was made by Peter Potrowl. Please credit this with : © Peter Potrowl in the immediate vicinity of the image. A link to my website sitemai.eu would be much appreciated but isn't mandatory. An email to Peter Potrowl would be appreciated too. Do not copy this image illegally by ignoring the terms of the license below, as it is not in the public domain. If you would like special permission to use, license, or purchase the image please contact me Peter Potrowl to negotiate terms. More free pictures in my website. Donations are accepted here and here.</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_-_St._Patrick%27s_Church_-_2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892172","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St._Patrick%27s_Church_(Chicago)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7085048"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/st-patricks-roman-catholic-church-77000481/"}