Second Presbyterian Church | The Most Beautiful Places in Chicago with Geoffrey Baer

Second Presbyterian Church

Storied Chicago families with such names as Armour and Pullman used to attend this historic South Loop church. Second Presbyterian Church on South Michigan Avenue is home to 21 stained glass windows, nine of which are Tiffany windows dating between 1892 and 1918. The church became a congregation in 1842, just five years after the city was founded. The original, much simpler church structure was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. According to the church’s history, its current late-gothic revival building was dedicated in 1874, and the interior was rebuilt after a fire in 1900. The new interior was rebuilt in the arts and crafts style, designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. One of the famed Tiffany windows, the Peace Window, was restored in 2018. In 1974, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a Chicago landmark, too. Prominent Black educator and speaker Booker T. Washington spoke at Second Presbyterian Church in 1901.