On October 13th and 14th the Ramonat Scholars participated in Open House Chicago, an annual architecture festival that allows Chicagoans to explore over 250 buildings throughout the city for free. In their latest blog posts, the Scholars discuss what they learned from exploring the historic Catholic spaces, political institutions, and ethnic neighborhoods that shaped Chicago’s history. Along with our class readings last week, the Ramonat Scholars’ experiences during Open House Chicago weekend raised questions about the distinctiveness of Chicago’s Catholic history: Are Chicago Catholics different from Catholics in Boston or New York? What, if anything, makes Chicago’s Catholic history unique?

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In their blogs the Scholars generally agree that Chicago’s Catholic heritage is distinct. Unlike older cities in the Northeast, Catholic immigrant communities in Chicago grew with the city  during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and therefore played a larger role in shaping Chicago’s institutions and urban landscape. The ethnic diversity of Chicago’s Catholic community is also unique according to the Scholars, who visited parishes founded by Irish, German, Polish, and Ukrainian immigrants during Open House weekend. Lastly, many of the Scholars point to the national power and longevity of Chicago’s political machine in the twentieth century (exemplified by Catholic figures like Mayor Richard J. Daley) as evidence of Chicago’s unique place in the history of American Catholicism.

Read their latest blog posts to learn more ⇒⇒⇒