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Originally Posted by Lady Jane
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Lady Jane, of course I knew it would be you. The church turns 160 years old this year and this building turns 100 in about a year and a half, November 2025. Little tidbit that’s in that Wikipedia article. As it would be with Chicago, they took some of the church’s land to widen La Salle after the building plans were finished, so the choir loft design had to be altered and compressed, which made the loft very steep. I can tell you first hand the steps into the loft are very steep and narrow. Thankfully there are handrails on each level and I definitely make use of them. The sanctuary is the largest column-free auditorium in Chicago and it has nearly perfect acoustics. It seats a little over 3,700 people.
DL Moody started out as a shoe salesman with a plan to become a millionaire, before becoming a Christian. After he moved to Chicago he saw that the children of the workers in the slums of Chicago had no access to education. So, he started a “Sunday school” in the “Little Hell” area of the city. In addition to teaching about faith his school taught the Three Rs. Within about two years his school had over 1,000 students. That’s how the church began.
One other little tidbit. The Great Chicago Fire began on a Sunday evening just at the end of the evening service. His message was titled “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?”, but he didn’t give an alter call, instead telling the congregation he wanted them to think about that question until the next Sunday. Just as they were all leaving the fire bells began to ring and by Monday morning one third of Chicago had burned to the ground, including the Illinois Street Church. After that Moody committed to never again end a service without giving an alter call.
And one last tidbit. In 1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped in Chicago as his train traveled to Washington, DC for his inauguration and he visited Moody’s Sunday school while he was there.