Chicago Lawn’s ‘story’ on display at library

By Kathy Headley

Your correspondent in Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor

6610 S. Francisco • (773) 776-7778

At the Chicago Public Library this summer, the theme has been City of Stories. In keeping with that theme, the Chicago Lawn Branch Library has a bulletin board with the story entitled Chicago Lawn Chapter One. It includes some photos and a synopsis of the first years. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop in and check it out before it comes down to be replaced by another display.

Have you ever been in the building on the southwest corner of 61^st Place and Kedzie, right across from the library? Perhaps back when it was a medical building? I had not. I have always just thought of it as a big square with little examination rooms extending from the sides. In short, nothing special.

Kathy Headley

Last week while at the Chicago Lawn Library Resource Fair, I had the opportunity to tour the inside of that building. It is now Living Word Christian Center, a Christian non-denominational church, headed by Pastors Ruben Mendoza and Areli Salgado. Terri Mendoza, Ruben’s wife, approached me during the fair and offered to take me through.

What a beautiful transformation of a building. The sanctuary holds 250 people with more room in the balcony. There are several meeting rooms, one dedicated specifically for young adults, one for the younger kids, a large kitchen and café.

The building is not a complete square as I had thought either. Half of it, from Kedzie west to the alley, is a rectangle, the next half extending from Kedzie midway to the alley would be a square, leaving a nice size open area behind it which is used for parking as well as for outdoor events. While currently the adult services inside are offered in Spanish, the youth events and classes are done in English and, as it evolves, looks to be a nice addition to the neighborhood.

The parish office located in the Pastoral Center at St. Clare of Montefalco Chapel, 5443 S. Washtenaw, will be closed until further notice. The last day it will be open is Wednesday, Aug. 31. The main office is at St. Rita of Cascia, 6243 S. Fairfield.

Pastors Ben and Jordan from Hope Church remind you not to cook on Tuesday nights, but to come to the Marquette Park Fieldhouse, where they will be serving dinner at 6 p.m. From what I have seen when I have stopped in, the desserts look fantastic.

Mark your calendars for an interesting event coming up at Marquette Park called Print Pollination. It takes place on Saturday, Sept. 10 from 2 to 5 p.m. So what is print pollination?

This is a pop-up artmaking series centering on migration that engages the outdoors as a community art studio. It uses papermaking and printmaking to connect history to the natural environment. Seed papermaking, silkscreen/block printing and zine/bookmaking will be featured as all are rooted in the seasons and cycles of the monarch butterfly.

Over at St. Thomas More, Little Rock Scripture Study will be offered for adults age 18 and over on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 6 p.m. in the STM Mission Center for Evangelization (which is the former convent). Registration takes place after the Saturday 4:30 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. Masses in the narthex of the church. The cost is $15, which includes a book. For more information, call (773) 436-4444.

By the 1970s and 1980s I am guessing most of us outgrew our Matchbox cars and Hasbro and Kenner toys. Now if we wanted to play a game we might have been heading over to Irv’s. Last week in our travels back to the ‘70s and ‘80s Tom Z remembered spending lots of time over there perhaps, of a summer evening. No one has correctly guessed where Irv’s was yet, so we will let it ride another week and see if anyone can get it.

As I mentioned last week, it was not on 59^th, 63^rd, Western, Kedzie or Pulaski so that narrows it down a bit. It was there for a while. Irv’s closed in 1992. There is now a large store on most of the land where Irv’s once sat.