Louis Hippach Family Chapel - Oakbrook Terrace, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 51.540 W 087° 57.942
16T E 419846 N 4634572
A chapel built as a memorial to the parents of Louis Hippach, with sculpture by Richard W. Bock, a Chicago area sculptor and collaborator with Frank Lloyd Wright.
Waymark Code: WMBWGH
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 06/27/2011
Views: 1
From the sculptor Bock's memoirs:
"The chapel presents a plain high-pitched roof, the walls are of fitted various-sized blocks of sandstone, the windows are of Gothic design in leaded amber colored glass. The main feature is a square tower with a "porte cochere" connecting it with the building at the main entrance. Here I placed a memorial urn, bronze, five and half feet tall., which holds a record of the important world events of the 1920s, including eight panels showing man from the cradle to the grave and a row of portrait heads of the world's great philosophers and religious prophets. It took over a year to compete this one object. Half way up the surface of the tower are three 5x6 foot panels. The tower terminates at the top with over life sized figures resting their arms on the cornice."
More from the Smithsonian database:
On the interior, the exposed black walnut beams of the chapel terminate in corbels, four on each side, which are carved with figures holding shields to represent different ages. The ceiling and the wall over the altar are adorned with murals. Flanking the altar mural are bronze tablets depicting kneeling angels holding wreaths. (The chapel was not open when I visited.)
At the rear of the chapel are the graves of Louis Hippach's parents adorned at the foot with a figure of Hermes, shaped in an obelisk, with the suggestion of wings and other symbolic designs representing life.
It strikes me as a bit odd that the memorialized parents are left outside!
TITLE: Louis Hippach Family Chapel
ARTIST(S): Bock, Richard W., 1865-1949, sculptor. Waltersdorf, Arthur, architect.
DATE: Dedictated Sept. 15, 1928.
MEDIUM: Urn: bronze; Reliefs: Colorado white marble.
CONTROL NUMBER: IAS 76009004
Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link]
PHYSICAL LOCATION:
On the grounds of
Chapel Hill Gardens West
Roosevelt Road & Illinois Route 83
Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois
DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH:
The listing refers to this area as Villa Park, but it is now called Oakbrook Terrace.
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