This historic church has had five different buildings and currently occupies a skyscraper in downtown Chicago. The church is on floors 1-4 as well as having a beautiful chapel on the very top floor.
First United Methodist was founded in 1831, six years before the city was incorporated. Although the congregation has had five different buildings, this founding date makes it the oldest church in Chicago. It’s current skyscraper building was built in 1922 and was, at that time, the tallest building in Chicago.
A plaque on the outside of the building declares it the world’s tallest church building, based on “the distance from the church's street level entrance to the top of the church's spire or steeple.” However, the church only occupies the first four floors and the top floor, with floors 5-21 rented out. It is not the world’s tallest church building where the majority of the space is dedicated to religious purpose. (
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According to the Chicago Tribune, the Sky Chapel on the building’s top floor is the highest place of worship above street level in the world, at 400 feet. (
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From their website, here is some additional information about this unique church building:
After World War I, there were those who believed that First Methodist Church of Chicago should sell its valuable downtown real estate and move to the growing suburbs.
Instead, the leaders of the church followed the dictum of the great Chicago architect Daniel Burnham who famously said: “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work… Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty. Think big.”
In this spirit, the congregation’s leaders decided the church would stay at “the Methodist Corner.” And they would not only build a new church, but a big one and a tall one. They engaged the renowned architectural firm of Holabird & Roche and gave them instructions to design a building that would be “Gothic in structure, with a churchly tower, a radiant cross at its pinnacle.” It would be a building that could rightly be thought of as a city temple.
Now the congregation stills gathers for worship in the first-floor sanctuary that seats about 500 people. The focal point is the altar with its wood carving that depicts Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Above the altar is a stained glass window that tells the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The windows along the east and west walls portray events described in the Old and New Testaments. On the west wall there is one window that depicts downtown Chicago and the Chicago Temple. Next to it is a window that honors institutions in the Chicago area that the congregation helped found, including Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Northwestern University, Wesley Hospital and the Methodist Home for Children.
Located on the second floor are the Dixon Chapel, James Parlor, the Heritage Room and church offices. The third and fourth floors house the classrooms and nursery, a conference room and a choir room.
Each year thousands of people make the pilgrimage by two elevators and a set of stairs to the Sky Chapel located under the spire 400 feet above the streets of the city. Dedicated on Easter morning 1952, the chapel was a gift from the Walgreen family in memory of Mr. Charles R. Walgreen. The chapel’s altar is a companion piece to the altar in the sanctuary but in the carving on this altar Jesus is shown weeping over the city of Chicago because people still do not know “the things that make for peace.”
Floors five through 21 are rented as offices, mainly to lawyers who prize the proximity to the city, county and state buildings.
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