1900 W. Greenleaf Avenue

1900 W. Greenleaf Avenue, the Rogers Park Baptist Church

Circa: 1919

This church was included in the 2006 Annual Fall House Tour.

The Rogers Park Baptist Church held its first meetings in a basement in 1891. Pastor Judson Eber Conant, a prolific author of many volumes on evangelism, did his early pastoral work at this Baptist Church, serving the congregation as early as 1895.

The church found its present home in 1919, when construction was completed for the first of two church structures on the northwest corner of Greenleaf Avenue and Wolcott Avenue. A fire tore through the original building on Good Friday, 1935, burning it to the ground, and a year later, in the heart of the Great Depression, the congregation dedicated a new building on the same property.

Today, the Rogers Park Baptist Church remains steadfast in its ever-growing and ever-changing neighborhood. The congregation's minister Reverend Robert J. Bolander fosters an environment that reflects and champions the diversity of the Rogers Park community. "Every nationality is welcome," said Reverend Bolander. He has big plans for getting the church out into the community, and vice versa.

This 70+ year old building stands as a symbol of the past, a meeting place of the present, a haven of sanctuary for those who pass through the doors, and a beacon of hope for the future.

Two other congregations share this building. Cristo En La Ciudad (Spanish) and Evangelical Bethel Church of Chicago (Haitian).