One of my dearest friends sat in the chair across from me. He’d just verbalized ideas I thought of as the perfect article for this blog. I said so… and his response took me off guard. I’ll paraphrase some of how I remember that conversation. “We’re getting older,” he began, with a half-smile at the obvious comment. “I don’t think […]

Maggie huddled on the hallway floor, tears running down her face. Her sobs were audible. As I came around the corner into the small niche formed by a secondary school exit, she seemed to squeeze herself more closely together. “Are you okay,” I said — surely the stupidest question that moment on planet earth. Maggie began turning away from me, […]

Yet again! Wilson and Sheridan Avenues draw some less than wholly complementary (if not wholly critical either) attention from a lion of literature… or more properly in Henry Justin Smith’s case, journalism. Mr. Smith, along with having written some dozen books (the majority of them addressing the art of journalism), was also managing editor of the no longer extant (1875-1978) […]

  (Edna Ferber, left, in 1922.) This article continues our “Wild History” series about 931-939 Wilson, now the Wilson Abbey, as well as the neighborhood directly around it.   East of Wilson and Sheridan Avenues’ intersection in 1922, the eighteen story Sheridan Plaza Hotel had existed on the north corner for one year; a few doors east on Wilson toward […]

Could Ben Hecht — famous newspaperman, novelist, Hollywood Screenwriter, and for a time a Chicagoan — have visited a tavern at 931-39 Wilson and been inspired to write a story as a result of that visit? (See “Wild History” Parts 1 and 2, and JPUSA’s “official” Wilson Abbey page.) It would hardly be fair to claim outright that the “cabaret […]

The newly-named “Wilson Abbey” at 935 W. Wilson will soon open its doors to our Uptown neighborhood with everything from a fascinating coffee shop to a massive multi-purpose meeting room, concert venue, medium-sized theater, recording studio, rentable office space, and much much more. To say we’re excited about this fresh expression of creative energy in the heart of Uptown would […]

From its inception in 1917 as an auto dealership (Wild History pt 1) to its lengthy misuse as a strip club and gambling joint (Wild History pt 2), Uptown Chicago’s 935 W. Wilson Avenue has been resurrected. Jesus People USA purchased the building in the early 1980s, but as a community of Christians not only serving the poor but living […]

[Before reading part 2, did you read Wild History: Jesus People USA’s Wilson Abbey from Auto Dealership to Strip Club to New Uptown Gem Part 1? Jesus People USA, the intentional Christian community located in Uptown Chicago, has finished a gut rehab of an historic building located just across the street from their 920 W. Wilson headquarters. This is part […]

The 1993 100th Anniversary of the World Parliament of Religions… it would be, said friend and New Religions scholar Elliot Miller, a mix of everything from soup to nuts religiously speaking… The gathering place for thousands of worshipers of millions of gods. And it was right in my home town at the Palmer House in Chicago. I suggested meeting up […]

(A Message by Jon Trott at Jesus People USA Evangelical Covenant Church)   O Lord, remember in David’s favor all the hardships he endured; how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, “I will not enter my house or get into my bed; 4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber […]