General Synod (1820-1918)

Northern Illinois Synod
(1910 map)
Advent
Ascension
Augsburg
Calvary English
Christ English
Cuyler
Grace English
Hope
Luther Memorial (Ravenswood)
Mt. Zion
People's
Reformation
Rogers Park English
St. Andrew's English
St. James' (Logan Sq.)
St. Mark's Ger.-English
St. Paul's
Tabor
Trinity (Cent. Ill.)
Unity
Woodlawn Immanuel

Wartburg Synod
Bethel German
St. Simon's German
Trinity German (Holy Trinity)

Chicago Theological Lutheran Seminary

The Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Chicago, Ill., was opened on October 1, 1891 at the German Lutheran mission chapel of the Pittsburgh Synod, located on Addison St., near Sheffield Ave. This mission was organized in 1896 into St. Mark’s Lutheran Church (pictured below).

The first seminary building was the president’s residence, erected in 1891 at the corner of Sheffield and Waveland Aves. The second building was Eliza Hall, named after the wife of Dr. William A. Passavant, its founder and first president of the Board of Directors. This building, constructed in 1893, also housed four class rooms, the library and the student dormitory.

The seminary continued to function on the North Side of Chicago until 1910, when the Addison St. property was sold. The city of Maywood, Ill., over the invitation of other towns, succeeded in having the seminary relocated there. Ten buildings were dedicated and occupied in the fall of 1910 on the fifteen acres located between 10^th and 13^th Aves. on the east and west and between Van Buren St. and Harrison St. on the north and south.

The seminary, originally serving several synods of the General Council, became a member of the United Lutheran Church in America with the formation of that body in 1918. When the ULCA merged with three other bodies to form the Lutheran Church in America in 1962, the Maywood seminary was merged with Augustana Seminary of Rock Island, Ill., Grand View Seminary of Des Moines, Iowa, and Suomi Seminary of Hancock, Mich. Central Lutheran Theological Seminary (formerly Western Seminary) of Fremont, Neb., joined the merged seminary in 1967. The newly formed Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago held classes in Rock Island and Maywood until a new facility was dedicated in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago in 1967.

Following the seminary’s removal to Maywood, Charles H. Weeghman constructed Weeghman Park, seating capacity 14,000, at the corner of Clark and Addison in 1914 for his Federal League Team, the Whales. After the Federal League folded after the 1915 season, Weeghman purchased the Chicago Cubs and moved them to Weeghman Park. The park later was renamed Cubs Park in 1920 after the Wrigley family purchased the team from Weeghman. In 1926 the park’s name was changed to Wrigley Field.

Sources
Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary Semi Centennial 1891-1941. Maywood, Ill.: Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, 1941.

Skillrud, Harold Clayton, LSTC: Decade of Decision. Chicago: Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1969.

The Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Chicago, Illinois, Maywood, Illinois. Maywood, Illinois: The Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Chicago, ca. 1928.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/chc/ballpark/chc_ballpark_history.jsp