A Church Designed by a Student of Frank Lloyd Wright

Located at South Kimbark Avenue 5472 in the neighborhood of Hyde Park, Chicago, St. Thomas the Apostle Church was built in 1922. Designed by Barry Byrne, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, the church incorporates elements from Wright's Prairie School of design and the modernist movement. Built during a period of liturgical renewal, the church is often cited as anticipating the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council by some 40 years due to its projecting altar and lack of interior columns.

In 1886, following renovations to the church building, a parochial school was established, staffed by Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. By 1916, the school facilities were found to be inadequate and the parish began renting a nearby vacant public school building. In 1929, a new school was built. In 1980, the school merged with other nearby Catholic schools.

In 2021, the school was involved in controversy when reporting showed that the Augustinian-owned St. John Stone Friary, less than a block away, began to house James Ray, a priest of the Chicago archdiocese who had been accused of sexual abuse of minors multiple times, beginning in 2000. Neither Augustinian nor Archdiocese of Chicago officials raised the proximity of St. Thomas School as a possible concern, with church records incorrectly stating that there was no school in the immediate area of the friary.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons