Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago:
An Arts & Crafts Masterpiece

by William Tyre

Saturday, February 17th at 3pm ET (2 pm Central time)

Second Presbyterian Church of Chicago is the only church in the city to be designated a National Historic Landmark.

Recognized for its distinctive Arts & Crafts interior designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1900, the sanctuary contains significant examples of mural painting, light fixtures, ornamental plaster, carved wood, and stained glass. There are nine windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and two by the English designer Edward Burne-Jones for Morris & Co. The interior is largely intact, with the various elements working together to form a Gesamtkunstwerk – a total work of art – the true beauty of which is being revealed through a series of recent projects including the restoration of the massive Tree of Life mural by Frederic Clay Bartlett.

Bill Tyre is the Executive Director and Curator of Glessner House, and has served on the board of Friends of Historic Second Church since February 2007, a preservation-based non-profit for which he has researched and written extensively on the history, art and architecture of the church.