St Gertrude Church Key Dates
St. Gertrude through the years
March, 1910 — Catholics in the northern portion of Edgewater, members of the St. Ita parish, begin talking about the need for a church of their own.
Late 1911 — A delegation of three men — Peter J. Mulvaney, P. Frank Combiths and Frank Kelly — meets with Archbishop James Quigley to ask for a new parish.
January 3, 1912 — The new parish is established. The pastor is Rev. Peter F. Shewbridge, and, according to Peter M. Brost, one of the first parishioners, he names the parish in honor of his mother Gertrude. The boundaries are Devon, Thorndale and Ravenswood Avenues and Lake Michigan. Shortly afterward, Shewbridge buys two parcels of land: one on Granville Avenue (the site of the present rectory) and one on Glenwood Avenue (the site of the ministry center and the main building of the Northside Catholic Academy campus at St. Gertrude).
January 8, 1912 — Mulvaney, one of the men to meet with Archbishop Quigley, dies. His funeral is held at St. Ita’s Church.
February 2, 1912 — Rev. Shewbridge celebrates the first Mass in the new parish in his apartment at 6328 N. Magnolia Ave. The altar boy is Vincent Mulvaney, and in attendance are Mary Downey and Peter Mulvaney’s sisters-in-law Nellie and Irene Kean.
February 4, 1912 — The first two Sunday Masses, attended by a total of 257 people, are celebrated at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. in the auditorium of Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School at 1518 W. Granville Ave., built just six years earlier. The day’s collection totals $46.26 — the equivalent of $1,040 in 2012 dollars. Eleanor Dorothy Burke is christened that day, the parish’s first baptism.
February 20, 1912 — The first couple is married in the parish, Julius Bunnemeyer and Anna Weis. On April 1, 1912, George Tree and Edna Seydel are the second parish couple to marry.
March 31, 1912, Palm Sunday — The first Mass is held in an unheated temporary structure, also called a "portable" church, built of wood around a steel frame, at 1420 W. Granville Ave., the site of the present rectory. Meanwhile, around this time, ground is broken for a three-story church-school building at 6216 N. Glenwood Ave.
May, 1912 — Rev. Shewbridge and the parish’s first assistant Rev. Luke Lyons move from 6328 N. Magnolia Ave. to an apartment in a two-flat brick building on parish-owned land at 6214 N. Glenwood, immediately south of the construction site.
November 15, 1912 — The parish school moves to the newly finished church-school building where the nuns live on the third floor.
December 1, 1912 — Archbishop Quigley dedicates the new church and school structure, and confirms 44 parish children.
1913 — The Holy Name Society, one of the first in Chicago, is established at St. Gertrude.
June 19, 1914 — The first class graduates from St. Gertrude School — James Anderson, John Donohue, James Egan, Edward Evert, Laura Kennedy, Philip McDonald, Stephen Sugrue, Dorothy Lynch, Florence Weishaar and Julia Weishaar.
September 15, 1918 — Rev. Shewbridge, later named a monsignor, is assigned to be pastor at St. Leo’s Church on the South Side. He is replaced by Rev. Bernard C. Heeney who begins working to build a new more substantial church. To this end, the northwest corner of Granville and Glenwood Avenues, the site of a two-flat and a three-flat building, is purchased as well as the southwest corner, occupied by two frame homes.
1922 — The school’s baseball team wins the city championship.
1929 — A new rectory is constructed at 1420 W. Granville Ave., and a new convent is built at 6214 N. Glenwood Ave. Meanwhile, the two buildings on the northwest Granville-Glenwood corner are razed to clear space for the new church.
November 15, 1930 — The cornerstone is laid for the new church at a service at which Msgr. Shewbridge officiates. The general contractor is parishioner Matt Rauen whose shop is on Ravenswood Avenue between Highland and Thome Avenues.
November 15, 1931 — Cardinal George Mundelein dedicates the new church. The combined price tag for the new church, convent and rectory is $600,000, the equivalent of $9 million in 2012 dollars.
January 17, 1936 — Rev. Heeney dies of a heart attack at the age of 64.
April, 1936 — Msgr. Gerald Kealy is named pastor.
November 21, 1937 — Some 1,400 parishioners attend a parish dinner to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the parish. This is also the day that the St. Gertrude boys choir makes its first appearance. Over the coming years, under the director of its director Stanley Anstett, the group makes frequent appearances with the Civic Opera because of its mastery of Italian, French and German.
1939 — The former school-church building is renovated and expanded to add more classrooms. The renovation includes the addition of a new limestone facade to match the church.
1944-1945 — The parish sends a "Going Your Way" newsletter to parishioners serving in the military in World War II.
November 23, 1945 — Msgr. Kealy is named rector of the North American College in Rome where he studied along with classmate Francis Spellman, the archbishop (and soon-to-be named cardinal) of New York.
1946 — Msgr. Kealy resigns the Rome post due to illness.
November 5, 1950 — The new social center at 1401 W. Granville Ave., across the street from the church, is dedicated by Cardinal Samuel Stritch. It features a gymnasium, a library, a guest room for visiting priests, and classrooms. A quarter century later, it will be named the Kealy Social Center.
November 18, 1962 — The 7,500 parishioners of St. Gertrude celebrate the parish’s 50th anniversary.
August, 1967 — A steering committee is named to create a parish council.
May, 1970 — The new parish council holds its first meeting.
January, 1971 — A weekend retreat at Mundelein College sparks Ethel Westley to spearhead the creation of the first faith-sharing group for lay people at St. Gertrude. Over the next 41 years, scores of such groups meet on a regular basis, mostly in homes, to pray, discuss Scripture and share spiritual journeys.
July 19, 1976 — Msgr. Kealy dies at the age of 83.
1977 — Acting on a suggestion from Cardinal Cody, the parish inaugurates a regular Sunday Mass at a satellite location on Sheridan Road to make it easier for seniors in the many high-rise structures there to attend services.
December 26, 1983 — Msgr. Lynch dies at the age of 69.
January, 25, 1984 — An estimated 300 parishioners attend an all-parish meeting with the Personnel Board of the Archdiocese to discuss what the parish needs in its next pastor.
March, 1984 — Rev. William Kenneally, most recently an assistant at St. Nicholas parish in Evanston, is named pastor.
October 14, 1984 — The parish holds its first regular Sunday mass in the gymnasium of the Kealy Social Center. Music for this more informal service is led by Bob Sutter, a musician who often works in pops orchestras. The service is nicknamed "the jazz mass."
June 26, 1988 — The parish establishes its Heart-to-Heart program aimed at enriching the lives of elderly parishioners as well as other senior citizens throughout Edgewater.
December 26, 1994 — St. Gertrude is featured in a three-page article in Time magazine as a representative American Catholic parish. This is part of a package of coverage around Time’s naming Pope John Paul II as the Person of the Year.
December 20, 1996 — As part of a series of stories on the Catholic church in the modern world, the Chicago Tribune publishes a 4,000-word article that focuses on St. Gertrude as a representative Chicago parish.
November 1, 2000 — St. Gertrude is named an Excellent Catholic Parish in a nationwide study of congregations, detailed in "Excellent Catholic Parishes: The Guide to Best Places and Practices" by Paul Wilkes.
May 22, 2004 — The first installment of an unprecedented parish synod is held to plan for the future of the parish. The second session is held October 16. A variety of parish initiatives result including the Growing in Faith adult education series and the Walk on Water (WOW) youth and teen program.
July 1, 2006 — Rev. Dominic Grassi, author of several books about Catholicism and the former pastor of St. Josaphat parish in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, becomes pastor. As pastor emeritus, Father Kenneally, now living on the Far Southwest Side, returns frequently to celebrate Sunday mass.
May 27, 2012, Pentecost — As has become the parish tradition for major church feasts, an 11 a.m. mass, combining three of the usual Sunday services, is held to celebrate the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit. During this liturgy, however, as part of the parish centennial celebration, the annual Spirit Awards aren’t given to specific St. Gertrude people as has been the case in earlier years. Instead, the award is bestowed on every man, woman and child who was has been a member of the parish faith family over the past 100 years. At the end of the service, the people of St. Gertrude sing "O, Happy Day!"
Reproduced with permission from the 100th year anniversary booklet, written by Patrick T. Reardon