St. Paul Church

This is one of the many beautiful Catholic churches in the Pilsen area. The German congregation formed in 1876 and built the church in 1899. Known as the church "built without a nail," it is the first all-brick Gothic church in the country and it is breathtaking both inside and out. Its 245-foot spires can be seen from miles around, like ethereal guideposts, while up close its weathered facade gives it an earthly warmth. Inside, the nave is lined with pointed arches topped with golden mosaics (2,500 square feet of mosaics line the walls, all designed by a Venetian artist and added to the church in 1930) and the altar is white Carrara-marble.

In 1889, St. Paul Church founded St. Paul Federal Bank, one of the largest banks based in Chicago before the 90's wave of Bank mergers. Times were tough then for the parishioners, and most of them rented their dwellings because the difficulty of getting bank loans made buying a home virtually an impossible dream. Father Heldman, the pastor of St. Paul Church, wanted to help his parishioners realize their dreams. So he gathered 49 parishioners in the church basement on November 7, 1889, and formed the St. Paul Building and Loan Association. Members made monthly contributions, and when enough money was pooled to buy a home, the Association chose one of its members to receive the first loan. Subsequent contributions and loan payments eventually enabled each member to do the same. This kind of savings and loan association was popular among the residents of the area and they helped create neighborhoods of modest working-class owner-occupied homes rather than tenement buildings.