Description
The parish of St. Nicholas was started in 1906 with the purchase of a small wood frame church. As new members came in, the pastor started looking for land to build a bigger church and found a lot on the corner of Oakley Boulevard and Rice Street. Construction started in 1913 with a projected cost of 175 thousand dollars (over 4 million dollars in today’s terms). Architects Worthmann and Steinbach of Chicago modeled the church after the basilica of St. Sophia in Kiev. Corresponding features include bronze onion domes, which unify the church and give it a greater sense of verticality. Originally the church was supposed to have 32 domes, but when the cost became too much for the congregation, they built it with only 13.
The interior was designed in a neo-Byzantine style and is decorated with depictions of the Heavenly Wedding Feast in the Eastern tradition. The combination of Western architecture and Eastern iconography speaks to the church’s varied influences as a Greek Catholic cathedral modeled after a Ukrainian basilica.
The location of the church was on the outskirts of the city, an area that wasn’t easily accessible by streetcar at the time. But it was in the Ukrainian community, and membership grew steadily. After WWII, immigrants and war refugees added to the number of new members of the church.
In 1961, with the creation of the third Ukrainian Catholic diocese in the US, the church became the Cathedral Church of the new St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Diocese, with Jaroslav Gabro as the first Bishop.
Source
McNamara, Denis R. "St. Nicholas Cathedral, Ukrainian Catholic Church." In Heavenly City, 114-15. Chicago, IL: Archdiocese of Chicago, 2005.
St. Nicholas Ukrainian. Chicago, IL: St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, 2012.
Chicago Dedication Book of Newly Renovated and Blessed St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. Chicago, IL: Saint Nicholas Diocese, 1977. Archives of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
