Fr. Crowe
The Life of Father John H. Crowe
Father John H. Crowe was born in Newton, County Limerick, Ireland, on January 17, 1864. He was the oldest of eleven siblings on his families homestead. Father Crowe was taught by a priest where he had to walk six miles a day just to get to class. He finished his studies and was ordained in the Cathedral of Thurles by Archbishop Croke on June 29, 1888. He quickly departed after this to work for the Archdiocese of Chicago. He first started his American career in the archdiocese at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish. After his short stint there he was appointed curate at Immaculate Conception Church but soon left after he was chosen to establish a new parish in the Edgewater community to serve the Irish and German immigrants at the time.
Archbishop Patrick Feehan ordered Rev. John Crowe to establish a parish for the Irish and German catholics in the Edgewater community in 1900. Rev. Crowe established this parish with an innaugeral mass on July 1st, 1900 in the guild hall that once stood on the southwest corner of Bryn Mawr and Winthrop. The guild hall was home to many organizations but soon enough Rev. Crowe got construction started on a frame building that would serve as the church for over 20 years. In this frame building is where the St. Ita school was founded in 1904, more specifically out of the basement. The school was run by the convent that was associated with the church. The opening of the church also included a Sunday Service for children of the parish. The school was seen as a massive success as soon in just five years after the schools founding attendence was in the hundreds. This led to the parish growing greatly, eventually needing a new building to hold it's sevices in.
The St. Ita's That Stands Today
Crowe soon suggested in 1923 that a new church be built to accommodate the large influx of members. Cardinal George Mundelein soon permitted the construction of the church. He instructed Father Crowe to commission Henry J. Schlacks to design and provide the architectural style for the church. Schlacks chose to design the church in the French Gothic style. The ground was broken for this church in 1924 on the corner of Magnolia and Broadway. The black cornerstone of this church is from the ruins of a convent form by Saint Ita in Ireland and was place on September 14th, 1924 by Rt. Rev. Edward F. Hoban, the Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago at the time.
One of the main staples of the church are the massive and great stained glass windows that are in the walls of the church. There are various different designs with the total number of individual glass pieces numbering over 6 million! Some of the depictions are the Resurrection of Christ, Ascension of Christ, and Crucixion of Christ. Christ is not the only one depicted, Mary is depicted as well as some of the apostles.
The Remembrance of Father Crowe
Father Crowe unfortunately came to untimely death on August 28th, 1930. He did many things that were beneficial for the church especially for fundraising. Some of these things he should be remembered by are how he used to take evening walks around the parish, his shouts of encouragement to the school-boys in their snowball fights, and his bazaars to raise money which included a feature attraction of a ride around the block in an Irish jaunting-car. Other things that should be mentioned about him is that he raffled off a case of 'Old Crowe' which just included a picture of him, his sadness when Moriarty, his pet canary, flew out the window to freedom, and his session on finance with the men of the parish, pledging to double all the amounts they pledged. Father Crowe was an integral figure of the church and it's founding conception. The church would not be the same without him and it would not be what it grew to today.