While doing my historical research, I often ran across intriguing items I hoped would add realism to my novel. Such was the case of the Orthodox church in Streator, Illinois. The actual story behind the church didn't require embellishment, but since I didn't have the full story, embellish it I did.
I discovered Streator's church while digging into the history of my grandfather's church, Saint Nicholas, in Joliet. In a paragraph documenting Orthodoxy in 19th century Illinois, a few sentences were devoted to the Orthodox Church of the Three Saints that began with
the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
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| The Russian church as it appeared at the 1893 Chicago Exposition |
According to the article the Church of the Three Saints was part of the Russian exhibit at the Exposition. Two years after its close, Vasile Hunter and Albert Dock arrived in
Chicago and purchased the forgotten building.
Alone, the two disassembled the church, loaded it on a train, and
rebuilt it anew in Streator. Based on this sketchy information I wrote the third chapter of Banners: For God, Tsar and Russia.
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| Orthodox Church of the Three Saints, Streator, Illinois circ 1904 |
Chapter Three takes place in Illinois during the late summer of 1914. Russia is at war and my main characters along with other Eastern European emigres want to show support for their Motherland. Their plan is for a Pan-Slavic pilgrimage to Church of the Three Saints in Streator and perform a high service asking for God's blessings. The organizers secure passage on the Chicago and Alton Railroad and proceed to Streator, picking up Russian and Serbian worshipers along the way.
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| The Alton Limited streaking across the Illinois prairie |
They exit the train on a rail siding and prepare to march to the church.
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| What might have been a version of my Slavic procession in 1914 |
The emigres' procession of banners and icons travels four miles from the train to the church under the blistering August sun and proceed to
offer prayers on behalf of their countries.
Twenty years after I wrote this, thanks to the home page of the Lake Michigan Chapter of the Carpatho-Rusyn Society, I discovered more to the story. According to the site's author, Tsar Alexander III
of Russia commissioned the church as part of the Exposition's Russian Pavilion. The entire
Pavilion was built in a dark wood and was designed by the Tsar's favorite
architect, Ivan Ropet, in a 17th century Muscovite style and resembled the palace in which Peter the Great was born. It was built
and assembled in Russia, disassembled,
then sent to Chicago where it was reassembled for the 1893 World's
Fair. Once the fair was over, arrangements were made for the
purchase of its façade, tower, and traditional ornamentation by the
congregation in Streator, and again, it was disassembled, then
reassembled at its new home at 401 South Illinois Street.
In 1910, the church building was sold to a Beaulah Baptist congregation.
In 1916, the building was sold again, this time to a Polish Roman
Catholic congregation and named St. Casimir. Over the years as a
non-Orthodox church, all the Russian trappings of the building were
eventually removed, and in the end every surface of the original
exterior had been covered with brick-patterned asphalt siding. In 1964,
St. Casimir Church razed this building to the ground in order to build a
bigger church, citing its small interior and as well as general
condition. The parish disbanded in the 1960s.
So based on actual events, my version of history could not happened as I wrote. But that's the tricky part of historic fiction -- how much history and how much fiction? And the church of the three saints? It turns out that's its anglicized name. In the parlance of Orthodoxy, it was named Three Hierarchs Orthodox Church, in honor of the three stalwarts of the Eastern Church. For this error, I apologize to the three.
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| The Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom |
