Ornate reliefs of angels and lions adorn the redbrick facade of the apostolic church at the northwest corner of Ogden and Kedzie, the tallest and most ornamented building in the vicinity. Vestiges of the building’s past also greet worshipers on their way in: over the front entrance are the words Douglas Park Auditorium, and an inlaid terrazzo doormat says WC Lyceum.
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Minister Oatis Hunter claims the building dates back to the late 1880s, though the American Institute of Architects pegs its construction at 1910 and the city’s Department of Buildings has it at 1911. Whatever the year, workers began by filling in a lagoon. “They did a sloppy job,” Hunter says. As a result the floor of the dining hall contains noticeable ripples and constantly floods: “A hundred and ten years ago, the codes were really relaxed.”
The theater closed in 1951, and by the time the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ purchased the building in 1955, North Lawndale was on its way to becoming a segregated African-American neighborhood. Hunter, who arrived from Mississippi in 1957, remembers a few Jewish holdouts, such as the tiny kosher “corned beef joint” in the building. Today it’s a church-operated soul-food restaurant, though the cook, Hunter’s wife, Betty, has kept corned beef on the menu.
