First Things First: Combined Church and School

As in so many Chicago parishes, the first structure to be built was a combined church and school. The first Masses were held in the combined building on Christmas Eve 1905, and the first classes began in September 1906. The design by architect William Brinkman proved to be adaptable to changing needs as the parish grew.

The building held an assembly hall on the lower level, the first-floor church with space for about 450 worshipers, and four classrooms, library and office on the second floor.

The original facade is still visible today, with the copper cornice and plaque now beneath a third-floor addition. The Tudor-arched entries still welcome students and visitors, with additions projecting beyond them at both ends.

Saint Clement Church Begins to Rise

With the first building up and running, the parish founders began planning to build the main church.

The architectural firm of Barnett Haynes and Barnett of St. Louis was selected to design a Romanesque Revival structure with Byzantine interior, modeled as a smaller version of their design for the St. Louis Cathedral. Ground was broken March 19, 1917, and the building was dedicated on September 8, 1918.

Saint Clement is one of only two Byzantine churches in Chicago. Cruciform in plan, with a massive round dome rising from the center of the structure, it resembles Hagia Sophia, the jewel of the Byzantine church.

The dome was originally covered with a green glazed tile roof, but now has a standing-seam copper roof with a copper cross at its apex.

The principal facade of the Bedford limestone structure is dominated by square corner bell towers flanking a front gable. The west tower is the belfry, with four bronze bells cast in the 1920s and named after angels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Guardian Angel.

Within the front gable is an impressive rose window in the Romanesque wheel form, with a hub and 12 sections divided by tracery and capitals. A bracketed cornice echoes the pitch of the gable, whose peak is topped by a stone cross within a circle, an ancient symbol of divine, all-knowing power.

The combination church and school building is visible at left; the church we know was not yet built when this picture was taken. The Hayde home seen here served as the rectory.


The building that now houses Saint Clement School was the parish’s first home, with the church on the first floor and the school on the second floor. The first Mass here was on Christmas Eve, 1905.


This historic rendering of Saint Clement Church by Francis Humphrey Woolrych (1868–1941) hangs in the Fahey Center.


In 1917 and 1918, as the church was being built, the nation was at war with Germany. There was anti-German sentiment in the country during that time, and parishioners wanted no misunderstandings with the neighbors.