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About Us
The First Seventy-Five Years
The year was 1910. The industrial age was gaining momentum in
American's mid-west and newly settled Chicago Heights was becoming
a steel town, home to giants like Inland Steel. The prospect of
jobs in the burgeoning industries was drawing hundreds of immigrants
-- Italians, Poles, Lithuanians, and Germans -- into the community.
They came with their families to make a home, to start a new life.
Many had come straight from Ellis Island to the big shouldered
city out west. They could barely speak English, if at all. Everything
was strange and unfamiliar. They had to feel disoriented, apprehensive,
and homesick. They would welcomed friendly gesture, could use some
friendly help to feel more at home in this faraway land.
In those early days, the church was the first place to which many
turned as they struggled to begin anew here in America, and churches,
in turn, made reaching out to and assisting newcomers part of their
mission. The Presbyterian Church had an especially active program.
Chicago Heights was emerging on the prairie when the church sent
their minister Eugenia DeLuca to see what help the new settlers
needed.
He found that the young community was already organizing to help
newcomers. The board of education had set up an industrial school
where sewing and cooking were taught, and a kindergarten staffed
by Presbyterian women was offered. For the new immigrants from
Europe, however, one key need was not being met: English language
training. Beyond that, all were clamoring to become citizens of
their adopted country. To meet these needs, Rev. DeLuca rented
rooms in a hotel on 22nd St. in the Hill section of town and during
the evenings after the men had finished their jobs in the factories,
conducted English language and citizenship classes. The response
to the classes was great. By the end of the first month, 145 men
had enrolled. A branch was soon opened in the old Payne Chapel
(where Lincoln School now stands) to accommodate the large numbers
from the East Side. In time, as other activities -- including classes
for boys and girls, a Sunday school and prayer meeting -- were
offered, the program came to be known as the community center.
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