Fourth Presbyterian Church

The Fourth Presbyterian Church rises in rough-hewn grey limestone, featuring a sharp Gothic spire that cuts into the skyline above the dense shopping corridor of Michigan Avenue. Architect Ralph Adams Cram designed this structure in nineteen fourteen to mirror the rigid, honest lines of medieval cathedrals. During its construction, church elders famously rejected a proposal to build a skyscraper atop the sanctuary, insisting the spire remain the only thing reaching toward the heavens. It stands today as a quiet, stone-walled holdout against surrounding commercial ambition.