Mount Prospect Historical Society

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HS Board

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Local Polish community weathered COVID-19 with help from St. Thomas Becket Catholic Church

By Liz Mika, Office Manager

Much of Mount Prospect’s Polish community gathers for worship and fellowship at the St. Thomas Becket Catholic Church in the northeastern corner of the Village.

The word came from the Archdiocese to close all churches due to COVID-19 on Friday, March 13, 2020. The last Mass celebrated that day was at 7 p.m. in Polish. This was a huge shock, especially to the faithful of Polish descent. They remember World War II, Communism and other persecutions to our faith, but the church had never before fully closed. 

We announced the sad news via our email blasts, Facebook, parish website, signs on the door and the media was blasting this, as well. Yet, there were many people who still stopped by and called to ask if it was really true. Our current pastor, Fr. Chris Kulig, started livestreams of Masses via our Facebook: on Saturday in English and on Sunday in Polish. Easter was only four weeks into the pandemic closure. The inability to be at church as a community during the three most Holy Days in our faith was especially tough on parishioners. 

When parishes first reopened on June 6, 2020, under strict Covid-19 guidelines, St. Thomas Becket was one of the first parishes in the Diocese to receive needed certification to safely reopen with limited capacity and with trained volunteers. Marks in church were set to show where parishioners could sit and stand. Since that first Sunday, reservations were taken to attend Mass to ensure everyone’s safety and limit attendance. Our volunteers wore construction vests when checking people in at the door. They sprayed guest’s hands with sanitizer, sat parishioners at least six feet apart, followed strict guidelines for receiving Holy Communion and enforced face masks. 

Each week, when the reservation link was opened, there was an incredible rush to register, especially for the Polish Masses. Our pre-pandemic attendance was 800+ per Mass, and the limit went down to 50, and then to 150! Christmas of 2020 was also interesting, as a very limited number of parishioners were allowed in the church under a strict reservation and safety system. 

Easter of 2021 was still under limited capacity of worshippers in the church. Holy Saturday is extremely big in the Polish tradition with the blessing of food baskets. We realized that the need would be great and to accommodate all, we held the blessing on the parking lot for over three hours straight! The cars just kept coming. We were told that the streets in the neighborhood were grid-locked with traffic. Our estimate is that we had over 1,000 cars, plus probably over 2,000 people on foot who stopped by to have their baskets and families blessed. 

To accommodate the rising needs for live Mass streams, in spring of 2021, St. Thomas Becket installed a state-of-the-art projection system in our overflow hall space and at the same time a connection to our Facebook Mass transmission. Before then, Fr. Chris used his cell phone to transmit Masses. 

With complete opening on June 11, 2021, the church is once again full to the brim. 

As a parish, we continued to collect food and share it with the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in Des Plaines and the St. Alphonsus Liguori Food Pantry in Prospect Heights. We continued to teach religious education to our youngsters via Zoom sessions. 

As for the staff, all but a few worked from home. Only the office manager and Fr. Kulig were always in to follow the frequent updates from the state and the Archdiocese. We did our very best to keep parishioners updated and current on all events. Mass at our parish was said and streamed every day, be it only with Fr. Kulig present when the pandemic began. 

This has been a tremendous trial for us all, but we are very happy to see most parishioners return to church, with smiling faces not hidden under masks. 

We are looking forward to resuming our regular activities, fundraisers and just being together as a family — a community of faith.

St. Thomas Becket parish was founded in the fall of 1969, more than 50 years ago. The first Sunday Masses were said on September 28, 1969, in the gymnasium of Maryville Academy. During the following week, arrangements were made with the local public school district to use Indian Grove Elementary School, which is directly across from where the parish now stands, for services. 

So, starting on October 5, 1969, and for more than nine years thereafter, Indian Grove was the “church” for weekend and some Holy Day Masses. Folding chairs, a portable podium and a collapsible altar were stored in the garage of a parishioner who lived next to the school. Each week, the church would be set up on Saturday afternoon and taken down on Sunday afternoon. During the first month, 247 families registered as members of the parish. 

With time, the neighborhood’s demographics changed. The English-speaking families had grown children who have moved away from home, and more Polish immigrants were moving to Mount Prospect and the surrounding suburbs. There was no Mass offered in Polish close by, so a group of parishioners approached then-pastor Fr. John Roller to ask if they could start one at St. Thomas Becket. The first Polish-language Mass was celebrated on December 1, 1996, with a couple hundred in that first Polish congregation. The present number is pushing the 1,000 mark!

Since 2004, the assigned pastors to this parish have been required to be fluent in Polish to accommodate the needs of the parish community. 

In August of 2019, renovations to the church were completed to adapt to growing membership, especially the Polish-speaking community. The long-standing circular church model  was restored to St. Thomas Becker’s original all-facing the altar and a new tile floor and new pews were installed. This allows for 245 more seats. Two new projection screens were also added. This proved to be especially helpful during the pandemic when we could not have any worship aides in the pews. 

Presently, there are two Polish Masses held each Sunday. Many celebrations, sacraments and liturgies are also celebrated in Polish.

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St. Paul – Apart but Not Alone

When the Pandemic closed everything down on a Friday in March of 2020, the leadership team at St. Paul Lutheran Church sprang into immediate action. Just two days later, the church broadcast its first on-line service via Facebook Live. 

As the Pandemic wore on, the technology was upgraded from simply using an iPad to ‘point and shoot’ to volunteer congregational members who are professional videographers. 

Services were filled with all of the things people loved, sometimes including music ensembles brought together via Zoom.

No matter the tech being used, congregational members would greet each other in the comment section each week, allowing for a sense of fellowship even though they couldn’t gather in person. Yard signs were given out to show unity and to remind people that although they might be separated physically, as part of the congregation, they are never truly alone. 

Within a week of the shut down, the church started sending out nightly devotions to its members. These were led by pastors, DCE, music leaders, the school principal and later, teachers and students. Some were videos and some were written, but all provided Bible-based words of encouragement for the difficult and unprecedented time.

On-line Sunday School and VBS (Volunteers packed hundreds of bags with supplies for pick up.) were offered, as well as Parking Lot Communion and individual, in-person communion scheduled in ten minute slots on an evening and weekday morning. 

The sixth graders’ First Communion service was held outside on a gorgeous evening.

In November of 2020, after almost a year as Interim, leading the congregation through unprecedented change in the church and the world, Pastor Bo Graham was officially installed as Senior Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church. (He had previously served as Associate Pastor.)

The church’s Bethlehem Walk took on a new look for Christmas in 2020 with a drive-by Nativity. And the 2021 Easter Egg Hunt took to the road, visiting neighborhood houses of congregational members in ‘trick-or-treat’ style to deliver plastic eggs filled with goodies using a contactless ladder chute.

One of St. Paul’s most noteworthy community ministries, Breakfast with Baby, took on a new format as well. The ministry, which Pastor Bo received the Shining Star Open Arms Award for in 2019, provides diapers, clothing, fellowship, Bible study, and breakfast for those in need. Prior to the Pandemic, families were welcomed into the church for breakfast, Bible study, and children’s activities the second Saturday of each month. When the Pandemic struck, the volunteers who oversee this ministry quickly adapted the procedures. Through all seasons and weather conditions, they continued to pass out needed items and groceries in a well-organized, drive-through system, while fostering a sense of connection and community with those who visited. The ministry continues to thrive.

 Eventually things started to slowly open up again, and Pastor Bo and Vicar Valencia put together a fun video to show people what to expect when they returned to church in person: entrances and exits, temperature checks, masks, sanitizing, limited numbers, and assigned pews.


Through everything the Pandemic brought, the leadership and congregation of St. Paul Lutheran Church stood strong together: Apart but Not Alone.

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From the Collection, Summer 2021

Bricks, c. 1927
Roof finial, c.1980s

These two bricks and the roof finial were recovered from the small Tudor-style building at 2 W. Northwest Highway on the day it was demolished in March 2021. Almost 100 years ago, in 1927, this building first opened as the Moehling Service Station. John C. Moehling, also owner of Mount Prospect’s first store, built this service station in order to serve the growing number of cars in the area. By the early 1930s John C.’s son, John P., began managing the station. The bricks and finial are now part of the Historical Society’s collection.

John P. Moehling Jr. outside of the Moehling Service Station, c. 1934
Submarine Express, July 2020

The service station remained in operation for many years under different owners. In 1981 George and Dee Zoumaras diverged from that trend and opened Submarine Express, a sandwich shop, in this same building. By 1990 the timber-frame façade features, including this roof finial, were added to the structure. The exterior transformation helped this historic building better match the style of its neighboring historic buildings in downtown Mount Prospect. George and Dee’s son, Tom, later managed the restaurant. Over its almost 40 years in business, Sub Express became a local favorite and one of the Historical Society’s most enthusiastic supporters.

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From the Desk of the Director, Summer 2021

Emily Dattilo, Director

It is so refreshing to see this summer’s calendar filling up with in-person programs. If you’ve already peeked at the “Upcoming Events” section of this newsletter, then you probably noticed that many of our summer programs will be held on the Historical Society campus. It will be fantastic to see visitors on our grounds again!

All of us here at the Mount Prospect Historical Society are also eager to welcome everyone back into our buildings for research, rentals, and tours. We are currently planning this stage of reopening and hope to allow visitors inside buildings by the end of this year, providing it is safe to do so. Please watch our website and social media accounts for future reopening updates.

Part of reopening, however, will require your help. We are currently looking for volunteer tour guides to lead tours of the Dietrich Friedrichs House. Lena and Dietrich Friedrichs built this home in 1906, and at the time, it was the thirteenth house in town. Today it is both a museum and the home of the Mount Prospect Historical Society. All of us at the Historical Society love this historic building, and you can help us show off this beautiful home as a volunteer tour guide! Becoming a volunteer tour guide is a wonderful way to share local history with your community, as well as learn more about it yourself. More information on volunteer responsibilities and the volunteer application form can be found on our website: https://www.mtphist.org/volunteer/

If you’d like to help the Historical Society in other ways, we have plenty of opportunities to volunteer with us once we fully reopen. In addition to house tours, we offer hands-on experiences working with the artifact collection and researching topics in local history. As we begin resuming in-person programs, we will need volunteers to help at many of our events. There is always household maintenance that needs to be done too, so if your talent is fixing things around the house, we could certainly use your talent. Whatever time or talent you’d like to share with the Historical Society, we’d be happy to have you. Please fill out the volunteer application form on our website to become a volunteer.

Have a wonderful summer, readers, and I hope to see many of you join us as volunteers!

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The Mount Prospect Park and Shop: A Hidden History

by Marni Pyke – March 2021

When most people think of a historic site, a shopping center usually isn’t the image they conjure up. Imposing Victorian mansions or places like expansive battlefields seem old and unique in the 21st-century world, making them worthy of consideration as a historic site. Shopping centers, on the other hand, are a relatively modern addition to the American landscape and they seem to be everywhere. What could possibly be historic about a place like that?
Despite assumptions to the contrary, shopping centers, like Prospect Place in downtown Mount Prospect, have a historical context. Although this local shopping center is about to undergo redevelopment, the center itself is a product of earlier redevelopment.

Mount Prospect Park and Shop, c.1950s

The 1923 Drainage District Map indicates that the land on the corner of today’s Main Street and West Prospect Avenue belonged to a farmer named George Meier. It’s unclear exactly when Meier sold his land, but the Weller Creek Drainage District office ledger, which recorded land payments, shows that by late 1940 a woman named Stella C. Wilson was making payments on the property. Later in the 1940s it was the site of the annual Lions Club Fall Festival. Whenever the sale occurred, Meier was one of many local farmers during these decades who sold their farmland to investors or developers looking to build new neighborhoods.

However, the northern part of Meier’s property was destined to become the site of “one of the most modern and unusual store developments in the entire Chicago area,” according to a February 11, 1950 issue of Realty and Building magazine. This store development was originally named the Mount Prospect Park and Shop and was designed by architect Edward P. Steinberg.

The term “park and shop” was commonly used in the mid-1900s to refer to a shopping center that also provided nearby parking spaces. 21st-century Americans might instead consider a similar structure a strip mall. This type of shopping center represents an important change in retail history and in the development of the suburbs. In retail history, park and shop centers mark a change in architecture that accommodates customers and their cars. Park and shop centers were, in theory, a way to solve the congestion issues caused by increasing numbers of cars on the road.

For Mount Prospect, the park and shop served to accommodate a growing population and was a way to keep
residents shopping in downtown areas, rather than on the outskirts of town or, more significantly, in neighboring towns.

When Mayor Pendleton shoveled the first scoop of dirt during the May 1950 groundbreaking ceremony, the $250,000 Mount Prospect Park and Shop Center was planned to hold eight or IN THIS ISSUE: nine stores. The
Park and Shop opened for business in fall 1950, and the entire block of stores was completely full by the end of 1952.

Some of the earliest tenants at the Park and Shop were Reid’s Ladies Apparel, Sethness Men’s Store, Brunberg’s 5 & 10, Lenhart’s Pastry Shop, Bachmann’s Hardware Store, the National Food Store, and McMahon’s Dry Goods. While none of these early tenants remain in the shopping center, other tenants became fixtures. Keefer’s Pharmacy, Strass’ Ladies Apparel (later Mary Jayne’s Ladies Apparel), and Sam’s Place were or have been located in the Park and Shop for over 40 years.

Although the style of a park and shop center was supposed to relieve traffic congestion, the one in Mount Prospect had the opposite effect. The Mount Prospect Herald reported in December 1950, only a few months after opening, that the Village had recently imposed a two-hour parking limit on south side of West Prospect Avenue in order to
“accommodate the new stores.” Another suggestion to improve traffic involved creating a driveway space leading into the Park and Shop parking lot through the central island of grass and trees down Prospect Ave. These parking issues were part of larger downtown parking problems throughout the 1950s, so the Village eventually asked a commission to study the situation.

Over the following decades, the name “Park and Shop” disappears from the records. It seems that the Park and Shop became part of the Village landscape as the rest of the street filled in with new retail space. The building is currently called “Prospect Place Shopping Center,” but there are no records of when or why the name changed. (If you know the answer to this history mystery, please contact the Historical Society!) Though the name may be mysterious, the Prospect Place sign with the clock is instantly recognizable in the downtown landscape.
At the time of writing, the Village has approved plans to replace the shopping center with a five-story building containing first floor commercial space and apartments above. It appears that this land along West Prospect Avenue will continue the cycle of redevelopment, but this time in a new century.

Sketch of the proposed Mount Prospect Park and Shop in Realty and Building magazine, February 1950