K.A.M.

News of a burned-down church at first struck me as only mildly interesting. Wasn't my church, wasn't in my part of town. But when I opened the Chicago Tribune to the inside pages, I immediately recognized the building in one of the photos: the old K.A.M. Temple!

Just about any illustrated history of Chicago's Jewish community will feature a picture of K.A.M., or Kehilath Anshe Ma'ariv, and that must be how this unusual structure got imprinted in my memory. I never knew of the building's significance, or what became of it after K.A.M. moved out in the 1920s.

The Boston College Fine Arts Department website has an old postcard of the K.A.M. Temple from back when it was still occupied by K.A.M. (Lovely yellow sky and pink clouds.)

It was designed by Louis Sullivan (whose gravesite I visited just one week ago!) and considered one of his masterpieces. Sullivan's business partner, architect Dankmar Adler, was a member of the congregation.

According to the January 7 Tribune article, Pilgrim Baptist Church, an African-American congregation, has occupied the building since 1922. Thomas A. Dorsey was hired as music director in the 1930s, which turned out to be an important event in music history. Dorsey took traditional black spirituals and transformed them into modern gospel music. Pilgrim was where that music was born.

By the way, the inscription over the main entrance read: "Pit'chu li sha'arei tzedek, avo bam, odeh Yah." In English: "Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter them and thank God." (Psalms 118:19)