On May 26, 1963, Cardinal Albert Meyer dedicated the newly constructed church building which still serves Immaculate Conception Parish today. The early 1960s was a pivotal time in the history of the parish as it moved into its new church. After nearly sixty years of progress and steady growth, Immaculate Conception now numbered 1,600 families with 1,012 children enrolled in the school. It was an equally pivotal time for the Catholic Church worldwide as it moved into the modern era with the inaguration of the historic Second Vatican Council. From the very beginning, Immaculate Conception Parish has enjoyed the dedicated service and leadership of the two religious communities who continue to staff the parish. In 1903, the Passionist Community of Baltimore, Maryland, received permission to establish a monastery and staff a parish in the diocese of Chicago and purchased a large tract of countryside, approximately 54 and a half acres of what consisted of the Burnham estate. This tract of land was bordered by Talcott Avenue on the north, Higgins Road on the south, Harlem Avenue on the east, with the western boundary at about a third of a mile west of Harlem. The parish's boundaries would include Norwood Park, Park Ridge, Edison, Niles, and part of Jefferson Township-an area that has now been subdivided into seven parishes and traversed by a major expressway.

Over the next 50 years, six more parishes would be carved out of this territory: St. Juliana, St. Thecla and St. Tarcissus (1927), St. Monica and St. Eugene (1949), and Mary Seat of Wisdom (1957).

In the spring of 1908, construction was begun on the Monastary Retreat for the Passionist Order. In 1908 Archbishop Quigley laid the corner stone and in 1910 an astounding crowd of 5,000 people attended its dedication. A school was also needed, so Sunday Masses were then shifted to the Monastary chapel while the church building was converted into a one-room school house. In September of that same year, classes were conducted for about 40 children in six grades by a single teacher, Miss Julia Mahoney. The next summer, the pastor, Father A

ugustine Scannell, contacted the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, who accepted the invitation and sent two sisters to staff the school, Sister Mary Annunciata and Sister Mary Rose. (September 5, 1986, marked the 75th anniversary of the Sisters of Province teaching at Immaculate Conception School.)

The sisters commuted daily for two years from the nearest convent at St. Sylvester in Palmer Square, a long and arduous trip after a full school day, until 1913 when the new pastor, Father Callistus Gilligan, purchased a house on the corner of Harlem and Nina for their convent. The one-room school was divided into two rooms of four grades each and in the fall of that year three sisters conducted classes for a total of 63 students.

In 1924 a new red brick school was built and the first church building renovated to once again become the home of the expanding parish. Over the years the school was continue to expand as the need for more and more space dictated. (In the meantime, the Sisters of the Congregation of Resurrection purchased a tract of land adjoining the Passionist monastery property, and in 1915 constructed a brick residence for Resurrection High School, established in 1922.)

By 1937 the parish had outgrown the church so the school auditorium was converted into a "temporary" church and the original church taken down. This church, the "Heart of the School," became the home of the parish for the next twenty-five years.

The years after World War II saw the area change from a predominantly Scadinavian Protestant population with the influx of a greater variety of nationalities, including Irish, German, Italian, and Polish Catholics. The continued rapid growth of the parish necessitated the appointment of a second assistant to the pastor and in 1947 the construction of a second convent to house the additional sisters staffing the school. In 1954 a new convent was built and the two other buildings sold and moved away.

In 1959 Father Paul Ratterman obtained permission to build a new church. Plans were drawn and a fundraising campaign was begun. On December 7, 1962, the altars for the new church were consecrated and on December 8, the Feast of the Imaculate Conception, the first parochial Mass was celebrated by the provincial superior of the Passionist Order, Father James Patrick White. On May 26, the following year, Cardinal Albert Meyer solemnly dedicated the new church.

Since that date the parish has been served by seven pastors: Father Paul Francis Ratterman, Father Roger Mercurio, Father Jerome Stowell, Father John Baptist Ormechea, Father Peter Kumle, Father Jack Conley, and Father Michael Hoolahan. Since 1962, the school has been under the leadership of five Principals, Sister Mary Gilbert Powers, Sister Margaret Evelyn Karier, Sister Joan Mary Schaefer, Sister Patricia McGlynn, and Mrs. Bernadette Felicione.

	Our Mission Immaculate Conception Parish is a Catholic Faith community on the Northwest side of Chicago. We strive to make our ordinary lives a spiritual journey connecting what we believe to what we do. We share in the charism of the Passionists by affirming that the love and suffering of Jesus brings meaning and hope to all. We find courage and strength in Jesus who promises, "I am with you all ways."		We pledge our time, talent and treasure: To welcome all into our faith community To celebrate the sacraments together,especially the Eucharist To foster lay participation To provide for the faith education of all members To respond to human need

When the parish celebrated it's 75th Anniversary in 1978, it had grown to 2,200 families and the school enrollment, including preschool, was 660. Two contributing factors to the recent growth of the parish and the resulting stability of the school have been the construction of some sixty new homes in the early 1970's from property that had belonged to the monastery and the addition of two kindergarten classes to the school's curriculum in 1981.

The history of Immaculate Conception Parish is more than a story of new buildings and steady growth. Each new development reflects the efforts of a community of believers devoted to serve God, minister to the needs of his church, and witness his love to the neighborhood at large. The parishioners of I.C. have witnessed two World Wars, the Korean War, and Vietnam; they have weathered depression, affluence and recession; they have welcomed people of many nationalities and backgrounds amd succeeded in living, working and worshipping together; they have adapted to great changes and upheaval in the church initiated at the Second Vatican Council forty years ago.

The people of Immaculate Conception have encountered the great shortage of teaching vocations to the religious life by maintaining a quality grade school and supporting a first-rate faculty made up of an ever greater proportion of the lay teachers. The history of I.C. parish chronicles the continued leadership and dedication of the Passionist Fathers, the Sisters of Providence, an increasing number of devoted parishioners, and beginning in 1994, the first lay Principal in the school. It is a history that points to a greater awarenessof our changing roles as Christians, our need to minister to the concerns of the community, and our need to support each other in prayers.