The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago first opened its doors to students in 1967 after nearly four years of controversy, protest, and opposition by local residents. Coming on the tail end of urban renewal in Hyde Park, this new institution, formed by a merger of two seminaries in Rock Island and Maywood, was able to relocate to the city through collaboration with another institution in the area: the University of Chicago. 

The Lutheran Church turned its sights to Chicago, and Hyde Park in particular, because they were seeking an urban environment to train their future ministers.¹ This particular urban environment also came with the added benefit of various partner institutions. In a letter to Irving M. Gerick, president of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, Reverend Robert J. Marshall of the Illinois Synod of the Lutheran Church explained that the Hyde Park site was chosen because of the presence of other religious and educational institutions, including the Divinity School, Chicago Theological Seminary, and Rockefeller Chapel.² It was the church’s desire that the new seminary be located as close as possible to 58th and University, which resulted in the initial selection of a site located on the 5400 block between University and Woodlawn Avenues.

When the news broke that the Lutheran Church was acquiring land for a seminary, residents of the 5400 block organized a block club in opposition to the site. The block club, in collaboration with other neighborhood organizations such as the Northwest Hyde Park Area Association and the Kozminski PTA, protested the site on the grounds that it would have required the demolition of at least 197 housing units, displacing anywhere from 500-600 residents, including 35 Black families from one of Hyde Park’s few racially integrated blocks.³ The 5400 University-Woodlawn block club also maintained that the University of Chicago was instrumental in the move, and that the institution persuaded church officials to choose Hyde Park for the seminary. The 54th and University site had been chosen as early as 1958, while the official announcement of the seminaries consolidation and move wasn’t made until May of 1963.⁴ By that time, the University owned many of the buildings on the block, which it had slowly bought without any formal announcements. These acquisitions marked the continuation of a trend of University expansion, driven by federal urban renewal funding and a need for student housing.⁵ Because of this, residents assumed that the acquisitions would be preserved as housing, until all of the University’s holdings on the block were sold at once to the seminary.⁶

By the end of 1964, the Lutheran School of Theology had changed its course of action due to the block club’s pressure. The residents published press releases⁷ and newsletters^{3, 4, 6} that urged neighbors to get involved, and organized meetings with the HPKCC and the seminary to voice their concerns over the site.⁸ The seminary, facing the fact that it couldn’t acquire the full 5400 block, set its sights on the adjacent 5450 block south of 54th Place between Greenwood and University. This was made possible once again by the sale of buildings owned by the University of Chicago, and by the fact that the area had been partially cleared in 1963 through urban renewal programs.⁹ Of the eight remaining buildings on the block, seven were bought by the seminary, three of which were previously owned by the University. The site move meant that housing on the 5400 block would be preserved, although for institutional use, and residents were no longer at immediate risk of displacement.¹⁰ 

The 5450 block, however, was not free from the threat of institutional expansion. Residents organized as the 5450 Greenwood-University block club, and once again expressed their concern over the new site, since it called for the demolition of 149 housing units, and targeted a mixed-income, racially integrated block, which would further segregate Northwest Hyde Park and the Kozminski school.¹¹ Unlike the 5400 block, however, the 5450 block club was unsuccessful in preventing the construction of the seminary, and by the time the residents had organized the seminary had acquired enough land to begin planning for the new school. There was, however, a lone hold out on the block that refused to sell, a housing co-op located at 5472 South University.¹² Rather than wait for the co-op to sell, the seminary had building designs drawn that encircled the co-op, resulting in a unique u-shaped building.¹³ But before construction could begin, the co-op sold and the building design was rotated 90 degrees to the north. Demolitions began in 1965, and the school officially broke ground on construction on October 6, 1965.¹⁴ The new school was fully operational by the fall of 1967, only four years after the first property was acquired by the Lutheran School in Hyde Park.

Today the building that once housed the Lutheran School of Theology sits empty after it was bought by the University of Chicago, bringing the story of institutional expansion full circle.¹⁵ Walking through the former seminary today, the interior appears vacant, but signs of its influence on the neighborhood can still be seen in the apartment buildings surrounding the campus, which are still marked as property of the Lutheran School. This recent sale once again raises questions over the role that institutions play in Hyde Park, and highlights the recurring issues of their expansion and collaboration. Although the future of the site is unclear right now, important lessons can be learned from the work done by community members who initially organized to protest against the site.