From Underground Railroad to real estate developer: Olivet Baptist Church plans rebirth after 175 years

During the 1860s, Olivet Baptist Church was an active stop on the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves with food and a warm place to stay.

Olivet, the second-oldest Black church in Chicago, has stood at its current location at 3101 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. for a century and once housed thousands of members each Sunday. After a long decline, the congregation has shrunk to about 100 consistent members.

Now, Pastor John L. Smith hopes to bring new life to Olivet with a $157 million development that would include 366 mostly low-income apartments, a daycare center, a food pantry, a workforce development incubator and a health and wellness clinic, all on land adjacent to the church just north of Bronzeville.

“Our goal is to show everyone that Olivet is still a very vibrant and alive community and that we have a vision for our community that will make it better,” Smith says. “Our goal is to do what our ancestors did in the 20th century but do it in a different way, in providing housing, in meeting the social and civic needs of the residents of Bronzeville.”

Under the plans, no more than 20% of Trinity Square's apartments would be priced at market rate, which would make the project by far one of the largest affordable housing developments in Chicago in years.

It would potentially double the number of units built in the past few years, says Ratnika Prasad, an advocate for affordable housing who volunteers with the nonprofit Abundant Housing Illinois.

"It's an ambitious project," Prasad says.

Ten percent of the units would be set aside for tenants with no income, according to early plans. Other apartments would be designated for people with very low incomes.

Smith, 54, says the church began working with Crossing Capital Group of New Jersey two years ago to find funding opportunities and potential developers.

What's unusual about the Olivet project, Prasad says, is that other nonprofit and faith-based affordable housing developments typically pursue much smaller projects, of perhaps 40 to 60 units. And they often focus on being "purely affordable," she says, while the Trinity Square project will include some units priced at market rate to offset costs.

Smith won't say how much funding has been secured, saying those conversations are continuing.

Plans for Trinity Square were unveiled earlier this month at a celebration of the church’s 175th anniversary.

“If you think back to 175 years and what the climate was, Olivet has always been that beacon of hope, and it's always been that safe haven,” says Danny Lambouths, 43, a 20-year member of the congregation.

The church has a storied history. Some early members were escaped slaves. Some were influential in politics and the Civil Rights Movement.

Founded in 1850, it is the second-oldest African-American congregation in the city. Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1844, is the oldest.

“Olivet is one of the seminal churches that has been in Chicago pretty much since Black people have been in Chicago, ” Smith says. “When you look at Olivet’s history, we have always been not only for spiritual progress but also social progress for Black people.”

Olivet reached 12,000 members in the 1930s and became a social hub for those migrating from the South.

“We've always been engaged in politics on the positive side,” Smith says. “We were influential in working on repealing the Black laws in the state of Illinois during that time, and obviously we were very involved in the abolitionist movement through our church and our pastoral leadership. And, when you think about the positive side, there's also the challenging side, the negative side, that most people associate with when you think of Olivet.”

The church later became politically involved in a difference of ideas over the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. Smith says the battle “eclipsed” the political activism the church participated in due to the pastor’s sharp critiques of King.

Joseph H. Jackson, the longest-serving president of the National Baptist Convention, was the pastor at Olivet from 1941 until his death in 1990. He had a “different vision for the Civil Rights Movement” than King, Smith says. Jackson believed in “self-help” and a more conservative vision of Black social progress than King did, according to Smith.

“He had a vision,” he says. “It was just that it was in opposition to King's vision, which was the populist vision of the time.

“We’ve done some great things politically, and our church has been challenged by some of the stigma that is associated with Dr, Jackson,” Smith says.

“Our churches are not just religious institutions,” says Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who was among those at the Olivet celebration earlier this month. “They're community anchors, and this one has been a community anchor for 175 years.”

The plans for Olivet are similar to developments in other cities, like at First Baptist Church of Clarendon in Virginia and Emory United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.

Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th) says the Trinity Square development would be a huge “boon” to his ward and the surrounding area.

“We need development,” Robinson says. “It’s the key to the success of any neighborhood.”