Pacific Garden Mission holds grand opening at new site 

By Patrick Butler 

More than 1,000 well-wishers including Mayor Richard M. Daley and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan turned out for the Saturday, Oct. 13, dedication of the new Pacific Garden Mission (PGM), 1458 S. Canal St., which is both the country’s oldest continuously operating rescue mission as well as the first “green” one.

Organic vegetables grown in two greenhouses tended by the mission’s residents will be used in the cafeteria, heated water will come from about 100 solar panels, and the roof will be covered with gardens to reduce heat and rain drainage. In the center of the building sits a tree-lined courtyard. Windows throughout will provide fresh air and sunshine without the residents having to be on the streets.

The new three-story, 155,000-square-foot, $27-million facility designed by famed architect Stanley Tigerman has 989 beds; a cafeteria that will serve 2,200 meals every day; a free clinic for medical, dental, and eye care; a barbershop; men’s and women’s gyms; general equivalency degree (GED) and job training classrooms; and a 600-seat auditorium that replaces the 256-seat auditorium in the recently vacated “Old Lighthouse” at 646 S. State St.

The closing of the mission’s State St. site was prompted not only to make room for nearby Jones College Prep High School to expand, but because some locals wanted the mission out of the fast gentrifying neighborhood.

The Rev. Phil Kwiatkowski said he was never worried about the mission’s future.  “The Lord is our landlord, and he’s going to do his work his way, using his people,” the mission’s manager told the cheering throng packed into the auditorium. The crowd also sang “mission style” hymns such as Victory in Jesus and To God be the Glory, led by the Pacific Garden Mission Men’s Choir.

Founded in 1877 at 386 S. Clark St., the mission has been open every day since for more than 47,500 consecutive days, more than half the years the United States has existed and spanning the terms of 25 presidents, according to PGM President Rev. Harold McCarrell.

PGM got its name when it later moved to the former Pacific Beer Garden and evangelist Dwight Moody suggested those working there rechristen it the Pacific Garden Mission, Rev. McCarrell said.

“There’s a lot of history” at the State St. location, Rev. McCarrell said, “but we’ve really outgrown the facility.” He noted the Canal Street campus is 35% larger than the 97,000-square-foot State St. mission site, which opened in 1923 with the help of $42,000 donated by evangelist and former Chicago White Stockings baseball player Billy Sunday.

“We’ve changed a lot of lives,” Rev. McCarrell said, noting that some clients “who used to be homeless have moved on and are contributing to this city and the country.”

Mary Lou Colbern, who has played piano at PGM services since 1951 when she was a student at Moody Bible Institute, said the biggest change over the years was State Street itself.

“It was much different then,” Colbern noted. “There were a lot of derelicts lying on the street. You just walked among them and invited them in.” She also noted the other big change is that the men coming in from out of the cold these days are a lot younger.

There also are a lot more of them, said Sampson Green, director of men’s Bible classes for the past five years. “We used to get 300, maybe 400 a night,” he said. “Now we’re seeing 500, 600 every night.”

He thinks PGM is seeing so many more 18- and 19-year-olds these days because “maybe the education system has failed them” and certainly because “there are a lot more temptations on the street today than years ago,” Green said.

Men staying at the mission may spend up to eight months in Bible study, followed by another four months of career training, said Rev. McCarrell, noting that in the past seven or eight years, PGM has placed about 300 formerly homeless men and women in full-time jobs.

“You can rebuild the mind and body, but you also have to rebuild the soul,” Mayor Daley said as he toured the building.

In fact, some like Nick Bustillo, one of the program’s recent graduates, came mostly for the spiritual aspect. “I came for the religious teaching,” Bustillo said. “They taught me how to serve people as well. You can’t say you love the Lord without being willing to serve his people.” The 38-year-old Texas native works for the mission’s Unshackled weekly radio program of PGM success stories. After 56 years on the air, it ranks as the longest-running radio drama in history.

            For more information, log on to www.pgm.org or call (312) 922-1462.