Then & Now: Saint James Catholic Church in Lemont

In 1673, French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet were the first to recognize the importance of the portage near Chicago as a potential water link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.

Jolliet believed a canal cutting through a half a league of prairie from the foot of Lake Michigan to the Des Plaines River could help to build a trading and commercial empire for France.

In spite of the lack of interest on the part of the French to settle or construct a canal in the 18th century, the young U.S. government did establish Fort Dearborn in 1803 to protect the mouth of the Chicago River. Within a few years, the idea for a canal in the region reappeared, gaining momentum after the War of 1812, when the Treaty of St. Louis was signed in 1816.

Soon initial surveys for the canal route were conducted, funds were raised, treaties were signed and land was auctioned along the route to help finance the project. Ground was broken and canal construction began in earnest July 4, 1836, only to be thwarted by a series of financial problems lasting seven years.

The canal was finished in 1848, but only after a financial and administrative reorganization. Construction costs for building the canal reached nearly $6.5 million and the project employed thousands of Irish immigrants, hired by contractors, who worked and lived in transient work camps along the 96.4-mile-long route.

The construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal provided an opportunity for many Irish immigrants to settle along the canal corridor and find employment. Many of these immigrants arrived with few skills, little education and often performed the harshest manual labor on the canal.

Those who did not die from exhaustion, malaria or other illnesses settled in communities that sprang up along the new canal. Because many Irish were Roman Catholic, they soon helped to erect churches and cemeteries within the canal corridor.

Saint James of the Sag Bridge, located on a high ridge near the I&M Canal in Lemont, is one of the oldest functioning Roman Catholic churches in Chicago and contains graves of Irish laborers who perished while digging the I&M Canal.

The history of St. James at Sag Bridge dates back to 1833, when a Mass led by John Mary Irenaeus St. Cyr took place in a log cabin. The church sits atop a hill near the confluence of the Des Plaines River and the Calumet Creek (now the Cal-Sag Channel), that was once the site of a French Fort.

In 1853, the church’s congregation began constructing the current church using Lemont’s famous limestone from nearby quarries. Irish workers labored nearly six years to complete the church. Adjacent to the church is a cemetery which contains graves that date back to 1837.

The St. James was a mission church for decades until its first permanent pastor was assigned in 1882. Over the years the church had many renovations and upgrades, including stained-glass windows.

In March 1991, this oldest functioning church in northern Illinois suffered a direct hit from a tornado. While the building was spared, the roof required repair, and the St. James Preservation Society was formed to restore the church and roof.

After extensive renovation, the church was rededicated in 1998. Saint James Catholic Church and Cemetery, shown in these photographs, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. St. James at Sag Bridge turned 185 years old in 2018.