Diocese of Joliet lists former St. Anne church in Crest Hill for sale

Crest Hill — The Diocese of Joliet has listed the former St. Anne church building in Crest Hill for sale.

It is the second church property to be placed on the market in recent months after the diocese’s consolidation and restructuring plan that went into effect this summer.

St. Jude in Joliet, which merged with St. Paul into what is now Queen of the Apostles parish, was placed on the market earlier this fall. The 7-acre property at 2200 McDonough St. in Joliet – including the former school, church, rectory, gymnasium, chapel and convent – was listed on Karges Real Estate’s website with an asking price of $1.75 million.

The listing for St. Anne was spotted on the Coldwell Bank’s Real Estate website by members of a Crest Hill residents Facebook group, who noted that a for sale sign also has been placed on the former church’s lawn.

According to the listing, the church and its 1.05-acre property, located at 1800 Dearborn St., was put on the market Nov. 25 for an asking price of $500,000.

The listing mentions that the 9,400-square-foot structure includes the 300-seat church itself, as well as a 2,800-square-foot hall and a 1,050-square-foot hall with attached kitchen facilities, men’s and women’s bathrooms, a children’s room, foyer, sacristy, dressing room and 50-car parking lot.

It also describes the property as “very well maintained and surrounded by extremely nice homes.”

Although the listing describes the property as “commercial,” it does not mention any potential site uses, unlike the St. Jude listing from Karges Real Estate, which suggested the property as “an ideal theater space.”

Although it was listed in September, the St. Jude building also is still on the market.

St. Anne was closed in June and merged with neighboring St. Ambrose parish in Crest Hill using the St. Ambrose facilities. It was one of several churches closed within the Joliet deanery as part of its “Targeted Restructuring Plan,” although the diocese said at the time of the plan’s announcement FAQs that “the diocese has no plans to sell any real estate in the Joliet deanery at this time.”

When the St. Jude buildings were put on the market, diocese general counsel Mary Ann McLean said that the decision was reached sometime after the initial announcement was made in January as the result of “listening sessions” between members of the St. Jude and St. Paul communities and the diocese restructuring team.

The Herald-News reached out to the Diocese of Joliet on Wednesday for comment on the St. Anne sale but did not receive a reply.

Like St. Jude, the former St. Anne building officially was decreed by Bishop Ronald Hicks to be reduced to “profane but not sordid use” in August, although no large public announcement was made at the time by the diocese.

St. Jude’s decree was issued Aug. 15, while the St. Anne decree was issued Aug. 25.

The decree paved the way for the buildings to be sold for other purposes, although it is unclear whether all the decommissioned churches were similarly decreed or only ones planned for sale.

Despite the decommissioning of the buildings, some of the photos of the church on the real estate listing still included religious artifacts, including the parish crucifix in the church building, something multiple residents objected to in the Facebook post.

It is not immediately apparent when the photos from the listing were taken or if the cross has since been removed from the site, as initially was stated in the Targeted Restructuring Plan.