[Geocache Adventures] St. Mary's Chapel
Mark and I took a trip out to Knoxville, IL and, though our original plans were thwarted, we were able to do a little geocaching, and one cache led us to Knox Park. After finding the cache, we noticed an old chapel that seemed to have been abandoned. Though it was a beautiful chapel, it looked like it had suffered quite a bit of structural damage. The back was braced, red brick was hastily slapped on a hallway leading nowhere, the front steps had buckled. It really seemed to be in bad shape, because it was a beautiful chapel. Mark had noticed some stones in the middle of a field and pondered if there'd been a bigger building that had been removed from the chapel.
Sure enough, this was the remainder of the St. Mary School for Girls, which had closed as a result of the depression. The photos above show the school in its glory, and what is in that same space now. It's a bit of a shame to see history vanish that way, and from the looks of the chapel, it might soon follow. Below the cut are more details of the remaining chapel.
Here is a page on the former school.