In 1890, when the United States had 42 states and Benjamin Harrison was President, the German Baptist Church was formed (now Forest Park Baptist) after breaking from the First Baptist Church of Chicago. A newspaper clipping from 1904 states, “The work of German Baptists dates back to the early seventies, at which time several members located in Oak Park and Harlem erected a small edifice at the corner of Franklin Street and Marengo Avenue which afterwards sold and was from that time used as a Mission Sunday School.”
At the corner of Harlem and Dixon, the new church of the German Baptists of Oak Park and Harlem would be dedicated in 1904 and was erected at a cost of $1,400. The church, which still stands today, was designed by architect and parishioner, H.G. Fiddelke, and the remodeling 18 years later. He also gave the church one of the stained-glass windows on the north wall of Jesus with children.
