Priory

The Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great, occupied this campus from 1926-2012.  The Friars engaged in various ministries in the Chicago area, including schools (such as the extant Fenwick High School in Oak Park), publishing houses (Priory, and New Priory Press), and parish ministry (such as St. Vincent Ferrer).  After a study conducted by the provincial chapter, many of the Friars who lived on the campus were relocated in Chicago and beyond, the press was moved to the new provincial office at 1910 Ashland Avenue in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, and the theological educational offerings, first merged with a Dominican house of studies in Dubuque, and then moved to the campus of St. Louis University in 1981, which then formed the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis in 2006.  The site is also significant for its role in the River Forest School of Thomism, which sought to foreground the natural sciences before metaphysics in the study of St. Thomas Aquinas’ thought, by emphasizing his commentaries on Aristotle over the more famous Summa Theologica.  Much of the River Forest school’s work was connected to the Albertus Magnus Lyceum, which sought to foster dialogue between philosophers and scientists. The Lyceum, the Press, and the Pontifical Faculty of Aquinas Institute of Theology (1939-1969) were all hosted on the campus.  River Forest, and its neighbor in Oak Park, both near-suburbs of Chicago, have long had a deep connection with the Dominican Order. The chapel, featured below, was originally the dining hall of the campus.  It was designed by Wilfrid Edwards Anthony (1877-1948), an architect from New York, who had worked under Bertram Goodhue, who helped design Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, and was associated with the eminent neo-gothic architecture firm now known as Cram and Ferguson Architects. That same firm designed much of the campus of Dominican University, who bought the Priory campus in 2002.  W.E. Anthony had worked on other Dominican projects, such as the extant St. Catherine of Siena Church on E. 68th Street, in New York City, which is part of the Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena.