Grace Episcopal Church

Grace Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church at 924 Lake Street in Oak Park, Illinois, immediately west of Chicago. The congregation was founded as a mission in 1879 and became an organised parish in 1881. After outgrowing its original wooden church on Forest Avenue, the parish purchased the present Lake Street property in 1895. Architect John Sutcliffe designed the new church as a Gothic Revival interpretation of St. Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, London. Construction began in 1901, and the brick and Indiana limestone nave was completed in 1905. The tower followed in the early 1920s, while stained glass, furnishings and other elements continued to be added according to Sutcliffe’s original design until the building was finally completed in 1967. The large nave, pointed arches, carved woodwork and stained-glass windows have also made the church a distinctive filming location.

Grace Episcopal Church has appeared in A Wedding (1978) and Home Alone (1990). Robert Altman used the church for the wedding ceremony that begins A Wedding, while Home Alone used its interior for the Christmas Eve encounter between Kevin McCallister and his neighbour Marley. In Home Alone, the church seen from outside is a different building, making Grace Episcopal Church one half of a location assembled from two real churches.

In A Wedding (1978), Grace Episcopal Church is the setting for the marriage of Muffin Brenner and Dino Corelli that opens Robert Altman’s ensemble comedy. Members of the two extended families gather inside the church as the young couple are married, establishing the event around which the entire film revolves. At the same time, several miles away at the Corelli family mansion, elderly family matriarch Nettie Sloan is too frail to attend and waits for news of the ceremony. She dies just as the wedding concludes, but those at the mansion decide to conceal her death so that the reception can continue. The newlyweds and their families then leave the church for the reception, where relationships, infidelities, pregnancies, family rivalries and other secrets gradually emerge. Grace Episcopal Church was used for the actual wedding material, while the elaborate reception was filmed separately at the Lester Armour mansion in Lake Bluff.

In Home Alone (1990), Grace Episcopal Church provides the interior of the church Kevin McCallister visits on Christmas Eve shortly before Harry and Marv attempt to break into his house. Kevin has previously been frightened by rumours about his elderly neighbour Marley, but finds him sitting nearby while a children’s choir rehearses “O Holy Night”. Marley approaches Kevin and the two sit together in a pew, where Kevin discovers that the supposedly terrifying old man is friendly and lonely. Marley explains that he has become estranged from his adult son after an argument and is afraid to contact him, even though his granddaughter is singing with the choir. Kevin encourages him to call his son and try to repair their relationship, while Marley in turn advises Kevin not to be afraid of going home and facing the burglars. The conversation becomes one of the film’s quieter turning points, giving both characters the confidence to confront what frightens them. Only the church interior was filmed at Grace Episcopal Church. Exterior shots of Kevin approaching and leaving the church were filmed at Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette, creating the fictional church from two separate Illinois locations.

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