The Nation of Islam's former headquarters in Hyde Park is for sale for $799,000. [VHT Studios]
HYDE PARK — The Nation of Islam’s former headquarters in a quiet corner of Hyde Park has gone on the market for $799,000.
The building at 5335 S. Greenwood Ave. was most recently home to Envision Unlimited, a services center for adults with disabilities, but it had an earlier life as the center of the development of the Nation of Islam.
The building was opened in 1962 as a Muslim parochial school, the University of Islam Temple No. 2, by John Ali, a top-ranking member of the Nation of Islam and a close friend of Malcolm X, and later rumored to have been an FBI informant. From its opening day it faced criticism, and then-state Rep. Arthur Gottschalk of Park Forest called for a state investigation after touring the school. Curbed Chicago first reported the building's connection to the Nation of Islam.
It might be hard to tell from the drab and nondescript yellow brick façade, but for much of the 1960s, the building was Muhammed Mosque of Islam No. 2, the second mosque of the Nation of Islam and the first in Chicago.
Nearly every Nation of Islam book, record or pamphlet that went out in the 1960s had the address 5335 S. Greenwood Ave. printed on it somewhere.
Now the building sits on a quiet block of Greenwood on the largely residential western end of Hyde Park.
The building is somewhat institutional on the first floor, but the second floor is dominated by a 2,700 square foot open room listed as a ballroom with a glulam — or glued laminated timber — three-pinned arch design that keeps the space open and free of any pillars or supports.
Though long used as offices for a nonprofit, the building is being marketed as a residential property and is zoned for residential.
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