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Called To Board Up Church, Workers Find Kids Trespassing Inside [VIDEO]

By Joe Ward | June 9, 2016 6:23am
 Kids were found trespassing at Saint Boniface Church in West Town by workers called to the site to board it up.
Kids were found trespassing at Saint Boniface Church in West Town by workers called to the site to board it up.
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DNAinfo/Joe Ward

WEST TOWN — Tony and Juan were called to board up Saint Boniface Church on Wednesday after kids, homeless people and vagrants have been seen inside the vacant building, stealing items and drawing graffiti.

While they were reinforcing the metal fence surrounding the abandoned property, Juan saw someone moving under a demolished part of the existing structure.

"There's someone under there!" Juan said, pointing at a hollowed-out portion of the church. "That's his bag right there."

"Call the police," Tony said.

Saint Boniface, 1358 W. Chestnut St., has been the topic of much discussion in West Town. Neighbors and former church patrons are working to save the church, which opened at the site in 1865 and closed in 1990.

A Hyde Park institution wants to turn the church building into a music school, possibly with apartments on upper floors. But if those plans don't work, a judge has told the church's owner to clean it up or tear it down.

READ: MUSIC SCHOOL COULD SAVE SAINT BONIFACE CHURCH FROM WRECKING BALL

Neighbors are hoping it doesn't come to that, but vandals trespassing and further damaging the property are not helping the cause, they said.

Tony and Juan work for a South Side company that boards up buildings. They have been sent to Saint Boniface by the building's property manager four times in the last year or so, Tony said. (Both men asked that their last names not be used because they were not authorized to speak to the media.)

Wednesday was the first time they had seen anyone in the building, though evidence that people have broken in was everywhere, Tony said.

"From what I understand, it's the local school kids," Tony said. "They looked to have cut a hole in the fence. They're going through extreme measures to get in."

Minutes later, the two saw the kids inside. One ran and jumped a fence; another kid grabbed his book bag and calmly walked to the rear of the property, where at least once friend helped him jump the recently repaired fence.

"He had to jump over! We just closed that gap," Juan said as the kids fled.

"I was going to throw a rock to scare the kid, but he just walked out," Tony said. "Crazy."

A squad car came about 20 minutes after the 911 call was placed, but both the workers and the kids had left the site. An officer said police regularly get calls about people at the site.

The building's owner had previously demolished a rectory that sat just south of the church building. Columns from the rectory, as well as stones marking the opening of the church in 1865 are littered throughout the lawn to the east and south of the church, where the rectory used to sit.

A piece of marble with the Latin name for Saint Boniface lays on the grounds of the church in West Town. [DNAinfo/Joe Ward]

Despite its condition, supporters want what's left of the structure to stay. Joseph Carillo heard the calls for service at the church over the police scanner radio and went to the site Wednesday.

Carillo, who went to school at Saint Boniface, said there were valuable parts of the building still intact, not to mention the historic nature of the building itself. But he fears there may be nothing left to salvage if the site isn't secured.

"This building is ready to fall," Carillo said. "Whatever they want to do with the church, I'm down. As long as they make it structurally sound."

Saint Boniface Church. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]

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