Bachelors Grove Church
Bachelors Grove Church May 6, 2015 at 9:24am Back in the 60s IL 43 crossed over from Harlem Avenue at 148th St to Oak Park Avenue at 151st Street and continued South into Tinley Park. You can find more on that under the Oak Forest Bygone Byways post on this site. So the busy corner between Oak Forest and Tinley Park was located at 159th (route 6) and Oak Park Avenue ( Old IL 43). Lets look at that corner in the past and today. Back in 1938 below we see the corner with the Bachelors Grove Church on the northeast corner. You can see the shadow of the steeple northeast of the building north of the corner:
Later in 1951 we see a parking lot has been added :
The cemetery across Oak Park Avenue from the church is stiil there today, It is called the Trinity Evangelical Lutherean Cemetery, but was initially associated with Bachelors Grove Church across Oak Park Avenue. This was not known as New Bachelor s Grove. It was known as Bachelor s Grove Cemetery (with or without the apostrophe s. Alternate spelling of Batchelor as well). New refers to the fact that it is not as old as the original Bachelor s Grove Cemetery near 143rd Street and is a contemporary reference used to differentiate the two distinct cemeteries and locations.
The actual site of the church today is a printing business behind the northeast corner gas station.
And a view from 159th St looking at what was the parking lot in 1951: