First of all, there’s great news for the old Elms Restaurant in El Paso, Illinois. I spotted two people working on the roof, so it seems its long-awaited rehabilitation has begun. I first looked at the historic house and restaurant back in July of 2012 and then again in December of 2019.
But I had come to photograph the birthplace of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, who will become Beatified in St. Louis later this summer. Unfortunately, the hardware store, which his family operated and where he was born upstairs, has been torn down and was in the space to the left above.
You can see what the store looked like, at 25 West Front Street, here.
The downtown is quite nice, with an overall well preserved street wall on the north side of Front Street, with the railroad tracks on the south.
Below is St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, but Sheen was not actually baptized in this building, but rather its wood frame predecessor, which you can see here.
Interestingly, while this is labeled City Hall, it is now a coffee shop and the current city hall is on Front Street.
The Venerable Fulton Sheen (not yet technically ” Blessed” as shown in this article’s title) WILL become “Blessed” when he is beatified (NOT canonized) in St. Louis in September. With beatification, he will officially be able to be publicly venerated in his home diocese and specific locations associated with him (although he pretty much already is!). Canonization (when he would be called Saint Fulton Sheen) requires that a second miracle be attributed to him and would then allow him to officially be venerated throughout the universal Catholic church.
Drat, I thought I had gotten it right! Thanks for the correction.