FromtheArchives: In the 1970s, teenagers at Catholic-school parties on Chicago’s south and west sides helped pioneer house-music culture. | ✍️ SOUNDROTATION
. Soon that number plummeted to about 500 students, and in 1978, Townsend graduated from the school’s first all-Black class. The Augustinian priests who ran the school could no longer operate such a large campus with a fraction of its previous enrollment, so while Townsend’s dances helped keep the doors open from 1979 till 1988, at that point they decided to close it down., then located at 5058 W. Jackson.
By then, Lenoir was 16 and attending St. Ignatius High School. He struck a deal with Resurrection’s administrators that allowed him to take over the parties and staff them with his own people—including his mom, who worked the door. Like Townsend, he also brought in DJs and talent from all over the city. Attendance grew to nearly 2,000 teenagers at every event.
The dances at Mendel and Resurrection proved inspirational. By the mid-80s, almost every Chicago-area Catholic high school from the far south side to the western suburbs—Hales Franciscan, Our Lady of Sorrow, Provident St. Mel, Cathedral, Leo—was throwing similar events. But as much as the parties benefited the schools financially, they were even more beneficial to their communities at large.
Many of those who attended the school parties also became DJs, producers, record label owners, distributors, and entrepreneurs at early ages. DJ and producer Gene Hunt, for example, played Mendel and Resurrection as young as 13 years old. By age 15, he had held residencies at some of Chicago’s premier house venues, including the Pleasure Dome. DJ Pharris Thomas became a favorite at Mendel at age 16 and began a major radio career at 20, when he began DJing house music on WBMX.
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