Address: 300 S. Halsted
Pricing: $2 to $100
Phone: (312) 332-6988
Hours: Mon-Tue,Thu-Fri 9:30am to 6pm; Sat 9:30am to 5pm
Parking:Metered street parking
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Greek Town's Athenian Candle Company, Win Back Your Flame
Sep 21, 2009
The Athenian Candle Company is located in Chicago's Greek town, a small community on the Near West Side laden with Greek restaurant and pastry shops. Founded in 1919, this still family-run business began as a storefront where four foot candles were and are still made for Chicago's orthodox churches.
Pay a visit today and you can still peek into the back room and see workers making the candles. The front of the shop is all together a different story. Mixed with religious statuary, rosary beads, paintings of saints or the Last Supper is more mojo than you will see under one roof anywhere in Chicago.
There are soaps to wash away bad luck or illness. Candles to bring money, rid of an old lover or attract a new. Shelves are lined with candles to cure just about everything. As well there are protective herbs, sprays, oils, incense such as frankincense and myrrh. Along with mezuzahs are horseshoes and four leaf clovers. The Pagan merchandise is perhaps the most interesting and are a telltale sign of the owner's business savvy and belief in the saying, just have faith.
For if you believe it, The Athenian Candle Company will have something to protect you from it. The shop is frequented by an interesting mix of people. Devout elderly, astrology fans and local clergy. It hasn't changed in years and the shop adds some color to the run of Greek Town restaurants. Artifacts can run from as little to $2 to more than $100 for holy statues and paintings.
In all there are thousands of items in The Athenian Candle Company. If you become indecisive about what to buy, be sure to ask the staff for guidance. You can be assured they will have a candle you could buy that when lit guides you to the perfect purchase.
- by Lori Rotenberk , Chicago Reporter for HelloMetro
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Lori Rotenberk Lori Rotenberk graduated from Drake University and is a Chicago-based journalist whose work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Newsweek and various magazines. She worked as a staff reporter on The Chicago Sun-Times, the suburban section of The Chicago Tribune and The Des Moines Register. In addition, she has studied fiction writing in adult education at the University of Chicago.
