The small details, such the Flamboyant Gothic bell tower, to the lettering on a cornerstone, Christ Church Cathedral is a fascinating structure. Below, when the bell tower was built in the Early Twentieth Century, a window was blocked up, below. And in the most exciting discovery, I realized that the church architect had originally intended…
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The Reredos, Christ Church Cathedral
I’m consistently impressed with the quality of sculpture in St. Louis churches. Sadly, when churches are abandoned, these beautiful stone works of art are usually the first to be targeted by vandals. In isolated cases, people of integrity are able to get ahold of these sculptures and preserve them, either in their original form or…
Behind the Scenes at Christ Church Cathedral
The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Mike Kinman, generously invited me for a tour of the cathedral, pointing out many of the interesting aspects of the church. First of all, while it’s a Gothic Revival church, the nave’s ceiling does not have a groin vault, but rather an intricate wood frame design. The apse, however,…
Christ Church Cathedral
One of the oldest surviving churches in St. Louis, the Episcopalian Christ Church Cathedral occupies a quiet corner of downtown across the street from the newly restored Central Library. It was constructed between 1859 and 1867 and designed by Leopold Eidlitz in the Gothic Revival style. Perhaps what is most notable about its exterior is…
Christ Church Cathedral, Morning
I feel like Christ Church Cathedral sometimes is overlooked compared to the other cathedrals in town, but it is really a great English Gothic church. On a recent morning, I was able to photograph it in the morning light, which is rare because I am seldom downtown this early in the day. Not surprisingly for…
Christ Temple Cathedral Church, Former Salem Methodist Episcopal Church
I’d driven by Christ Temple Cathedral Church dozens of times at the corner of Page Boulevard and Pendleton Avenue, and last weekend the light was satisfactory, so I stopped and took some photographs. It’s a beautiful building, and was once home to Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, which moved out to Frontenac at the northeast corner…
Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Cleveland
St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Cathedral, while showing a 1940s exterior renovation that belies its 1852 construction, sits at a busy intersection in downtown Cleveland. The original design of the cathedral was by Irish architect Patrick Keely, who was active out of Brooklyn and is responsible for churches throughout the eastern United States. While…
Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Cathedral, Toledo
I didn’t realize it, but Toledo is a diocese, and the cathedral is located northwest of downtown. The current cathedral was completed in 1940, after an earlier school and chapel dedicated to St. Francis de Sales were completed in 1914. The design is practical, with a smokestack matching the rest of the composition, and again,…
St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Detroit
St. Aloysius is another example of a “downtown” Roman Catholic parish, much like St. Peter’s which we just saw back in Chicago. And like St. Peter’s it received an updated building in the Twentieth Century. Like many churches in Europe, the composition addresses the cramped building site, crammed in between two other buildings, one of…
Two Modernist Churches in Florissant, Part One
For lack of a better word to describe them, A-frame churches can be spotted popping up around the St. Louis region after World War II. Two of the most interesting are in the Florissant area. The first one, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church on Graham Road, is perhaps the tallest and largest. While I can…