The former Delmar Baptist Church at 4300 Delmar Boulevard, is a classic example of the Romanesque Revival style of houses of worship popular in the Central Corridor of the city.
After leaving this location, the congregation moved to Skinker-DeBaliviere; they have since moved out of the City.
The cross street is Pendleton Avenue. It is interesting that this style of low-slung Romanesque Revival church, which we generally see with English Protestant congregations, does not appear much in German Lutheran or Catholic churches of any immigrant population, which favored the Gothic Revival after the Civil War. There are certainly plenty of Gothic Revival Presbyterian churches, but again, this still is rare outside Midtown or the Central West End, or the Central Corridor in general.
Influenced by Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the major characteristics of this style of Romanesque Revival is its hulking, oversized bell tower.
Windows are small, in keeping with the spirit of the style, which emphasized a Medieval look back to Roman architecture.
However, on the main elevation facing Delmar, the windows are larger, framed by compound columns which look to still possess their original stained glass windows.
Looking closely, the rusticated stone still shows the clamp marks from when the cranes lifted and lowered the blocks of limestone into place.
The Sunday School wing has some of the most amazing carved script in a horizontal continuing lintel over the windows of the first floor.
The church is now owned by the Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, which is itself a historic congregation. You can see its cornerstone at the corner of the church facing the intersection.
There is some sign of rehabbing going on to the north in the Lewis Place neighborhood, where there are houses just as beautiful (and in some cases, more beautiful) than the ones in the Central West End.
This rehab, below, looks like it might have been halted at some point.
But the housing stock is still beautiful, and waiting to be revived.
Take this house below; a favorite of many people I know, it was brought back to life several years ago and saved from destruction. Its roof was simplified a bit, but that is fine by me; it is better than the house sitting vacant and deteriorating.
