Dedicated in 1905, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church sits on a quiet backstreet just a few blocks from the bustle of Manchester Road in Maplewood.
Built in what I would call an Italian Romanesque style, still easily seen through small towns throughout the Italian countryside, the church dominates its street corner.
Mature trees frame the church, reaching high up above the roofline; it actually is difficult to photograph the church because the density of the neighborhood is so intact.
I suspect this building once held the residences of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette, who ran the church until recently.
It’s a pity that the Archdiocese of Saint Louis foreclosed that “older” County territory Parish building. Along with with that Norman Steeple left of the nave entrance door’s exterior Saint Luke the Evangelist one within a neighborhood Richmond Heights. I like when it more property space restricted church building has allot of outer layered, ornamentally conservative characteristics without trying to masquerade as some medieval times, skyscraper cathedral. Thankfully when it came to the “mandated” completion for many of those Romanesque period started Cathedral structures. They didn’t need to build in some extra buttress supports to keep the building intact like those Gothic Cathedral structures did.
Plus I’ll like to know if that “new” Biddle Street Market beginnings Housing Opportunities Center building would be considered within the domains of Italian Romanesque Revival architecture?