Third Baptist Church is an interesting situation, where the interior is much older than the exterior, which was renovated in 1950. The interior dates from 1885. But as can be seen in the apse, there is rich woodwork, stained dark contrasting with the stonework.
Tag: Churches
Our Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, Revisited
We’ve looked at the exterior of Our Redeemer before, back in October of 2020 when we were walking around Benton Park West. But there’s a beautiful carved wood chancel in the apse of the church, complete with a sculpture in the round of Christ. It’s quite beautiful.
Epiphany Lutheran Church
I’ve become intrigued recently with the sculpting and shaping of wood in churches in St. Louis. Marble is always beautiful, and is the inheritance of the Greeks and Romans, who, living around the Mediterranean and its more volcanically active geologic topology, had access to metamorphic stone. But in the transalpine regions of Europe in places…
Chesterfield Community Church, Former Green Trails Baptist Church
Green Trails was a planned subdivision in Chesterfield which was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While most of the commercial aspect was not built, several churches popped up. Green Trails Baptist Church was one of them, on the far western edge where Ladue Road intersects with Olive Street Road. Groundbreaking occurred on…
Former Faith-Salem Evangelical and Reformed Church, Jennings
Built in 1953, the former Faith-Salem Evangelical and Reformed Church in West Florissant Avenue in Jennings boasts a massive 115 feet long by 15 feet high stained glass window. Designed by Frederick Dunn, whose name comes up frequently in the 1950s for the designs of Modernist churches, it is perhaps one of his more simple…
Kaskaskia, West Side of the Mississippi
We visited Illinois recently without having to cross the Mississippi River. Yes, it’s possible, in what of the stranger parts of the greater St. Louis region south down Interstate 55. Back in November of 2010, we saw the remnants of the colonial town of Kaskaskia, that once sat along the banks of the Kaskaskia River,…
Interior, St. Mary’s of the Barrens, Perryville
The interior of St. Mary of the Barrens can easily rank as one of the most beautiful church interiors in the United States, and I’ve seen a lot of churches in my life. If you don’t remember my post on Il Gesù from back in November, go back and read it, and then come back…
St. Mary’s of the Barrens, Perryville
St. Mary’s of the Barrens takes its name from the prairie early settlers could not plow; instead, they turned to the loamy soil of the bottomlands along the river to farm. Established in 1818, the church also served alongside the oldest seminary west of the Mississippi. The Vincentians have long been associated with the church…
Perryville, Perry County, Missouri
We visited the town of Perryville in Perry County last weekend to check out the area and in particular the Shrine at St. Mary of the Barrens, which we’ll look at later this week. It’s an interesting and extremely old part of Missouri, with origins dating back to 1820, right around the founding of the…
Some Unique Vanished Churches
I think one of the more interesting aspects of the built environment in St. Louis is the number of churches we have lost not due to neglect and disinvestment but rather due to rapid growth. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the earliest churches in St. Louis that…