COMMENT OF THE DAY: APPLE’S CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL “Also, does anyone else think that the design looks more than a little like a protestant church, with the vaulted roof, minimal design, and the identical tables setup in rows looking like pews?” [JL, commenting on Comment of the Day: Apple Store Symbolism]
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Tag: Churches
Montrose preschool Kipling Street Academy has purchased a 1-acre lot at the corner of Shepherd Dr. and Blossom, where it plans to open a “sister school” to its main (and recently expanded) tiny-tot campus at the corner of Kipling and Mulberry. The 600 Shepherd Dr. address in Magnolia Grove belongs to the former Shepherd Drive Methodist Church; the 1955 church building on the site is currently home to Center Street Ministries. An email sent to parents of Kipling kids indicates that construction on its new facility across the street from the Kicks indoor-soccer complex will begin early next year, and that the new school is scheduled to open next fall — but doesn’t specify whether or how much of the existing buildings on the lot will be retained.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Cutting through some 2×6 pine boards he was using to build a table yesterday at the Potetz Home Center in Cleveland, Texas, carpenter Eddie Fregia found Jesus. Or at least what appeared to be an image of Jesus. A long-haired, bearded figure was revealed in a knot Fregia cut through in the hardware supply store’s woodshop, 50 miles north of Houston. “It looked a lot like J.C.,†Fregia tells the Cleveland Advocate. “Either J.C. or my brother.†Fregia notified a coworker and his boss, and they agreed with Fregia’s assessment, though manager Kenny Rogers later told reporter Cassie Gregory that someone else who examined the knot said it looked more like musician and movie director Rob Zombie.
And now another Swamplot reader sends in this curious photo from this morning, showing the collapsed box formerly known as the Central Presbyterian Church on Richmond Ave. between Cummins and Timmons — and demonstrating to those of you who might have worried that the collapse of the 1962 building’s modern steeple could pose some threat to Richmond Ave. traffic that there was never anything to worry about. Everyone is safe. The congregation has decamped for the St. Philip Presbyterian Church just outside the Loop on San Felipe; the land is being cleared for apartments; the giant cross is at rest.
- Previously on Swamplot: The End Comes for Central Presbyterian, Mod Richmond Ave. Church Ready To Fall for New Apartments
Photo: Eric Nordstrom
Reader Brian Thorp sends in a couple of photos documenting the final hours of what he’s now labeled the “holiest” church in Houston — it was, at least for a time today. The Central Presbyterian Church at 3788 Richmond Ave. was designed in 1962 by Astrodome architects Wilson, Crain, Morris and Anderson; it sits on the site where the Morgan Group is ready to build a new apartment complex. By 9 am this morning (above), the church had developed a few punctures in its side. By noon, much of the dust, and a good portion of the church’s walls, had cleared:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THERE GOES THE CHURCH, THERE GOES THE STEEPLE “Yes, the stained glass is being salvaged. The old pipe organ went to UT and many other art pieces were saved. It is unfortunate to see this go, but it is just a building. The Church is the people. Mark 13: ‘1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”’” [Jeromy Murphy, commenting on Mod Richmond Ave. Church Ready To Fall for New Apartments]
Construction fencing has already gone up around the Central Presbyterian Church at 3788 Richmond near Greenway Plaza, a reader reports. The Modern church campus was designed in 1962 by Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson — just a few years before the same local architecture firm set to work on a small project called the Astrodome. Two years ago the congregation moved a couple miles northwest to merge with the St. Philip Presbyterian Church, just outside the Loop on San Felipe. Houston Mod fans have been trying to save the vacant church from demolition ever since.
But the church buildings won’t be sticking around for long.
Inspired, perhaps, by Andrea Grover’s transformation of a former church just down the street into the Aurora Picture Show microcinema (it’s now called 14 Pews), the sellers of the 1960 vintage Community Gospel Church at 608 Aurora St. have now taken to the residential real estate market to unload their 8,190-sq.-ft. building on a 17,880-sq.-ft. Sunset Heights corner lot. Yes, says the listing, this unique property could be converted to a “1-of-a-kind magnificent show home,” or several single-story condos, or — and we quote — “just use land if you have no imagination.” (Bravo!) Among the itemized suggestions for the 80-ft.-by-42-ft. sanctuary, which seats 275 devout worshippers: “fabulous” media or game room; quarters or (very large) mother-in-law apartment; “party room,” or — yes — personal bowling alley. Here it is:
The Episcopal church on the triangular block near the head of Telephone Rd. at Dallas and Eastwood is headed for demolition, according to information posted on its Facebook page. The congregation plans to vacate the Church of the Redeemer after a service on February 27th. A letter posted from senior warden Daniel Coleman declares the building “no longer safe to occupy”:
According to Tellepsen Construction and Studio Red Architects, the existing condition of the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems, the chunks of concrete separating and falling from our buildings (“spallingâ€), the lack of a fire alarm system, and the inadequacy of emergency exit signs and lights is more than enough to revoke our Certificate of Occupancy, if the Fire Marshall inspected the buildings. The cost of addressing just these issues would be $5 – 7 million. Neither our congregation nor our Diocese can afford that; and even if all those things were repaired, our congregation can no longer afford to maintain the building.
“The buildings will eventually be demolished, but we believe that the mural will be removed and preserved in the hope of future use,” adds a parishioner organizing a congregation “memory book.” Also likely to be saved, at least until the current contract expires: the bell tower, where T-mobile has a microwave relay. The original church on that site was built in 1920 as the Eastwood Community Church; Tellepsen was the contractor for its 1932 replacement. Additional structures were added in the forties and fifties, along with the sanctuary mural, called “Christ of the Workingman.”
- Letter from the Senior Warden [Church of the Redeemer]
Photo: Church of the Redeemer
A quick photo preview of a few of the stops on this Saturday’s “Mad About Mod” tour put together by Houston Mod, which will feature inside views of a few long-ignored modern homes (and a church) in Houston’s latest almost-historic district, Glenbrook Valley: Above and left, the Googie-inspired residence built for drive-thru restaurant barons Elmer and Myrtle Richardson, designed in 1955 by Pasadena architects Doughtie & Porterfield.
Home theater specialist Andrea Grover is leaving Houston — and selling the Sunset Heights church-turned-movie-theater-turned-residence where she founded a well-known local arts organization 13 years ago. For the 10 years that it operated on Aurora St. just east of Main, Aurora Picture Show featured a ridiculous range of obscure and not-quite-as-obscure film and video screenings in its sanctuary space, along with 13 weddings and a couple of memorial services. Then 2 years ago, Grover explains, the microcinema went south — to Montrose:
Aurora relocated its office and library to a bungalow in “Doville” (the neighborhood affectionately named after Dominique de Menil). Their programming has been nomadic and site-specific in order to attract new audiences and activate different sites in Houston. This strategy has worked extremely well for the organization, which has seen increased attendance and membership as a result of catering to Houston’s love for new experiences and one-of-a-kind events. I retired at the end of 2008, and Aurora is doing so well that I wonder why I didn’t do it sooner!
The house includes a movie chapel with pew seating for 96, audio-video equipment, and a “disused baptistry,” along with a small freestanding outhouse for theatergoers that was “designed by a well-known architect (Michael Bell), though you would never guess it,” writes Grover.
The home comes with a trailer, too:
The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance has sent out an email reporting that the congregation of the Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights voted in a special meeting this past weekend not to demolish its sanctuary building after all.
So what’s going to happen to the unused 1932 brick structure instead? Says the GHPA:
The Gothic Revival building on Cortlandt Street at East 15th Street will be used as flex space to accommodate church functions and Immanuel Lutheran School activities as well as community events.
Sure, it’s likely to make a great space for events. But how could any church function match an all-out building demo for fun?
The GHPA reports the congregation has committed to spending $150,000 on the rehab — about twice the cost of the demolition, which had already been scheduled for May. GHPA credits the 90-days-to-oblivion feature of the city’s otherwise toothless preservation ordinance for the save:
That report we passed on last Friday about the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights voting to turn its former sanctuary at the corner of Cortlandt and 15th St. into a museum of Lutheran history turns out to have been false. City Council members Edward Gonzalez and Sue Lovell, who announced the decision in a press release, jumped the gun a bit:
Lovell spokesman Tim Brookover said the councilwoman’s office received a report from a preservationist attending the meeting that there had “been a lot of talk about a Lutheran museum†and presumed the church group approved the plan.
Though informally discussed, such a proposal has not been formally presented to the governing board, [board president Ken Bakenhus] said.
But there was some progress at the meeting: The congregation did vote to reject local artist and engineer Gus Kopriva’s proposal to lease the sanctuary and turn it into an art museum, the Chronicle‘s Allan Turner reports.
Bakenhus told Turner late last year that the board was “’99 percent’ in favor” of spending $60,000 to demolish the 1932 brick building. The church has a signed contract to tear down the structure this summer.
- Church’s fate in advocates’ hands [Houston Chronicle]
- Museum idea could save threatened Heights church [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Immanuel Lutheran Church Likes a Different Museum Idea, Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?
Photo: Heights Blog
Update, 2/15: As Miz Brooke Smith notes in a comment below, the report turns out not to be true.
The congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights has reversed itself and voted not to tear down its 1932 brick sanctuary building after all, abc13 reports. Instead, they’ve decided to turn it into a museum.
Will it be a Heights art museum, as proposed and promoted by local gallery owner and engineer Gus Kopriva? No. Congregants voted to turn the structure at the corner of 15th and Cortlandt into a museum of Lutheran history.
- Historic sanctuary in the Heights to become museum [abc13]
- Previously on Swamplot: Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?
Photo of Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1448 Cortlandt St.: Flickr user dey37
With cameo appearances at all your favorite ’trose haunts. And yes, somehow, this is a church video.
- Strange Is Normal [Vimeo]
Video: Awakenings Movement