This 1880 Gothic Style Church was Destroyed by Fire in 1982


Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri
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Date added: December 25, 2024

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The Church of the Messiah was the only extant building directly intertwined with the life and work of William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-1887). Eliot himself gained national prominence both as an activist urging a wide range of social reforms and as the founder of a precedent-setting institution of higher education, Washington University. His small St. Louis congregation grew from the first Unitarian outpost west of the Mississippi River to a prosperous and altruistic force responsible for the founding of nationally significant cultural, educational and philanthropic institutions. It was the only remaining church located outside New England by the Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns.

Shortly after graduation from Harvard Divinity School in 1834, William Greenleaf Eliot, son of a prominent Massachusetts family, arrived in St. Louis as a missionary preacher to organize the first Unitarian church west of the Mississippi. Composed largely of New Englanders, the Church of the Messiah (or First Congregational Society, as it was originally called) had grown sufficiently in numbers by 1837 to build its first church, a small, simple Doric temple located at Fourth and Pine Streets. From the outset, Eliot committed himself and the Society to community needs. When Charles Dickens visited St. Louis in 1843, the Unitarians were already advancing education and philanthropic work in the city. Impressed with what he saw the Englishman wrote:

The Unitarian Church is represented in this remote place, as in most other parts of America, by a gentleman of great worth and excellence. The poor have good reason to remember and bless it; for it befriends them, and aids the cause of rational education without any sectarian or selfish views. It is liberal in all its actions; of kind construction; and of wide benevolence.

Believing firmly that "our American salvation must come through Public Schools and social education," Eliot integrated these ideals into the life of his church; by 1840, the Unitarians had organized in the basement of the Pine Street church the first truly free school for indigent children. (Later incorporated with expanded services as the Mission Free School, this agency grew into' the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Psychiatry, now the Child Guidance Clinic, Washington University School of Medicine.) In 1849, the

Missouri State Legislature passed a bill drafted by Eliot (then President of the St. Louis School Board ) providing for the first tax assessment for the under-funded public schools of St. Louis. The subsequent success of the St. Louis schools contributed to the establishment of free public schools throughout Missouri.

By 1852, the congregation had built its second church at Ninth and Olive Streets, a brick Gothic Revival building, claimed to be the largest Protestant Church in St. Louis at the time. While serving as pastor of the Church of the Messiah, Eliot's interest in education was given a new focus in 1853 when a prominent member of his church, State Senator Wayman Crow (1808-1885), obtained a State charter for Eliot Seminary, renamed Washington University at Eliot's request.

The original seventeen incorporators of the new institution (including Eliot and Crow) were all members of the Church of the Messiah and its non-sectarian policy was clearly influenced by Eliot's concern "to keep narrow and sectarian influences from every department." Moreover, the survival and growth of Washington University were largely the result of dedicated work and financial support from Eliot's church: four-fifths of the total school endowment by 1864 ($478,000) had come from the Unitarian congregation. One of the university's most generous benefactors and workers, Wayman Crow, endowed both the present Wayman Crow Chair of Physics and the former St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts for which Peabody & Stearns designed an important Renaissance Revival building in 1879 (razed). The building was designed both as a museum and home for the Washington University School of Fine Arts, the first in the nation founded as part of a university. The school and museum separated in 1909 when the museum was placed under City control. An active sponsor of the arts, Wayman Crow brought sculptress Harriet Hosmer to St. Louis and commissioned her to do the statue of Senator Thomas Hart Benton for Lafayette Park.

As President of the Board of Directors of Washington University (1853-1885) and Chancellor (1871-1887), Eliot gave liberally of his own money and talents. dames Smith, another church and university board member, willed Eliot personally nearly $200,000 which, characteristically, the Chancellor donated to the university. Known locally as "the most accomplished and successful beggar," but also as a shrewd businessman, Eliot's genius for raising money was highlighted in the Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican:

… it is apparently becoming tolerably discreditable for a rich citizen either to live or die without giving something to this institution. Among its eastern patrons have been Nathanial Thayer of Boston whose gifts amount to $50,000 and Mrs. Augustus Hemenway of Boston....Rev. Dr. Eliot... may be honestly called the father of Washington University. His society though far from being conspicuously rich in its personal elements, has, I believe the reputation of giving more money alike to denominational and philanthropic and public objects then any other religious society in the whole country.

Eliot's radical concept of a totally new type of "western university" with a practical orientation challenged the hegemony of the traditional classical course of study in American higher education. Planned to meet the conditions of a growing urban industrial society, Eliot's innovative polytechnic course programs served the working classes with evening instruction as well as training scientific professionals. His leadership in these areas of study influenced other urban universities and laid the groundwork for Calvin Woodward's great achievement in manual training education.

In the absence of any organized public charity, the Unitarians' efforts continued to be of great influence and importance. The largest nineteenth century charitable institution in the Mississippi Valley, the Western Sanitary Commission, was created by Eliot and his friend James Yeatman in 1861. Yeatman credited Eliot with being "the soul and embodiment of the Commission" whose head it was "that conceived, planned and developed the work." Over four million dollars were raised by this agency to aid casualties of both Union and Confederate armies, civilians left homeless and freed slaves moving north.

Eliot also gained recognition through published positions on numerous social issues including emancipation, women's suffrage, Indian rights, prison reform and temperance. His successful campaign to repeal the Social Evil Ordinance (the first attempt in America to regulate prostitution by registration and medical inspection) attracted publicity to the St. Louis experiment which generated debate nationally and internationally for decades after the law was nullified in 1874. While Eliot had objected to the Ordinance on moral grounds, he demonstrated advanced thinking for his time by arguing that the law promoted the exploitation of women.

Within twenty years after the church was built at Ninth and Olive Streets (viewed dangerously far west in 1852), Eliot was proposing a new church farther west in the Stoddard Addition where he had lived since 1856. A glance at Plate 21 of Compton and Dry's Pictorial St. Louis 1875, graphically demonstrates the dramatic change in the Ninth and Olive Street area from prestigious residential to commercial use. Across the street from the church, the new Post Office was to occupy a full city block and the old Lucas mansion was converted to a restaurant, causing R.J. Compton to remark:

It is quite possible that the important changes in the neighborhood of the church may necessitate its removal farther west in a few years.

Plans for the third Church of the Messiah were under serious consideration by January 1877, when Eliot's article for the church bulletin urged construction of a new church, "for precisely the same reasons for which the present building was erected", the imperative of following the congregation as it migrated westward to escape encroaching business and industry. In 1879, the Unitarians secured a lot at the corner of Garrison and Locust Streets in the heart of the fashionable Stoddard Addition where several members already lived. Known for its "elegant and tasty residences" the subdivision was also dubbed "Piety Hill" due to the concentration of churches relocated there.

Although Eliot had officially resigned from pastoral duties in 1873 to devote full time to his position as Chancellor of the university, he remained actively involved in church affairs including preaching when needed for his successor, John Snyder, well into the 1880's. His continuing leadership, however, was most visible in the planning of the new church:

Two weeks ago or more a petition or request was prepared by the Trustees asking me to take hold and lead in church building enterprises. This is a new departure altogether.

Charged with this responsibility, Eliot not only successfully directed the financing of the new building, but also introduced the first important outside influence on St. Louis architecture by bringing the Boston firm of Peabody & Stearns to the Midwest. Indeed, Eliot's sponsorship of his Unitarian colleague's son, Robert Swain Peabody, had far-reaching consequences. Through Eliot, Oregon received its first Eastern influence with the 1879 Peabody design for the First Unitarian Church in Portland, then under the pastorate of Eliot's son, Rev. Thomas Lamb Eliot.

Eliot's letters to his son in Portland reveal considerable knowledge of real estate and building as well as shedding light on his appraisal of architects. In a letter dated March 28th, 1878, (several months before Peabody first met with the church committee in St. Louis) Eliot disclosed his view of church design:

I don't think much of architects, but believe Peabody is a fair and just man- They know less of acoustics and care more for looks irrespective of uses than they ought; but using your own commonsense as corrective you can safely employ them I suppose.

Eliot's concern for utility was realized in Peabody's design for the Church of the Messiah which featured a large uninterrupted auditorium space that provided excellent conditions for preaching while the subsidiary rooms answered other needs of the congregation. Since Peabody's own views on church building were close to Eliot's it is clear why the minster entrusted the St. Louis and Portland designs to him. In 1877, the architect had written:

In designing of Congregation churches we are met by two opposing influences: on the one hand, utilitarianism … the needs of the parish in the modern order of things; on the other ritualism … that returning to the old symbols, customs, and decorations … Obviously, the purposes to which the building is to be put - be present forms of religious worship - must be our guide.

However, Peabody's conservative belief in the importance of keeping "the church itself, from top to bottom, sacred, and put the adjuncts elsewhere" underscored by his declaration that "the main church is not a church-parlor so much as a place of worship" would have met with Eliot's approval. The minister expressed fears about the "changing character" of the Church of the Messiah regretting that it was "becoming less a church than a society. The religious strength less, social perhaps greater." Thus the clear separation of the church's functional spaces (social from religious) together with its "honest" construction and adherence to traditional English Gothic ecclesiastical proto-types resulted in a building that satisfied Eliot's churchmanship.

The special significance of the church to St. Louis was illuminated by the flurry of local critical response that appeared after its completion in 1880. All agreed that it was unique, unlike any other church in St. Louis. But while some were content to call it a "beautiful poem" and "tasteful, cozy chapel" others ventured more serious commentary guided by Ruskin's "Lamp of Truth". With passionate earnestness, the church was scrutinized for architectural deceits that violated "honest" expression of plan, structure and materials. That the new church vindicated abuses in current church building (condemned for imposing "a fraud on the Almighty") is clear from testimonies such as the following:

… too much praise cannot be given to the building committee for selecting architects who had the brains and taste to use suitable materials in the finishing of their work. Here we have for the first time, nearly, in St. Louis church architecture, wood undaubed with paint, and bricks whose natural color, suited to the plan of the interior decoration, are neither concealed by mortar or paint. We have the real material out of which the building is constructed standing for what it is worth …

In a word, its beauty is a direct outgrowth of the honest use of good materials, honestly exhibited Fox what they are, and not made to look like what they are not.

Merit was also found in the church's simple design, having no pretense of being a "lofty and grand cathedral", and in its "honest" plan where each space "shows externally for what it really is." The church was clearly recognized as an important model for the future "which nothing but unwisdom amounting almost to imbecility" would prevent its being copied.

A few years before his death in 1887, Eliot was publicly acknowledged the "most influential man in St. Louis" and the church he had forged eulogized by the St. Louis Republican:

The congregation … in culture, standing and wealth, as well as in earnest and the more important qualities, zealous work and devotion to duty, is not excelled in St. Louis. It numbers men and women who have achieved distinction in business, in the professions, in literature and in art.

In 1906, when the Church of the Messiah was forced again to relocate in response to the westward move of the congregation, the era of uncommon leadership and community service had closed. Eliot's son, Henry Ware Eliot, explained:

"St. Louis is now too large a city for any one institution to play a part in public affairs as our church did in its early days." The fourth church at Union and Enright in the Central West End was less ambitious, reflecting the diminished size and relative stature of the congregation. However, the decision to sell the old church at Garrison and Locust in 1906 to the only black congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, All Saints Episcopal Church, paid homage to William Greenleaf Eliot and the early members:

There is nevertheless, something particularly fitting in the fact that our old church building should now furnish a place of worship to the negros whose freedom its early members labored so well to establish and whose lot in slavery days they did so much to alleviate.

All Saints Episcopal Church remained in the Peabody & Stearns building for over fifty years (1906-1957) followed by the Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church (1957-1967) and then the Baptist Church of the Good Shepherd. In 1978, ownership passed to the building's present occupants, the First Cathedral Church of the Apostolic Faith, a small black congregation led by Rev. John D. Layne. Keenly aware of the church's architectural and historical significance, Rev. Layne has invested everything within his limited means to make critical repairs essential for keeping the building structurally secure. Optimistic, he hopes to see the building restored to its original integrity.

Throughout the nineteenth century, Eliot and the Church of the Messiah were a pioneering and increasingly powerful force confronting the problems of urbanization and industrialization that established St. Louis as a model in social reform for other cities. However, Eliot's conviction that "the best, citizen … receives from the community he serves far more than he can give" prompted him to keep his name from institutions and memorials for which he deserved recognition. His efforts were so successful that few, today, are fully aware of his great legacy. The loss of the Church of the Messiah would remove a major work from the Peabody & Stearns' canon, and the only building directly linked to William Greenleaf Eliot and his church's extraordinary contribution to the social history of this country.

Unfortunately, homeless people frequently broke into the church. The small congregation made a great effort to keep the church secure and safe. On January 30th, 1982, a group broke in and lit a fire in the basement to stay warm. The fire got out of control, and the church was destroyed.

Building Description

The publication in France of Peabody and Stearns' Church of the Messiah in L'Architecture Americaine in 1886, only six years after the completion of the building indicates the tremendous critical acclaim earned by the church both at home and abroad. One of only five churches (including H. H. Richardson's Trinity Church) selected for illustration in the three-volume French survey of recent American architecture, the Church of the Messiah also appeared in the American Architect and Building News, the Brickbuilder and was discussed at length in St. Louis architectural criticism.

Ground was broken for the Church of the Messiah in November 1879, and the cornerstone was laid on February 1st, 1880, at which time it was reported in the Missouri Republican that the church would be "in the English Gothic style, and dissimilar to any other church building in St. Louis." Charles Everett Clark of Medford, Massachusetts, (one of Peabody and Stearns' select "tried and true" builders) was the contractor. The total cost of the site and church, excluding stained glass windows and interior furnishings, was $109,000. On December 26th, 1880, the first service was held although the church was not formally dedicated until December 16th, 1881, when Dr. Henry W. Bellows of Boston came to speak.

Clearly developed within a 118-foot square, the plan successfully realized the Victorian search for new planning solutions in Protestant churches. The uninterrupted T-shaped nave (56 feet by 101 feet) merged with a short transept and shallow chancel to provide a large auditorium space required by Unitarian liturgical practice. At the west end of the nave, a small vestibule was attached. Auxiliary spaces located on the south side of the church answered increasing demands of the time for rooms for social activities. Sliding glass doors in the south transept arch conveniently linked the auditorium to a large Sunday School/meeting room so that the seven-hundred-person seating capacity of the nave could be supplemented by an additional two hundred when needed. Adjoining the Sunday School room on the east was a two-story unit of smaller rooms used for classes, library, ladies' parlor and sewing room; a dining room and kitchen were located in the basement. The bay windowed pastor's study 'connected to the Sunday School room at the west end and also opened into the tower through which the nave could be entered.

However functionally efficient the plan was, utilitarian concerns did not preclude exterior expression of the felicitous "Peabody touch" in a strikingly picturesque assemblage of low, simple forms. Particularly effective are the repetition of gables and conjunctions of the varied roof heights carried through in the break of the nave roof-slope by an abbreviated clerestory. The strong, simple tower--pushed back from the nave facade and gracefully joined with a broached spire, is a fine example of Peabody's special affinity for towers found in so many of his buildings.

In accordance with the architect's preferred use of masonry construction for churches, the building has locally quarried blue limestone load bearing walls (faced inside with brick) trimmed with smoothly-rubbed tawny Sandstone from Warrensburg, Missouri. (The high value placed in the 1880s on such "truthful" construction is an instructive comment on the change, or sophistication) in local thinking about architecture, since the 1852 Gothic brick Church of the Messiah was widely acclaimed for seventy tons of iron used in its construction.) Free of ornament, the exterior walls capitalize on the varied texture and color of the masonry; simple buttresses leave the walls virtually unbroken. Red slate forms a handsome roof.

Functional spaces are differentiated by sandstone-faced fenestration: pointed-arch windows denote ecclesiastic use while linteled openings mark rooms for secular activities. A bold, broad effect is gained by introducing, high into the gables, five lancet windows on the west facade, three tall lancets on the north wall and a large rose window with two lancets on the south side.

Originally the interior was a perfect expression of High Victorian "constructional coloration", relying entirely upon natural structural materials for rich polychrome effects. Although the walls are now compromised by whitewash, exposed areas can be found that reveal pale yellow and red brick patterning. Compared in the nineteenth century to Westminster Abbey, the majestic open timber truss ceiling is native Missouri yellow pine, "unspoiled by the painter's brush" but darkened now by age. A system of hammer beams and tie beams divides the nave into two large units subdivided into four bays by small lancet windows on the north wall. A dramatic tent-like effect is created at the crossing by the expansive framing. (The ceiling of the Sunday School/meeting room also features exposed ornamental wood framing.) Below the windows, walls are lined with a wooden dado surmounted in the chancel by a trefoil arcade that once contained brass memorial tablets.

Only one set of the English-made, figural stained glass windows survives in situ, a group of five, sumptuous Pre-Raphaelite lancets illustrating the Christian Graces, at the western end of the nave.

The present condition of the church shows evidence of years of neglect with abortive attempts to patch spawling sandstone with concrete and to arrest roof leakage with makeshift repairs. A period of vacancy brought vandalism which stripped the interior of several wooden posts and detailing along with some stained glass. Water has also damaged the interior. Despite these signs of deterioration, major features such as the open truss ceiling are intact and the masonry construction appears secure. Since the original plans exist in Boston, an accurate restoration could be undertaken.

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri

Unitarian Church of the Messiah, St. Louis Missouri