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| The magnificent building |
Dayton Avenue Presbyterian Church is the largest of the churches designed by Cass Gilbert in the Summit Avenue neighborhoods of St. Paul. It is notable also as one of the few Gilbert buildings constructed in the Richardson Romanesque style. Henry Hobson Richardson was a famous American architect whose work Gilbert admired and studied while he was a student at M.I.T. Two Richardson churches in Springfield, Massachusetts are believed to have inspired Gilbert in the design of the Dayton Avenue church as well as Gilbert’s sketching tour of England, France, and Italy in 1880.
Gilbert’s mother, Elizabeth, was a founding member of this congregation, and it is widely assumed that she had a role in the selection of the new church’s architect. Cass Gilbert was raised Presbyterian, and knew intuitively that a simple auditorium would best address the worshippers’ need to be focused on word and sacrament. News announcements of the time lauded the open, column free interior of the sanctuary as particularly appropriate for Presbyterians, allowing nothing to intrude upon the congregants’ attention to the proclamation of the Word. Moving beyond the stark limits of his tradition, Gilbert added a few embellishments of design to intrigue the eye such as his luxuriant use of carved wood, including the kings and prophets of Israel peering out from the base of every arch. It has long been rumored that Gilbert included his own likeness among them - a bit of whimsy in such a staid place of holiness!
The sanctuary was designed to seat 850 people, and its primary entrance in the tower and resemblance to an auditorium reflect the influence of the “Akron Plan,” a popular style for construction of Protestant churches during this era. The floor slopes toward the altar, and there is no basement under the sanctuary. The exterior is built of a dark red Bayfield sandstone, and the roof was originally clad with red slate, influenced by Gilbert’s trip to Italy in 1880. Construction costs came to approximately $36,400. Gilbert tried to negotiate with the Tiffany Glass Company to build windows for the sanctuary, but Tiffany was unable to agree to the price Gilbert offered. In later years, as Gilbert’s reputation grew, it was Tiffany that came to Gilbert.
In 1903, Gilbert made preliminary designs for an attached assembly hall and Sunday School addition which were taken up by a local engineering firm and built in 1912. A remodeling project in the mid 1950’s elevated the chancel area in the sanctuary and placed the pulpit off to the left and added another lectern on the right side in front of the organ console. Unfortunately, the original chandeliers seen in early photographs of the sanctuary were also removed at this time and are no longer on the premises.
Gilbert undoubtedly had an attachment to the Dayton Avenue church. After
all, it was his mother’s church, and after his marriage, it became
the Gilbert family’s church as well. When work on the sanctuary was
begun in 1886, Gilbert was living only a few blocks away with his mother
on Ashland Avenue in the Shingle Style house he designed for her. During
the construction of the church, he was fond of viewing the structure at night,
admiring “the walls of our stone church-gray-mysterious in the moonlight.”
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| Join us for worship Sunday at 10:00 am |
