Difference between revisions of "First and Franklin Presbyterian Church"

From DAS Wiki
Line 19: Line 19:
 
|ren_cost_approx=No
 
|ren_cost_approx=No
 
|demolished_approx=No
 
|demolished_approx=No
}}Have you ever looked at Baltimore’s skyline and wondered about the tallest spire, First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, soaring 273 feet into the sky? The First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1761 by families who moved to Baltimore from Pennsylvania to escape the Seven Years’ War. Nearly a hundred years later, after conducting worship services in various private residences and a log church near the harbor, Norris Garshom Starkweather, a notable Baltimore architect, was hired to design what would become First and Franklin Presbyterian Church. This was 1854, when the congregation wanted to move further uptown to avoid the hustle and bustle near the harbor. A majority of the church was erected between 1854 and 1859. From 1855 onward, [[Edmund George Lind|Edmund George Lind,]] Starkweather’s chief draftsman, was in charge of the church’s construction. The spire wasn’t finished until 1875.
+
}}Have you ever looked at Baltimore’s skyline and wondered about the tallest spire, First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, soaring 273 feet into the sky? The First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1761 by families who moved to Baltimore from Pennsylvania to escape the Seven Years’ War. Nearly a hundred years later, after conducting worship services in various private residences and a log church near the harbor, [[Norris Garshom Starkweather (1818 - 1885)|Norris Garshom Starkweather]], a notable Baltimore architect, was hired to design what would become First and Franklin Presbyterian Church. This was 1854, when the congregation wanted to move further uptown to avoid the hustle and bustle near the harbor. A majority of the church was erected between 1854 and 1859. From 1855 onward, [[Edmund George Lind|Edmund George Lind,]] Starkweather’s chief draftsman, was in charge of the church’s construction. The spire wasn’t finished until 1875.
  
 
=== Exterior ===
 
=== Exterior ===

Revision as of 10:56, November 2, 2022

First and Franklin Presbyterian Church
Starkweather First Franklin.png
Site Information
Address201 W Madison St
Geo-reference39°17′55″N 76°37′07″W / 39.29874°N 76.61874°W / 39.29874; -76.61874
Building Data
Building TypeChurch
Architectural StyleGothic Revival
MaterialNew Brunswick freestone
Design
ArchitectEdmund George Lind
Construction
Completed1859
Renovation
Date2009
FirmMurphy & Dittenhafer

Have you ever looked at Baltimore’s skyline and wondered about the tallest spire, First and Franklin Presbyterian Church, soaring 273 feet into the sky? The First Presbyterian Church was founded in 1761 by families who moved to Baltimore from Pennsylvania to escape the Seven Years’ War. Nearly a hundred years later, after conducting worship services in various private residences and a log church near the harbor, Norris Garshom Starkweather, a notable Baltimore architect, was hired to design what would become First and Franklin Presbyterian Church. This was 1854, when the congregation wanted to move further uptown to avoid the hustle and bustle near the harbor. A majority of the church was erected between 1854 and 1859. From 1855 onward, Edmund George Lind, Starkweather’s chief draftsman, was in charge of the church’s construction. The spire wasn’t finished until 1875.

Exterior

The exterior of the church has a rectangular shape. The walls on Madison Street and Park Avenue are faced with brown New Brunswick freestone and are covered with elaborate hood molds, arches, cornices, and pinnacles. The exterior cornices have a pattern of long tongue-shaped dentils. On each side of the church’s main body, five pedimented and ribbed buttresses rise above the roofline. North of the main body, where there appears to be a transept, even larger buttresses support the corners. What appears to be transept, however, is only a trick of architectural subterfuge. Sharing a common roof with the rest of the church, the north section is separated from the main body by a bearing wall. In 1940, Ralph Adams Cram, of the Boston-based architectural firm Cram and Goodhue, remodeled the northernmost portion of the building to house the Reid Memorial Chapel. The axis of the small chapel runs east to west, whereas the main body runs north to south.

Starkweather First and Franklin 2.png

Spire

At the south end, the main tower and spire rests on stone piers. The spire is supported by four cast iron pillars, which form a core to which the freestone is attached with iron devices, much in the same manner as modern skyscrapers. The main tower is fortified with buttresses at each corner that terminate in pinnacles. Between them, each face of the tower ends in a crocketed pediment with a finial, behind which the spire ascends, tapering inward with lozenge-shaped openings, vertical ribs, and a crowning pinnacle. The main tower is flanked by octagonal turrets at the southeast and southwest corners of the building. The southwest turret is 78 feet tall and is topped with an ogee roof with a ring of pinnacles. The southeast turret is 128 feet tall and has heavily crocketed ribs, pediments, and openings.

First and Franklin Tower.png

Interior

The church’s interior is no less striking than its exterior. It is divided into a narthex, nave, two ambulatory corridors on both sides of the pulpit, and the small chapel at the rear. The narthex has a low ceiling, contrasting with the high and spacious nave, inside which there are black walnut pews and balconies with carved trefoils. The choir balcony and organ console are at the south end, the oak pulpit is at the north. The ceiling is the most arresting element. Suspended at least 30 feet below the roof, it appears dramatic and heavy, with support coming not from columns, but from a system of arches and trusses that serve to keep the space open below. Fan vaults fountain from the walls and from massive pendants which correspond to the missing columns. These designs resemble the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and the graceful plaster foliage is redolent of the Winchester Cathedral.

The Gothic sofa and chairs near the pulpit were made by Robert O. Renwick around 1860. There are five paired stained glass windows along the east and west walls of the nave, some of which were made in the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany, others done by Charles J. Connick. At the north end of the church, the pulpit is recessed into a wall adorned in plaster tracery. As with the rest of the nave, the plaster is painted white and gray and the walls are sandy pink. In 2009, the church underwent extensive restoration led by Murphy & Dittenhafer.

Starkweather First Franklin 3.pngStarkweather First Franklin 4.pngStarkweather First Franklin 10.png

Starkweather First Franklin 5.pngStarkweather First Franklin 6.png

By Dom Guida [1][2]