Building of the Day: 324-334 South 5th Street

(Photo: Christopher D. Brazee, for Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2011)

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Address: 324-334 South 5th Street
Cross Streets: Corner of Rodney Street
Neighborhood: Williamsburg
Year Built: 1884
Architectural Style: Rundbogenstil Romanesque Revival
Architect: J. C. Cady & Co.
Other buildings by architect: New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (now Union United Methodist Church), 1290 Pacific St. (private house), Crown Hts; Wing of Museum of Natural History, CPW; old Metropolitan Opera, (demolished) midtown Manhattan.
Landmarked: Yes, along with Sunday School and Parsonage, individual landmark (2011)

The story: J.C. Cady designed one of my favorite churches, the former New York Methodist Episcopal Church, which is right around the corner from my house in Crown Heights North. I never get tired looking at it, it’s just a masterpiece of great design, so it was with great interest and delight that I found out he had designed another great church complex in Brooklyn, this one, St. Paul’s. The two complexes have many similarities, even though they were built for two different denominations and eight years apart. This one, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, was designed and built first, in 1884.

Williamsburg has a long history of as a home to thousands of German immigrants. As homes and businesses flourished, so too did houses of worship. This is only the second German Lutheran church to be founded in the town, and dates back to 1852. They soon secured the intersection of South 1st St. and Ninth, now Rodney Street, and built a small church. By 1871, they had begun a building fund for a much larger church, and in 1873, bought the land upon which the church complex stands. They hired the firm of J. C. Cady & Co. and in 1884, the cornerstone of the building was laid.

Josiah Cleaveland Cady’s earliest architectural mentor was an unnamed German architect who had fled to the United States for political reasons. It was from him that Cady learned the uniquely German Rundbogenstil style of Romanesque Revival architecture, which matched his client’s preferences perfectly, as well as his own design style. The Germans were among the first to employ Romanesque arches, massing and shapes, with the style going back to the late 1820’s, well before its use in America, beginning in the late 1840’s. Cady’s experience included churches, museums, opera houses, and hospitals, many of which have a Rundbogenstil influence.

The style was very flexible, and Cady liked the arrangement of many Protestant churches, where he could amass not only the main church building, but also the parsonage, Sunday School, and any other auxiliary buildings into one unified design. He very much accomplished that in NY Methodist Episcopal, but first, he did it here. The complex is a massing of horizontal and vertical shapes, balanced by the tall bell tower, all with the classic Rundbogenstil running arch pattern. The fine brickwork of Philadelphia and Holland brick is complemented by the terra-cotta trim and stained glass. Like NY Methodist, Cady put together a fine streetscape, with multiple rooflines, gables, and towers.

The dedication of the church, which took place in October of 1885, almost a year to the day of laying down the cornerstone, was a huge ceremony in German,topped off by the singing of Martin Luther’s famous hymn, “Ein’ feste Burg is unser Gott.” (A Mighty Fortress is our God). Luther couldn’t have put it better if he tried. Today, the church serves the needs of a Hispanic Lutheran congregation, and is still going strong. GMAP

The churches featured this week are just the tip of the iceberg, here in the Borough of Churches. There will be many more to come in 2012. Feliz Navidad, Fröhliche Weihnachten, and see you in the coming year. May all your architecture be good architecture.