Architectural Inspiration for our 1928 Church
by Cartter Frierson
December 29, 1999
The architect for our first church building on the present campus in 1928 was the renowned Chattanooga architect R. H. Hunt. Across Bragg Avenue stands the somewhat similarly styled Lookout Mountain Elementary School, built soon after. No known record describes the inspiration for the style of these edifices, but recently this author has come across some information which is sufficient to suggest a plausible hypothesis at least.
Below is a photograph of the Church of the Nativity in Union, South Carolina, which caught the author's eye because of its strong similarity to our own. A recent article* in the South Carolina Historical Magazine explores the similarity of the Union, SC church with one in Canada which in turn is believed to be fashioned after a 13th century parish church near Cambridge, England. This author finds that our church resembles St. Michael's, the 13th century church, more than the ones on this continent.
The Union, SC church above is the subject of the referenced article. It's similarity to St. Anne's Chapel in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada is remarkable.
The church which the author Pearson* suggests was the source for the design of both the above churches in America is shown below. While our church appears to share architectural inspiration with these two American churches, it seems more like St. Michaels in Long Stanton, near Cambridge, England. In the article, Pearson reports this church still stands but is now used only for occasiional services. The image below was evidently drawn from Raphael Brandon and J. Arthur Brandon's Parish Churches, published in 1848 (see caption).
*With thanks to the South Carolina Historical Society, of which this author is a member. The referenced article, "The Church of the Nativity and the Frank Wills Connection," by Lennart Pearson, appeared in a special issue of South Carolina Historical Magazine on Religion in South Carolina, Volume 100 Number 3, July 1999 (ISSN 0038-3082). The Society is located at 100 Meeting Street in Charleston (843) 723-3225.
The reader might also care to click here to revisit the image of the front of the second church at the opening of chapter 4.