This church has an unusually eclectic history. It began as the Second United Presbyterian Church. Father Pitt does not know the original architect, but in 1915 there was a devastating fire, and a large reconstruction project was supervised by the architect John Louis Beatty.(1) In 1933 the Presbyterians moved out, and this became the East End Baptist Church. Now it is the Union Project (an arts venue) and the meeting-place of the Jonah’s Call Anglican congregation.
About two and a half years ago, old Pa Pitt published some pictures of this church, but something seemed different about it. It took a moment to realize: the decorative details on the tower have been cleaned. Back in 2021, all the stone had been cleaned except for the very top of the tower:
But now the tower is clean to its very tip:
This little pinnacle is still the color the whole church used to be.
Map showing the location of the church.
Footnotes
- Source: The Construction Record, January 16, 1915: “The Second United Presbyterian Congregation has selected Architect J. L. Beatty, 146 Sixth street, to prepare plans for repairing the church on Stanton and Negley avenues.” We learn from earlier listings that the church had been heavily damaged by fire. The work was budgeted at $30,000, so it must have amounted almost to a new building. Beatty may have been the original architect as well. On the grounds of style alone, Father Pitt is inclined to say that Beatty is responsible for the way the building looks today; compare the treatment of the windows, for example, to his North End Presbyterian Church in Observatory Hill. (↩)
