Father Pitt

Tag: Denick (E. V.)

  • Bethlehem German Evangelical Lutheran Church, Allentown

    Bethlehem German Evangelical Lutheran Church

    There are countless pictures in Father Pitt’s archives that are not good enough to publish, but every once in a while he realizes that he has forgotten to publish a perfectly adequate one. He went looking for his article on this church in Allentown because he had just identified the architect, and the article was nowhere to be found. So here it is, almost a year after the picture was taken. The architect was E. V. Dennick, as we learn from The Construction Record in 1915: “Architect E. V. Denick, 1212 House Building, is taking bids on erecting a one-story and basement brick and sandstone church on Excelsior Street, Allentown, for the Bethlehem Lutheran Congregation.” (On another page of the same magazine, the architect’s name is spelled “Denick,” and it is usually spelled that way in other listings.)

    Oblique view

    From the front this appears to be another one of our churches with the sanctuary upstairs, but the building is set into the hill, and therefore justifies the magazine’s description as “one-story and basement.”

  • Hill-Top YMCA, Knoxville

    YMCA

    A little bedraggled and somewhat muddled by renovations, the former Hill-Top Branch Young Men’s Christian Association is still a grand building. Old Pa Pitt has not been able to determine the architect, but according to the city’s Hilltop architectural inventory it was built in 1911. The same document says elsewhere that the land for it was donated in 1912, and Father Pitt is imagining an amusing scene in which the projectors of the YMCA are trying to explain to the landowner why they thought it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Above, the Zara Street front of the building.

    Capital

    One of the ornate “modern Ionic” capitals on the front porch.

    Corner
    Cornerstone
    Grimes Street side

    The Grimes Street side.

    Addendum: The architect was E. V. Denick.1

    1. Source: The Construction Record, May 13, 1911: “The Ley Construction Company, Curry building, have started excavations for a four-story brick building to be constructed on Zara street and Virginia avenue, Knoxville, for the Y. M. C. A., to cost $75,000. Plans by Architect E. V. Denick, 1212 House building.” Certainly this building has lost its top; it is possible that it was once four floors, but more likely that the specifications were changed, or that the magazine (which was sloppily edited) printed the wrong number. ↩︎

  • Knoxville Christian Church

    Knoxville Christian Church

    Unlike its neighbor, the Knoxville Presbyterian Church, this little Gothic church has no one to cut down the weeds and the Pittsburgh palms. It is already half-swallowed by jungle, and it may soon be nothing more than a roughly cube-shaped lump of vegetation. Wouldn’t it make a fine studio for some ambitious artist?

    Addendum: The architect was E. V. Denick, who also designed the Hill-Top YMCA nearby; the church was built in 1904. Source: Pittsburg Press, May 26, 1904, p. 2. “Foundations have been started on the buff brick stone and terra cotta church being built on Charles and Knox avenues, Knoxville, for the Knoxville Christian congregation from plans drawn by Architect E. V. Denick.”

  • A Black Stone Survivor: First Methodist, Knoxville

    Solid Rock Church

    Few of these black stone buildings are left, but in some of the less prosperous neighborhoods we can still find uncleaned stones. Knoxville is a particularly interesting neighborhood from the point of view of the urban archaeologist: it was prosperous and now is not, so it retains some splendid buildings in their original state, many of them sadly abandoned and decaying. This church, marked “1st Meth. Prot. Ch.” on a 1916 map, is still in use as a nondenominational church, and old Pa Pitt very selfishly hopes that the congregation always sits at that middle point where it has enough money to keep the doors open and not enough to clean the black stones.

    First Methodist Protestant Church

    Addendum: The architect was Knoxville’s own Edwin V. Denick. “Fine New Church for Knoxville,” Pittsburg Press, November 1, 1908: “In the newly opened section of Knoxville, between Charles street and Rochelle street, the Knoxville Methodist Protestant Church congregation of the South Side is erecting a handsome stone building. The structure is under the direction of Edwin V. Denick, architect, and will occupy a plot 100×100 feet at the northeast corner of Zara street and Georgia avenue. The main auditorium will have a seating capacity of about 800. The subfloor is divided between gymnasium and The style is modernized Gothic in the exterior plan and design. The work is well in progress and it is intended to complete the structure about August 1, 1909.”

    First Methodist, Knoxville