Posted January 8, 200718 yr To use preservationrestoration's words, Middletown is the "church capital." And it is true, the number of churches, mostly newer congregations, is pretty remarkable and includes two mega churches. While Middletown's church history is rich and many (around 12) historic (pre-1950) churches remain, I'm disappointed to see so many churches have abandoned or demolished their historic downtown(/urban core) churches as they modernized, all but one moving to the east in town. I guess thats the story for much of Middletown, and it continues today. This is the predecessor to a Hamilton church thread, which tells a much different story. 1) Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church -Organized in 1852 by St. Stephen's in Hamilton, a major mother congregation who started parishes all over the area -Demolished first building and rebuilt on the same site in 1898 The covered entry really hurts the church's appearance, it seems they could do something to help it blend. Before botched entry addition, during 1913 flood: (notice how it sits grandly upon a small hill) A structure to the side of the church, possibly part of the old school? 2) St. John's Catholic Parish -Organized 1872 -School building added in 1880, now demolished for a parking lot -New structure built in 1925 when the old church was razed Old school site DEMOLISHED church before steeple was added 3) United Brethren Church -Organized 1890 -Built structure in 1901 -A later Methodist congregation left to merge with another in 2006 and the building was sold to a congregation from New Miami 4) Methodist Episcopal Church, now First United Methodist -Pioneer church of Middletown, roots as far back as 1804 and Daniel Doty -Samuel Hannaford structure completed in 1890 Don't tell Rob that I used his picture w/o his permission. :wink: (robertpence.com) The Broad St. Facade features a higher quality, more intricate, beautiful stone (seen here) 5) First Baptist Church -Organized 1808 -Built bedford stone structure in 1890 -ABANDONED in 1972, when the church moved east -Rear burnt in 2006, but in use as training facility (or something like that) 6) Second Baptist Church -Organized in 1875 -Present structure built in 1935 7) Bethlehem Lutheran Church -Organized 1854 -Built substancial church in 1882 -Demolished old church and rebuilt on adjacent site in 1959 -Constructed the beautiful, unique Parish House Theater in 1921 American Lutheran Church!?, haven't seen that name in a while. :lol: The Parish House Theater features a good sized auditorium flanked by classrooms which form a circle around the seating. Old parsonage house A great design for 1959! Bethlehem's DEMOLISHED church A series: THOSE DANG PRESBYTERIANS!!!!! 8) The Presbyterian Church, now First United Presbyterian -Left their beautiful Hannaford church to be DEMOLISHED as they moved east -Built a colonial structure in 1950 -Recent additions as late as 2003 DEMOLISHED church New: 1980 postcard 9/10) Oakland and United Presbyterian Churches, now St. Luke Presbyterian -Merged in 1965 and ABANDONED their small churches south of downtown for a new home on the east Oakland, now two apartments: Oakland being raped of its bell United, now a Spanish-speaking congreagation: </end series> 11) Church of The Ascension, now the Episcopal Church of the Ascension -Organized 1870 -Built first church in 1877 -ABANDONED their church to move east in 1929 -A carillion was added in the 60's A marvelous structure, no doubt DEMOLISHED church building, used for Zion Lutheran Church before it moved east as well 12) St. Pauls Evangelical and Reformed Church, now St. Paul's United Church of Christ -Organized 1874 -Built present church in 1888 -Boasts an unusual, and frankly weird, but awesome facade 13) Temple Beth -Built 1955 14) First Christian Church -Built in 1903 -Currently Berachah Baptist Church -Painted green, but everyone says it is gray! :lol:
January 8, 200718 yr Interesting thread, especially enjoyable since I got to see a few of those during the holiday tour. As far as using my photo, you have my blessing. Glad I could help. Variations on that Colonial / Georgian theme were big among Presbyterians in the fifties. South Bend has one, and Fort Wayne's is exceptionally well-done, although the construction cost the lives of a block of Federal, Italianate and early Victorian homes in 1955.
January 8, 200718 yr Thanks Ink for doing the thread that I always wanted to do :) I love First Methodist, although I hate the fact that the santuary doesn't have a center aisle. It is probably my favorite with the old First Baptist a close second. During the home tour, I asked why the decision was made to built a new structure at Beth. Lutheran in the 1950s. The answer I got was the flood of 1913 did more damage than originally recognized. Honestly, that's one structure I'm sorry to see gone. At least some of the original stained glass windows were saved and used in the parlor. Congregations moved eastward for different reasons. Calvary Methodist (now known as Christ Methodist--their historic structure is gone), moved east because they were one of three Methodist congregations downtown, and there weren't any on the east end. First Baptist moved because they were a going congregation with no room to expand in their old location. There wasn't enough parking either. I mean, they could have torn down historic homes to expand, but I don't think any of us would have wanted that :) I am glad that the structure is still around and that the sanctuary wasn't destroyed in the fire. The name of the organization in there now is called "Rachel's Place". They had a really bad picture of the inside on their web site. Glad to see the organ is still there, but I wonder if it is functioning at all. Needs some work, but not as bad as I thought. According to their website: Rachel’s Place will offer free weekly training classes to the surrounding community—designed to emotionally, spiritually, and physically support and encourage individuals and families. The building will also house a home school resource center. The Rachel’s Place Chapel will be open daily for meditation and will be available to the community for weddings and special services. Rachel’s Kitchen will serve the staff and will offer warm meals to the homeless and less fortunate. “The Rock House”, located in the basement of Rachel’s Place, will be a safe, drug-free teen nightclub with live music, cappuccino bar, video games, pool tables, etc., and will open one or more nights a week. Rachel’s Place will house a full production video/audio studio and sound stage for training interns in television, video, and audio production as well as dance, drama, and other performing arts and multimedia applications. These facilities will also be available for qualified community projects. Front Yard Grey stone / wrought iron wall along the front yard, with two gates: one for the main sidewalk and one for the meditation garden—meandering brick paths, surrounding a large fountain in the center. Bushes and landscaping; benches for reading and meditation. Front portico of the church will also have wrought iron tables and padded chairs. First Floor Prayer/wedding chapel, open daily for meditation and special services Administration/secretarial office Soundstage Dressing rooms Recording studio Video studio Home school resource center Second Floor John Phillips’ office Debbie Phillips’ office Director’s office Cafeteria area Newsletter, e-mail, computer room Satellite offices for partnering organizations: Theotherapy, American Destiny, First Priority, Summit, etc. Third Floor Board room Classrooms Break area Library Basement Soup kitchen/cafeteria I'll assume this is the same reason why First Presbyterian moved out of downtown. The new structure is beautiful. The inside is more impressive than the outside: I would not surprise me if the Holy Family Parish closes one of the downtown churches and builds a new east-end location. I think the Catholics will always have a presence downtown, but I think they are probably starting to question why the need for two churches. Holy Trinity was the Irish congregation while St. John's was the German congregation. Today, there is less cultural division, so the need for two separate churches didn't exist. Hence, why they merged into a single parish. The old UB/Faith Methodist went through a remodeling in the 70s and the interior lost much of its charm. Somehow the sanctuary was reversed and a new stained glass window in the front (old back) was installed. It is back-lite as it is not a natural window, from what the description says. I believe the old large stained glass that had once been in the front is no longer visible from the inside. Here's a shot of the interior of the Ascension church from their website:
January 8, 200718 yr I'm guessing that the Methodist sanctuary (as well as the old Presbyterian sanctuary based off pictures I've seen) were designed more as auditoriums. I DO wish the old Beth. structure still existed. I got the same impression you did from the old lady. Not happy the structure was gone. I've often thought it resembled Zion. The older Baptist and St. John's churches both had center steeples. The trend in Middletown however, was towards bell towers. Here is a pic of the new Baptist church as well
January 8, 200718 yr I'm guessing that the Methodist sanctuary (as well as the old Presbyterian sanctuary based off pictures I've seen) were designed more as auditoriums. I helped with an archive project at First Presbyterian in Fort Wayne. The congregation dates to 1837, and the present building was built in 1955. Records of the earlier structures, and even some of the early discussion and planning for the present building, often referred to what we know as the sanctuary as the lecture room.
January 8, 200718 yr Nice thread! I was actually in process of doing a "Historic Catholic Churches of Cincinnati" thread but there are a lot of churches to photgraph and much ground to cover and I wasn't even doing the non-Catholic churches.
January 8, 200718 yr You might enjoy checking out the page in my Lafayette (Indiana) photo set that has pictures of some grand old churches dating 1858 -1872 in a nice old near-downtown neighborhood.
January 10, 200718 yr Correction. Middletown had three Catholic parishes: Holy Trinity, St. Johns and St. Marys. All three merged to become Holy Family Parish. St. Marys was a newer parish, established in the 1950s. It was located as part of the old John 23rd elementary school complex on Central that was recently demolished to make way for the new Senior Citizens Center. My guess is that St. Mary's was established to serve second generation non-ethnic Catholics living in the east end of town. It was the smaller of the three parishes, and hence why its building was discontinued.
January 10, 200718 yr fantastic job ink. like pres, i too always wanted to do a thread like this -- i was kind of planning on it for lorain next summer (st pauls reminds me of some lorain churches). the historic info is a great read as well.
March 25, 200718 yr In doing research for Ink on old Middletown schools at the Middletown Library Lens site, I came across something I hadn't seen before, but was very familiar with. The old Methodist Protestant Church later known as Calvary Methodist Church and today Christ Methodist Church on the east end of town. At one time it was the third Methodist church downtown (First, Faith--formerly a U.B. congregation). Hence while it probably moved to the east end. I have seen pictures of the older building and inside of the second building downtown, but never the outside of the building...until today. Here it is. I known several of the stained glass windows were moved to the new church on Marshall and Grand :)
March 25, 200718 yr Nice find, I really like the design. The stained glass windows are interesting, although it would have been nice to install them in the sanctuary, instead of along the wall with artificial lighting behind.
March 26, 200718 yr Nice find, I really like the design. The stained glass windows are interesting, although it would have been nice to install them in the sanctuary, instead of along the wall with artificial lighting behind. They are some of the best stained glass windows in Middletown from what I've seen. I think what happened was the sanctuary was built first, and then the decision was made to install the windows. I also think that the sanctuary was meant to be temporary with plans for a bigger one, which would have put the windows to better use. I love the one in the narthax though. You can see it from Marshall when you drive by.
March 26, 200718 yr Church #2 (St. John's Catholic Parish) looks almost dead-on like the church where Burkhardt hits 5th St. in Dayton.
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