photographs of abandoned places #40

 North Presbyterian 1886-87 Cleveland

  National Register of Historic Places 1974,  last service October 2012 

Operating the building proved to costly to the diminished congregation. They went a few blocks east, on the same street, and have services in the new Lutheran Ministries building. They left behind this 1936 Wicks pipe organ, built in Highland Illinois, and the bell they brought over from their mother church (First Presbyterian).

These two fotos show the Akron Plan of church interiors. Certain Protestant denominations in the last decades of the 19th century used a design that appeared in Akron. The worship space would not be angular, but round or semi-round; and from it would radiate other smaller rooms, which may be open to view the service, or closed for instruction, or other purposes. This congregation began as a Sunday school in 1859 of First Presbyterian (Old Stone), and such architecture was built to correspond to that purpose. To my eyes, it is akin to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre with private booths in the balcony. The film, "Judas and the Black Messiah", used the church as one of its Cleveland filming sites.

more of the Akron Plan room units

ladder in shaft to roof

rose window above main entrance

Some of the windows have plastic sheeting overlaid. Some glass is missing in some windows.

Some of the windows have buckled.

 Behind the glass there are opportunistic (weed) trees in autumn color.

Some congregations installed colorful leaded windows, but only in geometric component pieces.

No one is behind the window. Outside above the main entrance arch is a stone ornament.