I finally took a closer look at St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church, which has anchored the corner of Flad and 39th Street since 1906, though it was officially founded as a parish in 1899.
As was typical of the dawn of the early Twentieth Century, the architectural tastes were going towards the English Gothic Revival, even as German parishes were still holding onto their national styles in churches such as St. Francis de Sales or St. Augustine’s.
I usually associate this style of architecture with the massive Presbyterian churches that cropped up on the edges of Forest Park as wealthy businessmen moved to the western edges of the city after the World’s Fair; see for example Memorial Presbyterian Church.
There are no flying buttresses, and by looking at the church’s website, the interior is a simple auditorium, which is different than older Gothic Revival churches in St. Louis.
Interestingly, the patron saint of the church, St. Margaret of Scotland, founded the ferry across the Firth of Forth, where one of my favorite bridges, the Firth of Forth Railroad Bridge, spans the Scottish body of water. That bridge was influenced by our own Eads Bridge.
