As I wrote this Monday in St. Louis Magazine, the long suffering St. Augustine has been purchased by Brittany Breeden and is going to be rehabbed as a community center. No, it’s not going to be returned back to an immaculate copy of what it looked like in 1900, but rather it will be stabilized, secured and allowed to continue its existence as a testament to its beauty and the people who lived and who still live in the western edge of the St. Louis Place neighborhood. I want to stress none of us who support the purchase and conversion of the old church into a community center is under any illusion that this will not be a leviathan task.
First up is the apse, which is probably where the groin vaulting, which in this case is a special variant known as stellar vaulting, is best preserved.
Many of the original Emil Frei and Associates stained glass windows are still covered in plywood, so they’re preserved in good condition.
Moving into the crossing, the vast majority of the vaulting has collapsed due to holes in the roof letting in water, and lack of heating which allowed nature to take its course on the delicate wood lathe and plaster.
But the beauty of a giant Nativity scene in the south transept, though damaged, still shines through. It is remarkable how beautiful these windows are, and I can easily say these are some of the most beautiful in St. Louis.
The two balconies are still stable, overall, but have the weight of the vaulting from up above resting on top of the upper one.
Some of the beautiful plasterwork survives under the ceiling below the lower balcony.
The north windows, including the giant window in the north transept, never had their plywood removed, so they are in great shape. I think the north transept’s subject is the Resurrection of Christ, but I can’t be sure since the light is blocked out.
I climbed up the stairs of the bell tower; if you go back and look at the front facade of the church you’ll note the circular turret coming out the side of the main spire with the conical roof. Unfortunately, the copper thieves savaged the masonry at the top from the inside to get at the copper flashing, so we stopped at that point since there were too many bricks on the treads for our safety.
Looking out the windows, the JeffVanderLou neighborhood stretches out west of the street in the background, which is Jefferson Avenue, the western boundary of St. Louis Place. The beleaguered Central High School is in the distance, at Garrison and Natural Bridge avenues.
Please join me Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00 PM at the Missouri History Museum for my lecture on my latest research into Adam Lemp’s development of the cave property on Cherokee Street in the early 1860s, with new discoveries from historic maps, business contracts and examination of the lagering cellars under the brewery. Admission is free.