Christ Episcopal Church

Christ Episcopal Church

Christ Episcopal Church S. Allen Chambers, Jr.

Christ Episcopal Church

1921–1924, Ralph Adams Cram (Cram and Ferguson). 1962. 810 Main St. (east side of Main St. between 8th and 9th sts.)

Replacing a brick Gothic Revival church that dated from 1869–1873 and was damaged several times in floods, this Early English Gothic church is built of Bedford (Indiana) limestone. A square tower with walls braced by corner buttresses projects from the center of the facade. Behind, side walls of the nave are lined with lancet windows. The parish house extends to the north, at a right angle from the rear of the nave. The entire complex is relatively unadorned, even austere, and relies almost exclusively on fine proportions for its effect.

A disastrous fire occurred in 1962, but the postfire restoration departed little if at all from the original design. A magnificent triple-lancet chancel window, high above the reredos, survived. The work of Charles J. Connick (1875–1945), a leader in the revival of medieval stained glass in America, who designed windows for a number of Cram's churches, it depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by Moses and St. John the Baptist.

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