wfn.org | United Methodist church named national historic landmark

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

April 5, 1999  News media Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.     10-71BP{186}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this story.

By United  Methodist News Service

A Tulsa, Okla., church noted for its art deco style has been designated a
national historic landmark by the federal government. 

Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, founded in 1893, received the highest
level of recognition given by the U.S. Department of the Interior to a
non-government-owned property. The church was designated last month because
of its architecture and style, use of materials and sculptures, and its
recognition of trends.  

"This is the only national historic landmark in Tulsa, and we're pleased
that a house of worship is acknowledged to be the most significant building
in the city at this time," said the Rev. Mouzon Biggs Jr., pastor at Boston
Avenue for the last 19 years. "This designation should serve to help us with
properties around the church, to be sure the integrity of the neighborhood
will be maintained as far into the future as we can see."

The 8,100-member church is one of only 18 such designated sites in Oklahoma,
and the only one in Tulsa. Landmark designation is the federal government's
official recognition of the national importance of historic properties. The
church received the designation after being nominated by the Oklahoma
Historical Society.  

In addition to its architecture, the church has earned distinction for
producing five bishops from among its senior ministers over the years -
Bascom Watts, Paul Galloway, Finis Crutchfield, Chess Lovern and John
Russell.

The story of United Methodism is told through the symbolism that can be seen
throughout the building, said Shari Goodwin, the church's communications
director. The exterior features sculptures of  John, Charles and Susanna
Wesley over the north doors of the church, and circuit riders Francis Asbury
and William McKendrie, along with the "unknown circuit rider," over the
south doors. The sculptures are the work of artist Robert Garrison.

Tulsa was just a trading post town when the Rev. E.B. Chenoweth arrived with
his wife and infant son in November 1893 to begin a congregation of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

Immediately after the family was situated in this "Indian Territory
Settlement," Chenoweth and seven people began conducting monthly services in
a nearby Presbyterian mission. The following spring, the little congregation
began meeting in a brush arbor with pews that were made by stretching wooden
planks over railroad ties. A small frame building was erected later that
year, giving the congregation its first home. 

Outgrowing the building in 1901, the congregation moved into a brick
structure, which it also outgrew. Land was purchased at Fifth Street and
Boston Avenue, and a large, white-column building was constructed. The
church was renamed Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

When the congregation began to balloon in the mid-1920s, the Rev. John Rice
lead the search for a new building. The booming oil business in Tulsa led
church members to seek a design that would be "a sermon in stone," Goodwin
said.  Committee members searched from coast to coast for the appropriate
design. Architects were hired and fired in the process. 

Desperate,  the committee turned to University of Tulsa art instructor Adah
Robinson for inspiration. Her sketch first shocked and then charmed the
group, Goodwin said. It included a round sanctuary, which was unheard of at
that time, a 15-story tower, all done in a new art deco style, and a
limestone exterior. 

The design was accepted, and the 250-member congregation broke ground on May
16, 1927. Construction would take two years, and the finished product was a
20th-century art deco masterpiece, representing an initial investment of
$1.5 million, Goodwin said.

Art deco is a decorative style of the 1920s and 1930s based on geometric
forms, and it has been applied to furnishings, textiles, graphic arts and
other uses. The style was revived in the 1960s.

The 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression placed such financial
strain on the congregation that the church was almost lost.  Building
committee chairman C.C. Cole and his family sold their home and moved into a
smaller one to keep from decreasing their church pledge. The debt was paid
in 1946. 

The church added an educational facility in 1964, and land surrounding the
church was bought and developed for parking. Today, Boston Avenue United
Methodist Church is valued at more than $44 million.

In 1993, the congregation celebrated 100 years, and two 35-foot-tall mosaics
were added in the church's Great Hall. One depicts how God is revealed
through the Old Testament and the other shows how God is revealed through
the New Testament. A gift to the church, each mosaic weighs 3,000 pounds and
includes more and a quarter of a million tiles.

In the designation as a national historic landmark, Secretary of the
Interior Bruce Babbitt listed four architectural elements that make the
Boston Avenue church significant.

The first, he noted, is the church's "outstanding" example of art deco
style.

Second, the church exemplifies the period's trend toward the use of a new
material, steel, in constructing a skyscraper, providing a rare application
of this concept to a religious facility, Babbitt wrote.

The church also exemplifies an emerging trend toward elevating educational
facilities to an almost equal prominence with the sanctuary itself, he said.

Finally, it is significant for its use of terra-cotta sculptures created by
Garrison for the exterior.

"We are pleased that other groups throughout the state, in addition to our
own congregation members, can take pride in this significance of the
building, and we have tried to maintain the integrity of Dr. Adah Robinson's
original design each time we've repainted or made other improvements,"
Goodwin said.  ". . .We're proud that it's still a witness to those who see
it."

# # #

*Boyce Bowdon, editor of the Oklahoma United Methodist Contact, contributed
to this report.

______________
United Methodist News Service
http://www.umc.org/umns/
newsdesk@umcom.umc.org
(615)742-5472