Our City’s Roots 8

City Transformation: Fulfilling our long-time callings

• Pray for the believers in the city to continue to worship, pray, and love one another as they have since the 1800’s.  Pray that we might continue to have pioneers among us who will dedicate their lives to the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

There are characteristics and callings for our city that have grown out of our earliest days.  This week we will be praying for God’s purposes in these “roots” of our city to be fulfilled.  Each day we will leverage the history of a downtown building to guide our prayers (Reference).

St. Mary’s Catholic Church
22 West Kiowa Street
Built 1898-1902 / Architect Pease and Barber
No. 23

St. Mary’s Catholic Church is significant for both its architecture and its history. The congregation held its first mass in the region in 1860, celebrated by Father Joseph Machebeuf. This site was purchased in 1888, and construction proceeded incrementally with dedication in 1898 and completion of the bell towers in 1902.

The local firm of Pease and Barber designed the structure in a Gothic Revival style. The two towers reach 80’ and 148’ in height, with a functional belfry. Originally containing three front entries, one in each tower and one to the
center of the narthex, the steep stairs were replaced with a ramp in a 1960’s
renovation. In 2002-03, the ramp was removed during a renovation and
expansion of the building.

First Christian Church
16 East Platte Avenue
Built 1935 / Architect Edward Bunts
No. 33

This building has served the congregation of the First Christian Church since
its construction in 1935. The church, founded in 1878, met in various homes and
other churches until it built its first structure in 1891 on North Nevada Avenue,
across from Acacia Park. The growing congregation purchased this site in 1926
and erected this church after the earlier building was damaged by fire. The building was one of the largest construction projects of the Great Depression era. Despite undertaking the project during the economic downturn, the congregation was able to hold its mortgage burning ceremony in 1943. The 1929 Alden Manor Apartments, attached to the north, was acquired in 1953 to serve as an Education Building. Appropriate for a town once known as “Little London,” the church displays an English Gothic style.