Church of the Crossroads

Last updated
Church of the Crossroads
Honolulu-ChurchofCrossroads-steeple.JPG
Church of the Crossroads
USA Hawaii location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Nearest city Honolulu, Hawaii
Coordinates 21°17′56″N157°49′28″W / 21.29889°N 157.82444°W / 21.29889; -157.82444
Arealess than one acre
Built1935
Architect Claude A. Stiehl
Architectural styleHawaiian style
NRHP reference No. 92001551 [1]
Added to NRHPNovember 20, 1992

The Church of the Crossroads building at 1212 University Avenue in Honolulu, Hawaii was designed in 1935 by Claude A. Stiehl, who combined features of Asian, European, and Hawaiian architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. [1] The buildings on the attractively landscaped 2.25-acre (9,100 m2) lot are built of wood, stucco, and stone with decorative elements. The interior courtyard is surrounded by covered walkways that connect the main sanctuary with offices, meeting halls, and a small seminar room. The red columns throughout the complex were inspired by the Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China. [2] At the raised front end of the classic, cross-shaped nave are an altar of Philippine mahogany and four wood carvings with symbols of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. [3]

The eclectic architecture of the church buildings well reflect the varied ethnicity of the congregation, whose founders in 1923 formed the first racially mixed Protestant congregation in the Territory of Hawaii. Its charter members were students from a parochial school, Mid-Pacific Institute, which was founded to Americanize and evangelize local-born children, and from a public school, President William McKinley High School, where two-thirds of the students in 1930 were Japanese Americans. Among its first leaders were a handful of White American educational evangelists with strong ties to Asia and Hawaii. [4] Its first pastor (19231946) was Galen R. Weaver, a graduate of Ohio State University and Union Theological Seminary in New York who had originally planned to become a missionary in China. [5]

After meeting during its early years at Mission Memorial Hall, across the street from the Kawaiahao Church and Mission Houses (but later taken over by the City), the congregation began raising funds and looking for its own site. By 1929, the membership of 174 included 64 of Japanese descent, 63 of Chinese, and 47 of other local ethnicities. Few were over 30 years old, but they managed to buy and improve a parcel of land on University Avenue, within walking distance of Mid-Pacific Institute, for $20,000. By the time the building was finished, the project cost almost $50,000, $40,000 of which came from major local benefactors. It was dedicated in December 1935. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace</span> Historic Roman Catholic church in Hawaii, United States

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace is the mother church and cathedral of the Diocese of Honolulu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiian architecture</span>

Hawaiian architecture is a distinctive architectural style developed and employed primarily in the Hawaiian Islands. Though based on imported Western styles, unique Hawaiian traits make Hawaiian architecture stand alone against other styles. Hawaiian architecture reflects the history of the islands from antiquity through the kingdom era, from its territorial years to statehood and beyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ʻIolani Barracks</span> United States historic place

ʻIolani Barracks, or hale koa in Hawaiian, was built in 1870, designed by the architect Theodore Heuck, under the direction of King Lot Kapuaiwa. Located directly adjacent to ʻIolani Palace in downtown Honolulu, it housed about 80 members of the monarch's Royal Guard until the overthrow of the Monarchy in 1893. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 as part of the Hawaii Capital Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertram Goodhue</span> American architect

Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was an American architect celebrated for his work in Gothic Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival design. He also designed notable typefaces, including Cheltenham and Merrymount for the Merrymount Press. Later in life, Goodhue freed his architectural style with works like El Fureidis in Montecito, California, one of three estates he designed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii Theatre</span> United States historic place

The Hawaii Theatre is a historic 1922 theatre in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, located at 1130 Bethel Street, between Hotel and Pauahi Streets, on the edge of Chinatown. It is listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Patrick Catholic Church, Honolulu</span> Roman Catholic parish in Kaimuki, Hawaii

Saint Patrick Catholic Church, Honolulu is a parish in the Kaimuki district, in the East Honolulu Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, Hawaii. The church was consecrated under the title of St. Patrick, Bishop of Armagh. Its Romanesque architecture, as well as its fine ecclesiastical appointments such as stained glass windows and pipe organ, are attractive to prospective couples seeking nuptial rites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stangenwald Building</span> First high-rise building in Honolulu

The Stangenwald Building at 119 Merchant Street, in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii was the city's first high-rise office building, with its own law library, and one of the earliest electric elevators in the (then) Territory when it was built in 1901. It was also advertised as "fireproof" because it was built of concrete, stone, brick, and steel, with no wood except in the windows, doors, and furniture, and because it had fireproof vaults and firehoses on every floor. Fireproofing was an important selling point because of the fire that had devastated nearby Chinatown the previous year.) Apart from a few exceptional structures like Aloha Tower (1926) and Honolulu Hale (1929), it remained the tallest building in Honolulu for half a century, until the building boom of the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marguerite Blasingame</span> American sculptor and painter (1906–1947)

Marguerite Louis Blasingame Charles was an American sculptor and painter. Born Marguerite Louis in Honolulu in 1906, she graduated from the University of Hawaii and went on to earn an M.A. in fine art from Stanford University in 1928. The artist then returned to Hawaii, where she became an established sculptor of figural works, many of them bas-reliefs in wood and stone. Her depictions were usually sinuous in contour with simplified anatomy. During the Great Depression, Blasingame was a Works Progress Administration artist and filled many commissions for architectural panels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives</span> Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives in Honolulu, Hawaii, was established in 1920 by the Hawaiian Mission Children's Society, a private, non-profit organization and genealogical society, on the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Christian missionaries in Hawaiʻi. In 1962, the Mission Houses, together with Kawaiahaʻo Church, both built by those early missionaries, were designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) under the combined name Kawaiahao Church and Mission Houses. In 1966 all the NHLs were included in the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lutheran High School of Hawaii</span> Private school in the United States

Lutheran High School of Hawaii (LHSH) was a Lutheran High School located on the grounds of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church at 1404 University Avenue in Honolulu on Oahu, Hawaii. LHSH was accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools (HAIS), and National Lutheran School Accreditation (NLSA), and was a member of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu (ILH) and PAC-5 sports programs.

Charles William “C.W.” Dickey was an American architect famous for developing a distinctive style of Hawaiian architecture, including the double-pitched Dickey roof. He was known not only for designing some of the most famous buildings in Hawaiʻi—such as the Alexander & Baldwin Building, Halekulani Hotel, Kamehameha Schools campus buildings—but also for influencing a cadre of notable successors, including Hart Wood, Cyril Lemmon, Douglas Freeth, Roy Kelley, and Vladimir Ossipoff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kakaako Pumping Station</span> United States historic place

The Kakaʻako Pumping Station in Honolulu, Hawaii was designed by architect Oliver G. Traphagen in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. He also designed many such bold stone public works buildings in Duluth, Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hart Wood</span> American architect

Hart Wood (1880–1957) was an American architect who flourished during the "Golden Age" of Hawaiian architecture. He was one of the principal proponents of a distinctive "Hawaiian style" of architecture appropriate to the local environment and reflective of the cultural heritage of the islands. He was one of the three founders of the Honolulu Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the only one of its fourteen charter members to be elected a Fellow of the AIA. He served as territorial architect during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Guild House</span> Historic house in Hawaii, United States

The John Guild House, now known as Manoa Valley Inn, at 2001 Vancouver Drive in Honolulu, Hawaii, was purchased in 1919 by John Guild, a Honolulu businessman. It had been built four years earlier by Iowa lumber dealer Milton Moore and has been refurbished and restored several times over its lifespan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merchant Street Historic District</span> Historic district in Hawaii, United States

The Merchant Street Historic District in Honolulu, Hawaii, was the city's earliest commercial center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James L. Coke House</span> Historic house in Hawaii, United States

The James L. Coke House, also called Waipuna, at 3649 Nuʻuanu Pali Drive in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi was built in 1934 for Judge James L. Coke, who had that year been reappointed Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its architecture is significant as an example of the residential work of C.W. Dickey, the most prominent local architect of the period, and its landscaping represents the work of the preeminent landscape architect of the period, Richard Tongg. The house and grounds were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methodist Episcopal Church (Greenwich, Connecticut)</span> Historic church in Connecticut, United States

The Methodist Episcopal Church is a historic church and parsonage at 61 East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich, Connecticut. Built in 1868-69 for a Methodist congregation established in 1805, the church is a fine local example of Carpenter Gothic architecture, and the parsonage, built in 1872, is a good example of Italianate architecture. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The congregation is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii Capital Historic District</span> Historic district in Hawaii, United States

The Hawaii Capital Historic District in Honolulu, Hawaii, has been the center of government of Hawaii since 1845.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">YWCA Building (Honolulu, Hawaii)</span> United States historic place

The YWCA Building at 1040 Richards Street, Honolulu, Hawaii, popularly called the Richards Street Y, is now officially named Laniākea, which means 'open skies' or 'wide horizons' in the Hawaiian language. It was designed by San Francisco architect Julia Morgan, who considered it one of her favorites. The building consists of two large units which are connected by a two-story loggia. The main building is three stories high and faces Richards St. with a frontage of 165 feet. The second unit, which is directly in the rear of the first, is somewhat smaller, being two stories high with a large basement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dillingham Transportation Building</span> Building in Honolulu, Hawaii, US

The Dillingham Transportation Building was built in 1929 for Walter F. Dillingham of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, who founded the Hawaiian Dredging Company and ran the Oahu Railway and Land Company founded by his father, Benjamin Franklin Dillingham. The building was designed in an Italian Renaissance Revival by architect Lincoln Rogers of Los Angeles, who also designed the Hawaii State Art Museum (1928). It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and restored by Architects Hawaiʻi Ltd. in 1980.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Sandler, Mehta, and Haines 2008, p. 65
  3. Hemphill 1988, p. 32
  4. Hemphill 1988, pp. 4-5
  5. Hemphill 1988, pp. 21-22
  6. Hemphill 1988, pp. 28-29