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Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Church Burns on Christmas Eve

Blaze destroys church in St. Louis - David Hunn and Jake Wagman (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 26)

Resurrection Lutheran Church at West Florissant and Fair avenues near O'Fallon Park lies in ruin after Christmas.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Old churches in nearly abandoned to abandoned areas, what do you do with them?

A Northside/Southside Metrolink is sorely needed to cause a building boom in North St. Louis neighborhoods. Maybe they could all allocate some of their property taxes to a new quasi-public school.

Anonymous said...

That's hardly an "abandoned" area.

The church was one of the prettiest in the City.

They don't make buildings like that anymore, and I'm sorry I never took the time to visit it on the inside.

The outside was beautiful and looked well-maintained.

It would have been an important contributing building to an historic district around O'Fallon Park.

Sad.

Anonymous said...

A great old church. Once call Pilgrim Lutheran Church many years ago...

Mem5orex@yahoo.com said...

Pilgrim Lutheran Church was, indeed, one of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen, and its destruction deeply saddens me. Although from a family that included Presbyterian ministers, we attended Pilgrim Lutheran Church many times when I was a child, it was where I went to Bible School, and because we lived directly across the street, we were able to watch beautiful brides and their wedding parties joyously emerge from its front doors as we sat sat outside on our front porch on hot, humid St. Louis evenings, trying to stay cool. And I recall the people associated with the church as being very kind. I remember especially the Rev. Alvin Doerfler (sp?) and his sister, both of whom, as was the custom in those days, lived near the church and the Sunday School teachers that one summer tried to teach us to sing "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish and Chinese. They had a bit of difficulty with the Chinese version, but I still remember most of the words in Spanish. If anyone reading this has memories of the church they would like to share, or any photos, I would be delighted to hear from you. I had always hoped that the wonderful neighborhood around that church and O'Fallon Park would be restored. My e-mail address is Mem5orex@yahoo.com.