St. Francis de Sales Church - St. Louis, MO - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

County of church: NO County: St. Louis Independent City
Location of church: Gravois Ave & Ohio Ave., St. Louis
Built: August 1895
Architect: Original: German architect E. Seiberts
   Above plans revised by Klutho and Ranft, St. Louis
Architectural Style: German Gothic Revival

"While the ultimate architectural sources of the church of St. Francis de Sales are German medieval hall churches, a closer parallel can be drawn between the forms of St. Francis and those of German Gothic Revival churches: St. Johannis Kirche--Stuttgart, 1876, the Neue Evang. Lutherische Kirche--Frankfurt A.M., 19th century, St. Johannis Kirche--Alton, 1873. (There appears to have been no attempt to place St. Francis de Sales in the evolutionary lineage of American Gothic revival architecture, a phenomenon largely English in origin.) In that the original plan was drawn up in Germany by a German architect, St. Francis de Sales was originally conceived as a German Gothic revival church; church documents give reference to a direct derivation from the Cathedral of Frankfurt and St. Paul's in Berlin.

"The exterior of St. Francis de Sales appears to be a combination of mid-thirteenth century Gothic forms and nineteenth century adaptations of these same forms. (See Photo #1) Although there is but one tower at St: Francis de Sales, it is very similar to those of' St. Elizabeth at Marburg, Germany. Characteristic to each is buttressing which rises to four small octagonal turrets at the tower roof level. Between these turrets are four small attic windows from behind which rises the conical, octagonal tower roof. The nature of the elements which pierce and decorate the enframed tower wall space is, however, different in both towers. At Marburg these elements are three windows--arranged from top to bottom as smallest, largest, and intermediate--between which are two decorative bands. At St. Francis de Sales, however, the elements are more numerous leaving almost no wall space without decoration. In addition the elements--which are top to bottom a blind arcade, a window enframing a clock in the uppermost portion, a mosaic portrait of St. Francis, another blind arcade, and lastly, a rose window--are relatively the same in size and importance." ~ NRHP Nomination Form