First Baptist Penn Memorial Church

The two-story church, one of Clarke’s first buildings in buff rather than red brick has a Greek cross plan with short arms in order to fit its tight lot at the intersection of Spring and Mountain streets. In 1933, the Mountain Street arm of the building was enlarged. Three of the facades are identical, each dominated by a triple-arched stained glass window shaped as a Palladian window where the central arch is taller and wider. Other classical details are the prominent modillioned gables, with end returns giving the impression of a pediment, and brick pilasters with stone Ionic capitals at the building’s corners. The church replaced an earlier one on Elk Street and was built as a memorial to Major W. E. Penn, a noted Baptist evangelist who conducted revival meetings in many states, including one in Eureka Springs that lasted three months in 1893 and doubled the church’s membership.