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St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

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1955–1957, Harold E. Wagoner. 10 W. 31st St.

The finest modernist church in Savannah, the current St. Paul’s is the second on the site (replacing a more modest wood clapboarded building) and serves as the centerpiece of a small campus of buildings. Wagoner’s stepped steeple, crowned by a pencil-thin spire, is a beacon by day and by night, when electric light illuminates its strips of stained glass. Narrow rock-faced courses of Tennessee quartzite provide warmth and texture to the walls, while flagstones of the same material pave the surrounding sidewalk. Cast-bronze doors open between cast-stone panels. Traditional stained glass creates a window wall around the main entrance, while more modern colored glass designs light the nave and a side hall. A delicately angled brick apse culminates the interior space with a finely detailed altar railing, an abstract geometric pattern of wooden lattice screening, an altar candelabra made of polyester resin, and a striking aluminum cross. Also part of this church complex are the parish house (1925, Levy, Clarke and Bergen) and Haffner Social Hall (1995, Vernon H. Nowell).

Writing Credits

Author: 
Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler
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Citation

Robin B. Williams with David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler, "St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church", [Savannah, Georgia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/GA-02-10.12.

Print Source

Buildings of Savannah, Robin B. Williams. With David Gobel, Patrick Haughey, Daves Rossell, and Karl Schuler. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2016, 186-187.

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