Located two blocks inland, this buff brick building with classical stone details was the only downtown church to survive Hurricane Katrina. Two pedimented facades with tetrastyle Ionic porticos reflect the church’s corner site and its auditorium-plan sanctuary, which is crowned by a forty-foot diameter dome with stained glass depicting the Genesis creation story. A two-story Sunday School wing at the rear has an Akron plan, where smaller classrooms can be opened into a central assembly space. Next door, a one-story, tan brick education building with an exposed concrete frame and tall concrete detached spire was built in 1965.
Opposite at 2309 15th, Gulfport’s two-story, painted brick City Hall (1906, C. E. Black; 1980 cupola reconstructed, Guild Hardy Architects) has a monumental tetrastyle Corinthian portico sheltering the central entrance; the dentiled and modillioned pressed-metal cornice was restored after 2005.