Architecture Enhances Worship
Revealing Deeper Layers of Meaning in our Building
If you go to the Richard Smith Memorial Gateway in Fairmount Park, you will find two curving, neobaroque arches adorned with thirteen individual portrait sculptures, two eagles astride globes, and architectural reliefs of eight allegorical figures.
James Hamilton Windrim (1840-1919) is the subject of one of the busts; he faces forward and looks off to the left. Windrim was the architect for this church. He also designed Philadelphia’s Masonic Temple, the Girard Building at 12th and Market Streets and several of the buildings on the campus of Girard College; he had been a member of the first graduating class of the college.
Windrim’s design for First Presbyterian was Gothic Revival of a length of 137 feet and an extreme width of 88 feet. The apex of the roof rises 66 feet from the ground, and the spire is 150 feet. Alterations to the building over the years, however, have changed the dimensions of the structure but not the intent of it as a house of God and a place to worship God “in the beauty of holiness.”
The design underscores the observation made in Christ and Architecture- Building Presbyterian/Reformed Churches that “A church is a place where God’s people gather together to worship him, and how they worship, as well as what they believe, is either reinforced or undermined by the architecture.” (p. 6).
As worshipers enter the doors (“I am the door: by me if any man enters in, he shall be saved.” John 10:9), they step into the narthex, the church vestibule leading into the nave. Tradition has it that the narthex be dark so that the light in the church will be brighter as members and friends of the congregation enter. When First Church was constructed, two large double windows on each side of the building let in abundant light, according to a newspaper report of the day.
Today, twenty-nine stained glass windows adorn the sanctuary with their beauty. But in the history of the early church, glass was used, even literally, to enlighten the illiterate with pictures. Some of our own windows do tell stories as they have Biblical references, for example “Rebecca at the Well.”
Several of the windows have been given in memory of the Henry family who were one of the most active and prominent members in the nineteenth century. The window entitled “Lovest Thou Me. Feed My Sheep” on the east wall of the sanctuary was given by present member Paulanne (Polly) Montaigne “In Loving Memory” of her parents, Gottfried Henry Binder (1889-1947) and Emily Freihoffer Binder (1893-1966).
Along with the doors, the narthex, the light and the architectural vision of James Windrim, the windows remind us of the greater household of faith and that we do share in legacy of thosethousands who have worshiped here.