Concurrently with the church's 1937 addition, a new Main Auditorium was also constructed on the east side of Fourteenth Avenue. Its large, open interior provided space for at least 5,000 people to gather at one time. A permit was issued for the building, with an estimated cost of $194,000, on April 29 of that year. The permit did not identify the architect. The Main Auditorium contrasts with the Educational and Recreation Building by its Art Deco style and overall fortress-like massing. It is a two-story, flat roofed building with symmetrical facade, high parapet wall and engaged, quoined towers. It is clad in brick matching that of the original building in color, and features rough stone trim.
The building sits on a random ashlar masonry foundation, set back only a few feet from the street to the west and south, and the public alley on the east. Centered on the facade is a theater-like entranceway, consisting of three sets of paired steel doors, situated beneath a cantilevered, flat
roof overhang on the front facade. This projecting roof extends over the public sidewalk, and
once supported a marquee which no longer exists. In its place, a series of individual stainless
steel letters rises from the edge ofthe overhang, reading "KING SOLOMON BAPTIST CHURCH." The doors are separated by narrow, engaged, three-sided towers, and flanked by broader towers that rise to project slightly above the roofline. On the first floor of each towei: is a narrow, stone-tabbed window opening. The towers, along with piers at the corners of the building, are quoined with rough-cut stone of varying colors and textures. The towers are topped with small, triangular, prism-like projections. A parapet wall adds additional height to the
building facade , and is higher above the building entrance than at either end of the facade . Tall
vertical panels of basketweave brickwork on the upper half of the building, above the main
entrances and on the wider engaged towers, suggest embrasures or balastraria. The outermost bays of the facade each bears a series of four tall, narrow, slightly recessed window openings,
containing steel windows resting on a stone sash course and supporting a stone lintel course. Spandrels between individual windows are flat metal panels.
Similar tall, narrow windows on the building's cutaway corners face northwest and southwest. On the southwest corner of the building, a large cornerstone is incised in relief: "JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF THE CHIEF CORNER STONE 1937."
The window arrangement of the front (west) elevation continues on the building's side (north and south) elevations, which are each six bays wide, each bay framed by tall brick piers, and each bay containing three windows instead of four. Most of the side windows, however, have been enclosed with concrete block or stucco. Above the westernmost grouping of windows on the north elevation, and each window on the front (west) and south elevations, as well as each basketweave brick panel on the front elevation, is a light-colored, diamond-shaped, stone medallion. On the north elevation, all bays except the westernmost are finished with concrete block instead of brick, and piers do not feature stone quoins.
Other than a lobby area and several smaller rooms at the west end of the building, most of the · interior is devoted to a large, uninterrupted auditorium space. Although the interior is, for the most part, sparsely detailed, the space is dominated by an altar to its east end, backed by a large stone grotto. Set within the grotto is a prominent neon sign reading "BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM." To the west end of the space, a balcony above provides additional seating.-
NRHP Nomination Form