1891 - First Seventh-Day Adventist Church - Coatesville, PA - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

There is zero available information available about this church. It is located within the confines of the Coatesville Historic District and by default (due to its age) is a contributing structure. Until I can get the original nomination form from Washington, I will be unable to ascertain any specific details. The local historic society refuses to acknowledge my repeated phone calls about this church.

There is a rectangular, gray date stone, embedded in the brick, bearing the date 1891, on both ends, placed at the front left or northeast corner of the building, ground level. Generally, the first stone is placed in the northeast corner, from which the building traditionally commences. They are part of the structure, and therefore, are placed before or as the building is built. Freemasons, in building churches, temples and other masonic edifies usually placed the first stone in the northeast building. Perhaps there is a connection.

The church is made of brick. There are lots of triangles and all sorts of interesting architectural details. Most noticeable is the 3-story high (four including the pyramid roof) bell tower rising above the entrance situated on the left side of the church. There is a huge, white, wooden cornice extending about all four sides of the rectangular pyramid of a tower. The cornice, much like a rectangular collar, is rather large with intermittently spaced dentils. The roof is steep, black shingled, topped with a bronze cross just begging to be nailed by lightning. The belfry has been long since sealed off with louvres, closing off its gothic shaped widows, four around. Each window has a wooden ledge beneath it, also adorned with dentils identical to the cornice above. The bell, whether it be real or synthesized, cannot be seen but still heard through out the Lincoln Highway.

The rest of the church is a cacophony of uneven yet attractive geometric solids which contribute to the whole. The windows about the first level are a cross between something Gothic and something born of 17th century Russian architecture. Stained glass can be seen from the outside endowing the glass, no doubt beautiful on the inside of the sanctuary. Ramps have since been installed in the 20th century to make this a more handicapped-accessible place of worship.

The church is located at the corner of West Lincoln Highway and North Church Street. Parking is available street side. This 1891 church was not alone in its function and birth and was in fact, quite common. From the nomination form: Architects designed more ecclesiastical structures than any other building type in Coatesville. Built of stone and brick between 1870 and 1925, the seven churches, one meeting house and one synagogue, are primarily variations of late nineteenth and early twentieth century revival styles. For instance, Catholics built St. Cecilia's Church in 1870. Fashioned in the Swiss Gothic style, the serpentine stone edifice contains buttresses, narrow pointed arch apertures and a large, central rose window. Thomas P. Lansdale and George W. Nattress used the English Gothic style to plan the Presbyterian and Episcopalian Churches: 379 East Lincoln Highway, 1894; and 323 East Lincoln Highway, 1894. Their designs incorporate round arch windows, buttresses, stone facades, conical steeples, and steep gable roofs. In 1925 the Beth Israel congregation completed a Second Renaissance Revival synagogue at 35 South Fifth Avenue. The building features a three span arcade forming a portico entrance, a cut stone facade, and paired round arched windows. SOURCE

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