Thanks for Visiting!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

What Do a Masonic Temple and a Church Have in Common?

What do the Masonic Lodge Building (now the Journal Record building), the old multistory Kinkade Hotel and Lawrence Hotel, an Army Chapel at Fort Sill (1933) and Wesley United Methodist Church (OKC) (1928) share in common?
The architectural skill of Lawrence H. Bailey and the firm Bailey and Alden.  After completing training in London, Baily traveled to the United States, finally arriving in Oklahoma in 1903.  William Matthews, busy then designing the Overholser Mansion, took him on as a very junior partner.
As Oklahoma entered the Union in 1907 he was launching out with his own firm.  He went into partnership with another local man, Virgil D. Alden, in 1920.  Both men were members of the American Institute of Architecture.   Wesley Methodist Church (UMC), designed by Leonard H. Bailey and his partner Virgil D. Allen, was constructed between 1926 -1928.
Other buildings designed by Leonard H. Bailey exist around the state and some have achieved a place on the National and/or Oklahoma Register of Historic Places: The Prague Courthouse and Jail (1936), the New Chapel at Fort Sill (near twin in style to Wesley; 1933).  Other jobs included the 1909 St. Paul's Parish House in Oklahoma City and the Woodward Arts Theater.

No comments:

Post a Comment