STONE STRUCTURES
For some excellent examples of buildings in brick and seen most often in larger cities visit this page from the Boston Preservationists.
The Akron, Ohio Methodist church pioneered a means to incorporate the growing Sunday School movement and the basic style was called the Akron Plan. This style has been found to have been added to churches built in Missouri, so it is possible, older Oklahoma churches, might have also incorporated this into their building.
Many of these larger structures were built using a Norman Gothic or Collegiate Gothic Style or the Beaux Arts Classicism. Various Methodist journals carried regular articles of new construction taking place around the country and influenced - for good and ill - styles of church construction found.
WOODEN STRUCTURES
A basic wooden structure often found in early day Oklahoma was often the work of local church or community people. In one instance a minister was brought to the state because of his expertise as a construction business owner and he set to work building churches in Shawnee and Oklahoma City.
This style was well known and used for everything from shops to schools. It was usually about 40x80 feet. The number and quality of the windows determined by budget. It might set on a full foundation or be held up by pillars of cinder blocks. Exterior décor might change over time to include the addition of a cross or steeple, a covered entrance and the addition of one of more wings to create either an "L" or a modified "T" formation. In some cases the structure might have been torn down totally as a larger structure was built to replace the wooden one. In some small towns and in rural areas the church might have lingered on or fallen prey to demolition, wind, storms, or fires.
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| Similar to the original First Church of OKC. |
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| 1910 - Wesley Methodist, OKC |
Territorial Era Carpenter Gothic
This was a wooden church featuring many of the ornate styles of the Gothic but crafted in wood. Some excellent visual images are found here.
STONE STRUCTURES
Atoka
Boston Avenue
Wesley, OKC
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