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Lewisburg Methodist Church

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1904–1905. 1947, remodeled. 1990s, ZMM addition. Northwest corner of Washington and Lee sts.

By keeping the best elements of an unremarkable brick church that was remodeled in the mid-twentieth century, the Charleston architecture firm ZMM designed a new Sunday school building that manages to upgrade the whole ensemble. Perhaps the entablatures of the porch and porte-cochere are a bit heavy, but the proportions and general reticence of the addition are admirable. Large arched windows imitate those on the earlier sanctuary, and the slopes of the several gabled roofs copy the angles of the earlier building. On the original structure, a low belfry with a pyramidal roof capped a corner tower. It now sports a frame spire that appears to have been ordered from an ecclesiastical builder's supply catalog.

Next door to the church is the U.S. Post Office, built in 1938–1939 from designs by Supervising Architect of the Treasury Louis A. Simon. The east wall of the lobby features a 1940 WPA mural, Old Time Camp Meeting, depicting a pioneer revival. Robert Franklin Gates, the artist, received $700 for his work.

Writing Credits

Author: 
S. Allen Chambers Jr.
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Citation

S. Allen Chambers Jr., "Lewisburg Methodist Church", [Lewisburg, West Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/WV-01-GR13.

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