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Grand Avenue Congregational Church

Milwaukee, US

Grand Avenue Congregational Church

The Grand Avenue Congregational Church is a historic Romanesque Revival church built in 1888 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The congregation that became Grand Avenue Congregational split off in 1847 from First Presbyterian and First Congreg

ational, calling itself Free Congregational. Abolition of slavery was a keen interest of the congregation at that time, along with education of women and temperance. The congregation first met in a rented building downtown on Broadway, moved to Spring Street in 1852, and Grand Avenue in 1881. In 1887 they decided to move again, to build at the current location on Wisconsin Ave. The congregation hired master architect E. Townsend Mix to design their new church. Mix's design is Romanesque Revival, with round arches and rough-cut stone contrasting with smooth brick and glass. Most of the rough stone is lower, to give a feel of stability. The floor-plan is in the form of a cross, and the roof-line is complex. However, going against typical Romanesque Revival church buildings, the front is symmetric, without a big dramatic tower on one side. Instead a large Diocletian window rises above the front...

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