Episcopal cathedral sold Unnamed buyer to pay $1.275M for 38-year-old landmark (ECUSA)

kalamazoogazette ^ | April 30, 2007 | Tom Haroldson

[PAR35]

The Cathedral of Christ the King in Portage has been sold, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan were told Sunday.

But who has purchased the church for $1.275 million and what will be done with the familiar landmark building and its prime property remain unknown.

***

The cathedral was built in 1969 for $2 million. The diocese began thinking about a sale in 2004 because of tight finances and a dwindling church maintenance fund.

[PAR35]

The world's ugliest Cathedral has been sold. There were some earlier threads about it being on the market, but I don't recall seeing where a contract had been signed.

[PAR35]

Possibility of a sale discussed here:

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1777036/posts

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

The world's ugliest Cathedral

It's not the prettiest, is it?

[wideawake]

Yikes. That makes the Catholic Cathedral in LA look gorgeous by comparison.

What is that outbuilding pictured?

An industrial baptistery?

[sionnsar]

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[AlexW]

YAK...Who would by such a piece of garbage? The Zambodians?
It is even too ugly to be a factory or a power plant.

[AnAmericanMother]

I think they forgot to put in the plumbing and it's a Necessary House.

[PAR35]

Take out the bells, put on a roof, and you have a minaret.

[PAR35]

I saw speculation at one point that the site would be a good one for a hotel.

[r9etb]

Holy crap, but that's an ugly pile of bricks.

It'd be a great fire station, though -- you could dry a lot of hoses in those towers.

[Unam Sanctam]

I think it would make a pretty cool power plant.

[livius]

That was my first thought, too. The Saudis are always out buying up buildings in small US cities for (at present unneeded) mosques, and this one seems ready-made...

[gridlock]

I thought you were joking when you said the World’s Ugliest Cathedral... But looking at that picture, all I can say is, “Yup!”

[FormerLib]

I was about to ask who could lose three-quarters of a million on a long term real estate investment (barring Florida swampland or a Hawaiian volcano) until I saw that picture you posted.

Yeah, building something that damned ugly will kill your property values, sho’nuff.

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

It’s just a weird lookin’ building, isn’t it?.. LOL.

[JustMytwocents70]

The inside is just as Fugly.
This is a Work that “Father” Vosko would be proud of.

[FormerLib]

It’s just a weird lookin’ building, isn’t it?.. LOL.

I guess that's about the most charitable thing that could be said of it, actually.

[beelzepug]

“...a Work that “Father” Vosko would be proud of.”

Or perhaps one der Fuehrer would be proud of (needs more smoke stacks).

[dangus]

I think the Los Angeles (nominally) Catholic Cathedral is uglier. Although the architectural theme of this cathedral is abhorrent, at least it has one. compare:

The Taj Mahony just looks like a misplaced factory.

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

Ohhhhhhhhh, or a weird-themed Vegas hotel .. hmmmmmmmm.

[dangus]

... if Vegas ever decides to go for a “Martian Chronicles” theme.

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

yeah ........ that.

[x_plus_one]

One word -—Why?

[Martin Tell]

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time (fueled by plenty of 60's acid).

There is nothing so dated as something that was once considered the wave of the future.

[AnAmericanMother]

There is nothing so dated as something that was once considered the wave of the future.

The chutzpah of these people who imagined that THEY knew better than a thousand years of church history. . . .

Why, indeed?

[Bainbridge]

Looks like a cement factory. Or something out of Nazi Germany death camps.
No intention to glorify God.

[AnAmericanMother]

It does like they have a full ring of REAL bells, though . . .

I hope somebody saves them, if they're any good.

Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers

[AnAmericanMother]

I just realized that this cathedral and my dear second dog both are from Portage!

They may have the world's ugliest cathedral, but they have some very pretty dogs there!

At eight weeks, looking so cute it ought to be illegal.

[PAR35]

They are selling the organ separately. I’d bet they’ll look for a good offer on the bells as well. Given the current market for scrap, they might just sell them to a recycler.

[KC Burke]

I have had sympathy for the architecturally deficient Roman Catholic brethren, but we now see that bad architecture spans the denominations and faiths. I have seen some Baptist buildings that would make great Country Western performance venues, some Apostles of God sanctuarys that would make a Jimmy Swaggart weak in the knees and now this thing.

I love to see a the great architectural attempt, I love Thorne Crown for example, but some of what has come along in the last fifty years are just obnoxious.

[PAR35]

We highjacked a thread into a discussion of ugly churches one night. That one won.

[AnAmericanMother]

Never mind, it's a carillon.

I went to the website and found out what that strange round structure is out front.

Some members of the parish gave the cathedral some bas-reliefs (done in a 30s style but thankfully not the Socialist Realism of Rockwell Kent) from an old store that was wrecked out in downtown Portage. So they built that strange incinerator-looking thing to display them.

That's "Commerce" and "Agriculture" - on the other side are "Industry" and "Art" - looking like nothing so much as a 1930s version of Achilles (although he's holding a caduceus so he ought to be Hermes) and Marianne (the symbol of France - although she's holding a little Nike so she ought to be Athena). But the Nike, not the wreath she's holding, ought to have the wings. The symbolism is a terrible mish-mash.

On the website they have some folderol about the bas-reliefs representing the church's duty to serve all diverse people, but that sounds like "somebody we don't want to offend gave us these and we have NO idea what to do with them, or say about it."

Clearly these folks don't plan well in any respect.

[PAR35]

Or perhaps one der Fuehrer would be proud of

You insult Hitler. He actually would have made a fairly good architect - and the world might have been better off if he had gone into that line. But he wanted to be an artist.

[KC Burke]

Not all newer attempts that are outside the box turn out to miss the mark. Take a look at Thorne Crown outside Eureka Springs in northwest Arkansas at http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2764753780015621458nmqFkl

[AnAmericanMother]

I have passed the word to our music director - our church needs a new organ.

The Aeolian-Skinners are out of fashion right now, if I recall what he told me in the music course he taught last semester . . . but I let him know anyway. Maybe we can get a deal.

[KC Burke]

More shots of Thorn Crown at http://www.webshots.com/search?media=photo&query=Thorne+Crown+Arkansas&queryChannel=&sortBy=&source=search_menu

[KC Burke]

more http://www.thorncrown.com/Photogallery1/index.html

[AnAmericanMother]

That actually looks backward to the old Stave Churches of Norway . . .

But it's got its insides showing.

[PAR35]

Come on, the French couldn’t even get the towers to match on the first of your good examples. At least the Germans can make them look the same: http://www.koelner-dom.de/

[AnAmericanMother]

Not always . . .

Close but no cigar (naturally it's the Bavarians).

My personal favorite for pure exuberance is Santiago de Compostela:

Daughter was there last summer and had a ball . . .

[KC Burke]

Sainte Chapelle’s small cathedral of light was Fay Jones inspiration for his masterpiece. he called it Ozark Gothic. For Saint Chappelle:http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Cathedrals/Paris/Sainte-Chapelle.shtml

[PAR35]

our church needs a new organ.

We are in the final stages of installing a new organ. It was about a 5 year project, start to finish. Ours is supposed to be very similar to this one in Houston:
http://www.stmartinsepiscopal.org/schoenstein.htm

These folks seem to deal in used organs:
http://www.organclearinghouse.com/services.php

[AnAmericanMother]

I can see the nod to the unusual exterior proportions - the tall rectangle -

But I can't see the connection with the interior at all -

It was the descending, interlocking interior beams that made me think of the stave churches. That's how they're built.

[KC Burke]

I think it is the airey, awash in natural light, interior.

I have a friend that is a Mexican Architect from central Mexico who was educated in the US in the sixties. He had heard of Thorncrown but never seen more than a small snapshot. We were driving through that area on a leasurly business trip and I took him by there. We arrived on a misty morning without anyone but us around and walked through the mountain mists and into the chapel alone in silence.

We sat in a pew for about five minutes without a word exchanged. He turned to me and whispered: wow!!!

[KC Burke]

Jones wanted it built without disturbing the site. The property Owner had built it as personal gift to the area community and almost couldn’t get it finished. Jones desinged it so the trusses could be built on the flagstone floor and raised in place and all the members and glass plates could be hand carried to the site.

Construction photos
http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/manuscripts/FayJones/projectgallery.asp?project=THO1980&image=THO1980%5B10%5Dweb.jpg&caption=Looking%20up%20at%20Thorncrown%20from%20exterior&photographer=Fay%20Jones%20Studio

[RobbyS]

I think I have see it. Right by the Interstate, right? UGHlee!

[murphE]

The world's ugliest Cathedral...

Oh I'm not so sure, I think there may be a tie for that title.

[murphE]

The Taj Mahony just looks like a misplaced factory prison.

[Straight Vermonter]

Right up there with this hideous cathedral in Burlington, Vermont.

[neb52]

Is that Cathedral called Glory to Cement Block?