AKA: Wilshire Methodist Church, Los Angeles, CA
Structure Type: built works - religious structures - churches
Designers: Allison and Allison, Architects (firm); Winslow, Carleton Monroe, Sr., Architect (firm); David Clark Allison (architect); James Edward Allison (architect); Carleton Monroe Winslow Sr. (architect)
Dates: constructed 1922-1925
In 1922, the architect, Carleton M. Winslow, Sr., produced a $500,000 scheme for this church that was rejected in favor of a plan by Allison and Allison. The Wilshire Congregational congregation underwent a great amount of turmoil in the 1920s, removing its outspoken leader, Dr. Frank Dyer, c. 1929. (A Los Angeles Examiner newspaper article of 02/22/1926 scandalously indicated that the reverend was playing jazz in the church. In an Los Angeles Times article of 07/27/1925, the pastor was accused of being a supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union, considered by many during the Red Scare of the 1920s to have been a communist front organization.) Dyer, a frequent radio address in the 1920s, urged for greater inter-denominational tolerance and understanding. He brought in a liberal colleague, Dr.Charles F. Aked, to act as co-pastor in 10/1924, but this cooperation ended in mid-1925 when Aked resigned. A newspaper report in the Los Angeles Times, 07/27/1925, published a lengthy list of those with grievances against Dyer, and this included the architects, Allison and Allison. The 550-member congregation itself merged with Aked's nearby All Soul's Congregational Church in May 1929, and the new All Soul's Congregational Church used this building for a very short time before putting it up for sale. This costly building became the Wilshire Methodist Church shortly after it was constructed.
Unbuilt. The building had its ceremonial cornerstone-laying, 12/22/1924, and its completion was set before 06/01/1925. The church was to be in the "Italian Gothic" style and would seat 1400, according to a Los Angeles Times article of 12/22/1924. The tower soared 144 feet above the church overlooking Wilshire Boulevard, and could be seen from five miles away.
PCAD id: 6955