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Description
At the corner of Grandel Sq and North Spring Ave in St. Louis Missouri, November 2015.

Conflicting information on the web. Some sites refer to this as St. Johns Church, but that is a different church to the south of this one.

The website, that I trust the most on this subject preservationresearch.com/2004/… states that the building was struck by lightning, but I found one site that claimed it was an electrical fire.

So here is what I believe to be correct.

The church was built in 1884 by the Garrison Avenue Baptist Church, but that congregation moved further west in 1892. It was then purchased by A Swedenborgian congregation, the Church of the New Jerusalem.

Skipping ahead to the 1950's, the Pentecostal, African-American, National Memorial Church of God in Christ purchased and started services in the building.

In March 2001 the building was struck by lightning and the interior burned down into the basement. The building was under insured (or perhaps had no insurance at all) and the property was sold to Grand Center.

Grand Center had an idea to turn the grounds into some sort of sculpture park. The burnt debris was removed and the walls were stabilized and braced. The inside surface of the walls have been covered with a layer of concrete (or would that be mortar?) and the basement has been filled with gravel. Despite all that work, very little has been done with the property since then, although they do keep up the nice landscaping.

Description
At the corner of Grandel Sq and North Spring Ave in St. Louis Missouri, November 2015.

Conflicting information on the web. Some sites refer to this as St. Johns Church, but that is a different church to the south of this one.

The website, that I trust the most on this subject preservationresearch.com/2004/… states that the building was struck by lightning, but I found one site that claimed it was an electrical fire.

So here is what I believe to be correct.

The church was built in 1884 by the Garrison Avenue Baptist Church, but that congregation moved further west in 1892. It was then purchased by A Swedenborgian congregation, the Church of the New Jerusalem.

Skipping ahead to the 1950's, the Pentecostal, African-American, National Memorial Church of God in Christ purchased and started services in the building.

In March 2001 the building was struck by lightning and the interior burned down into the basement. The building was under insured (or perhaps had no insurance at all) and the property was sold to Grand Center.

Grand Center had an idea to turn the grounds into some sort of sculpture park. The burnt debris was removed and the walls were stabilized and braced. The inside surface of the walls have been covered with a layer of concrete (or would that be mortar?) and the basement has been filled with gravel. Despite all that work, very little has been done with the property since then, although they do keep up the nice landscaping.