THE ARCHITECT ENGINEER AND OF CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY, 1918 Vol. LII . Number 2 .

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Piedmont Church, a Late Example of the Spanish Colonial Type By ALBERT FARR, Architect

 

IN THE new Piedmont Church at Piedmont, California , is found an attempt to present a modified example of " Mission " or " Spanish Colonial," either name permitting a fairly accurate account of the origin of the style of the building. When the new world of South and Central America, the great center of which was Mexico, was found so rich in gold and silver , it received eager attention from the Spanish monarchs. Their favorites were sent out as rulers. Upon the sites of the Aztec temples were built cathedrals by the royal architects, decorated by skilled artisans and great painters of the day and filled with wonderful offerings by devout worshippers. In some instances votive offerings of entire churches of imposing size were made ; the Hidalgo owners devoting a large part of the wealth of their mines to these buildings. The people of Mexico had no mean conception of the arts of weaving, glazing and building, and they contributed much to the impressive culture of the New World.

 

Judging from the relics of this civilization in its paintings, furniture and fabrics brought from Europe and the Orient, our boasted metropolitan centers of today could make no comparison with such wealth.

 

From a careful survey of Spanish monuments it is to be seen that the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, built by José Churriguerra in the seventeenth century, was the principal inspiration of our Latin American buildings. The style thus created from mingling of Italian baroque, Moorish and Gothic , has been compared by eminent writers in the luxuriance of its imaginative quality to the entangled profusion of a tropical forest .

 

Later in the day began the Conquistadors' march to Nova California, accompanied by the triumphant followers of the Mother Church , whose monuments, simpler of necessity than the cathedrals of the South , are all that is left to us of this age of romance.

 

From such a source toiled forth the beloved Junipero Serra with his brown -gowned cohorts to create the California Missions, and no matter how we may disagree with his dogma we must attest his work that was bravely conceived and heroically done.

 

It is fitting, therefore , that we should recall to our warm hillsides, from which we dream adventure has fed, some note from the past, to en deavor, for ourselves as heirs, to perpetuate in our monuments the history of the land and to honor those who gave memorable names to the places we have learned to love.

 

This endeavor, then , has been made in the building of the Piedmont Church ; modifying the ancient scheme as little as possible but sufficiently to make it suitable for modern requirements.

 

So following our exemplars, about a large central court with a fountain of three superposed basins are carried arched cloisters, and closed on three sides with buildings, this court is to be suitably planted with shrubbery, also with its pulpit buttressed against the principal bell tower it is to serve as an open air auditorium when the weather is fair . No forbidden garden is this to be, but a playground and resting place for all throughout the week .

 

The court is lighted at night with quaintly framed lanterns modeled on Spanish originals. Enclosing the court on the south is a replica of an ancient Mexican cathedral-enclosing wall reached by an imposing flight of steps from a covered entrance placed on the street level.

 

Upon the left hand of the court is arranged the Sunday - school chapel. with a dark -stained beamed ceiling, in the form of a three-aisled church , the side aisles being closed with folding doors, forming class rooms. This chapel is provided with a stage for entertainments, provision being made for cinematograph displays as well . About the stage arch is carried a baroque design borrowed from an antique plaster model.

 

At one side of the room is a large recess with an open fireplace in the depths of which are placed Spanish benches.

 

Off this portion of the building is the Women's Guild and reception room pleasantly furnished and also with open fireplace. Leading in from a porte-cochère at the rear is the Sunday -school superintendent's office and a ladies ' rest room as well.

 

The large basement is to become a meeting place and drill -hall for the Boy Scouts. Showers will be installed and here boys and boys' interests may have a home. A tennis court in the yard will be for the use of all lovers of the game. The balance of this part of the building is devoted to quarters for the caretaker and for an oil-burner heating plant.

 

The central portion of the buildings and joined to the Sunday -school chapel by a vaulted passage, are a number of minor rooms, including kitchen, kindergarten and the Red Cross headquarters, which are a busy center in these emergency days.

 

The right wing of the building comprises the church proper, a single aisled structure , entered from the cloister at the north end of the building, and from the court through a quaint entrance at the south . This auditorium seats three hundred or more persons.

 

The doorways, choir screen , reading desk and diaconal seats are in the Churigueresque manner, decorated in gold and polychrome; the two doorways at the upper end of the church taking the places of the usual arrangement of side altars of earlier churches, seen in such familiar examples as the “ Dolores ” in San Francisco.

 

The chancel of the church is lighted by a low dome, of rare use in this State but common farther south . Upon each side of the dome the latticed screens in the archways were in the older buildings to shield the cloistered nuns from profane eyes ; here, however, they serve to conceal the mechanism of the beautifully toned organ. Above the chancel and behind the choir screen which serves as a railing is space for a large choir, the acoustic qualities of the building and the arrangement promising much in the way of organ recitals for music lovers.

 

At the side of the chancel is a vestry room, serving as reception room and library, fitted with book cases , large table and brightly covered chairs of a Spanish type. Above this room , by way of concealed stairs , is the pastor's study, with open fireplace , balcony and sunny outlook .

 

The interior of the building is lighted by indirect fixtures, the forms of antique sanctuary lamps being adapted to that purpose.

 

The gardening is still in embryo, but the architect's drawings show the building partly covered with masses of appropriate foliage, with here and there groups of tall trees echoing the lines of the bell towers.