St. Augustine

My favorite church in St. Louis drew me back to it this last weekend, and this time the light was much better and I was able to capture some great photos of the long-suffering St. Augustine Catholic Church in the Hyde Park(?) neighborhood. People were burning garbage in a large derelict furnace nearby, and generally looking like they were having a good time. I took the pictures around 4:00 PM, so the late winter sun was shining directly on the front of the edifice.My eye was drawn below to the light shining through the blue and yellow stain glass visible through a broken window high up on the side of the church.The spire itself, reminiscent of North German Gothic, commands the entire neighborhood and can be seen on the streets from miles away.I particularly like this exterior placed spiral staircase, which contributes further visual interest to the front of the church.Below is the peaked roof of the church, showing a missing window and another row of blue and yellow stained glass.St. Augustine's magnificence, both in size and ornament, unfortunately is the reason behind its vacancy. It would cost no small amount of money to renovate this church, and the lure of a congregation to simply build a much larger, cheaply constructed McChurch in the suburbs may prove too tempting for anyone to resuscitate this church any time soon.

Update My apologies, the church is not abandoned at all, but under the ownership of this new church. They are in the process of restoring the church, and have a photo gallery of the interior here. Also, the Department of the Interior has a great write-up of the church's historical significance.