About
Exterior and Interior
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Address: 101 Grant Street East
Neighborhood: Loring Park
Construction Date: 1891
Contractor: Unknown
Architect: Warren Howard Hayes
Architectural Style: Richardsonian Romanesque
Historic Use: Religious - Church
Current Use: Religious - Church
Date of Local Designation: 1984
Date of National Register Designation: 1984
Area(s) of Significance: Architecture, Engineering, Religion
Period of Significance: 1800-1899
Historic Profile: During the 1880s the city of Minneapolis enjoyed a building boom that saw the construction of numerous new ecclesiastical buildings. When membership of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church outgrew its building at First Avenue South and Seventh Street, the congregation looked to build a grand new church at a site on Grant Street. Commissioning the region’s premier ecclesiastic architect, Warren Howard Hayes, the congregation was rewarded with his most elaborate diagonal plan. Decorative motifs on the exterior are of two types: they either reflect structure by emphasizing lintels and arches or recall Byzantine architecture with foliated flourishes at the tops of arches, towers, and gables. The nave, warmed by colored light from surrounding windows and a graceful dome of stained glass, is both grand and intimate. The Wesley Methodist Church has survived largely unaltered since its completion more than a century ago.
Photo Credits:
1949, Norton and Peel, courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society
2006, Minneapolis CPED
Works Cited:
"National Register of Historic Places – Nomination Form," September 1982.
Updated: February 2007