Visit
to Historic Churches in Asheville - October 11, 2011
A
group of BRCLL members visited churches in Asheville, NC, that are
listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Architect Douglas
D. Ellington’s First Baptist Church, completed in 1927,
incorporates a variety of styles including Beaux-Arts and Art Deco.
Ellington based the design of the sanctuary on the famous cathedral and
dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy. The Basilica of Saint
Lawrence was designed and built in 1905 by Spanish architect Rafael
Guastavino along with his fellow architect R. S. Smith and the
surrounding Catholic community of Asheville. The Cathedral of All
Souls, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, is in the style of the Norman
period of transition from Romanesque to Gothic. The interior features
wonderful stained glass windows illuminating a variety of scenes from
the Old and New Testaments.