First Baptist Church of Los Angeles
- Architect
- Allison & Allison
- Year
- 1927
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
First Baptist Church of Los Angeles traces to a prayer meeting on September 4, 1874, and its current sanctuary at 760 South Westmoreland Avenue was built in 1927 to a design by Allison & Allison in the Spanish Gothic style, modeled after the Ducal Palace in Mantua, Italy. Its earlier buildings, including one dedicated in 1897 on South Flower Street, were funded by donations from Isaac Newton Van Nuys and James Boon Lankershim.
the building
Birthplace of LA Pentecostalism. In 1905, the Rev. Joseph Smale is said to have sparked the Pentecostal revival in Los Angeles at this church after meeting Welsh revivalist Evan Roberts on a trip to Wales; congregant Frank Bartleman, a noted chronicler of the movement, worshipped here too.
the style
The 1927 building is Spanish Gothic, designed by Allison & Allison and modeled on the Ducal Palace in Mantua, Italy — a Renaissance palace as the source for a church otherwise dressed in Gothic ornament.
More on Gothic Revivalsignificance
Designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #237 on April 9, 1981.
nearby
- Bullock's Wilshire Building
- Hotel Chancellor
- The Town House
- Immanuel Presbyterian Church
- Brown Derby
- Equitable Life Building