7316 Balson Avenue
University City, Missouri 63130 
www.ctkstl.com/church.html

A monument near the right front corner of the church summarizes its history: established in 1927, with the school opening September 1928; present church and rectory dedicated September 1941; present school building opened 1966; merged with two other parishes in 2002 and renovated the church the same year. Balson Avenue had been opened in 1910 by real estate developer William L. Balson, but not much construction occurred until Cyrus Crane Willmore began the large University Park subdivisions in 1922 and 1925, extending south from Balson to Delmar along both sides of Midland. The city widened Balson to 80 feet in 1929 for a streetcar line, a space now used for diagonal parking. The next year nationally known planner Harland Bartholomew suggested clustering educational buildings around a large circle at the top of the hill, and this has become a historic district designated by University City and the National Register of Historic Places.

The name “Christ the King” was novel in 1927. The Feast of that name had been established just 15 months previously (now observed on the last Sunday before Advent), and this parish was only the second in the United States to use it. Sculptor and painter Lino Lipinsky created the image of the crucified but regal Christ for the tower of the church (best seen from across the street), scaled to turn the whole tower into a devotional object. The unattributed monumental sculpture behind the high altar depicts a similar Christ with St. Mary and St. John.

The architects, Carroll and Dean, were from 1930 to the 1950s a leading firm in the region specializing in work for Catholic institutions. Chester Dean remained in Kansas City, where the two had met, while J. Maurice Carroll opened the office in St. Louis. Their most familiar work here is the large Gothic Revival church of St. Mary Magdalene at Manchester and Brentwood. In the 1950s, the firm did some creative modern churches, notably the former St. Catherine of Siena at Page and Ferguson Avenues in Pagedale. Their transition from traditional to modern is seen at Christ the King. The exterior is richly textured with rock-faced stone from Lannon, Wisconsin, red roof tiles, and Romanesque detailing, focusing on the round-arched entry portal with its decorated attached columns in the Norman style. Details of the interior, by contrast, are reduced to their most elemental forms, an almost pure geometry that enhances the impact of the altar sculptures under their marble baldachin. The side altars are dedicated to St. Mary and St. Joseph, while additional shrines in the left transept are devoted to the Little Flower and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. In 2002 the church was renovated, and a new central baptismal font was created using marble from the former altar rail.

May 31, 2009 marks the first visit by the Chamber Chorus.

Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes