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The façade of the Salem Church is modeled on a landmark of early American architecture, the First Church of Christ in Lancaster, Massachusetts, designed in 1816 by Charles Bullfinch. Bullfinch's work, which included the Massachusetts State House and the west front of the United States Capitol, helped to set the standard for the Federal style in this country. Inside Salem Church are fluted Roman Doric pilasters and columns, topped by a coved ceiling. It is a larger and more elaborate version of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, an earlier work by the same architects, Study, Farrar and Majers. Guy Study (1880-1959) and Benedict Farrar (1885-1978) started practicing architecture together in 1915, and they contributed notable buildings to St. Louis in a variety of styles, including the Firmin Desloge Hospital, Mary Institute, and Our Lady of Lourdes Church. They were especially admired for their finely detailed private residences. Farrar served as building commissioner for the City of Ladue from 1938 to 1965.
Salem is one of the oldest Methodist congregations in St. Louis, founded in 1841 at 7th Street & Carr. It is the "mother church" of all the formerly German Methodist churches west of the Mississippi River. Salem moved to Ladue from its fourth home on North Kingshighway. The chapel opened here in 1958 and the main sanctuary in 1966. The Chamber Chorus performed a program of musical lamentations here on February 9, 1992, and three years later returned to present a concert of folksongs entitled "Vox Pop," much of which was recorded for the Chorus's second compact disc of the same title.
Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes