Making a Better Broth

By hunter fuentes

We all know the old expression that “ too many cooks spoil the broth .” That came to mind on a recent visit to the Neighborhood Congregational Church compound . There is great architecture here , and clearly more than one cook in the kitchen . Sadly , the resulting “ broth ” may be in peril .

This year ’ s Heritage Month Trolley Tour focused on the work of Aubrey St . Clair and one of the tour stops was the Neighborhood Congregational Church . The church started in the 1940s as a small group of faithful clustered around a dynamic young cleric named Dr . Philip Gregory . Church services were first held in the Art Gallery until sufficient money could be raised to build a permanent home . In 1949 , Dr . Gregory commissioned Aubrey St . Clair to design a significant complex on Glenneyre at St . Anns for his growing flock . St . Clair drew plans for a large , two-story structure that included a spacious parish hall with a unique beamed ceiling , a wood-paneled library centered on a fireplace , Sunday School classrooms , a full-sized kitchen , offices and storage space . This building is very English in both appearance and ambience . The South Coast News reported that the cornerstone was laid on Sunday , Aug . 13 , 1950 . The parish hall served as both a social gathering place and the primary worship space for the next dozen years .

During our research of the property , we visited the site and toured the parish hall . Church staff surprised us with the original blueprints of the complex , drawn in St . Clair ’ s distinctive hand . Imagine our surprise when we unrolled the yellowed sheets and saw that the plans were more expansive than previously thought . St . Clair had included a proposed church building to be added later . The church was to sit opposite the parish hall , separated by a small cloister . Like the parish hall , this would have been a very English structure , looking more suited to the coast of Cornwall than California . It was , however , never built and that ’ s a shame .

By 1961 , the congregation had

By Jon stordahL

raised sufficient funds to add the missing church building . St . Clair was in the final year of his long , illustrious career . His proposed design for the church structure was still there , the plans drawn up years earlier and the blueprints in the hands of the church leadership . Instead , the well-known architectural firm Blurock Partnership was retained to design a more modern structure that now sits on the corner of the property . This building has a beauty of its own but is clearly the work of another cook . It seems out-ofplace next to the parish hall .

So what happened ? We initially suspected that the decision not to build the St . Clair design was because Reverend Gregory was no longer the rector . By 1959 , he was serving as the interim pastor at Hollywood Congregational Church . However , we located a July 9 , 1962 Orange County Register article that included a photo of Reverend Gregory at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new church building , indicating tacit support for the new design . The 1950s were a time of great change in cultural tastes , including architecture . Perhaps the St . Clair design was far too traditional for contemporary sensibilities . Something very similar happened to St . Mary ’ s Episcopal Church on Park Avenue . In that particular case , the original church was torn down , and the current A-frame 1958 contemporary structure was erected in its place .

Both the St . Clair and the Blurock structures are at risk of demolition . The leadership of the Neighborhood Congregational Church is exploring the opportunity of constructing much needed housing on the large , but under-utilized property . While this possibility is in the very earliest phase of discussion , one idea worth exploring is to save the upper floor of the parish hall and incorporate it into the future design as a community room or the worship space the church has indicated it would like . That could be a win-win for preservation and affordable housing . It would require compromise and collaboration .

BROTH , PAGE 15

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