First Christian Church filled with significance

Floodwater destroyed many historic buildings in our city in 2008; human forces are about to destroy among the most valuable. First Christian Church is to be demolished for the sake of 40 parking spaces by St. Luke's Hospital for the Physicians' Clinic of Iowa medical facility. It has been cast as just an old church; this description falls far short of its national architectural significance.

Tim Samuelson, historian for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, is an authority on the work of Louis Sullivan, who is the internationally renowned American architect recently recognized as a collaborator on the design of First Christian. Samuelson notes that few examples of this icon's work remain, due to natural causes and careless demolition. The windows were designed by Louis Millet, founder of the Chicago School of Architecture and one of the most famous American stained-glass artists of the early 1900s.

St. Luke's speaks of removing the windows and installing one in the hospital chapel. Just as the sun never set on the British Empire, it will now cast a long shadow on the 1,000-plus parking spaces of PCI.

Sullivan and Millet will be remembered as creators of aesthetic beauty. How do St. Luke's and PCI wish to be remembered?

Dr. Mary Kemen

Cedar Rapids