NPS FO
This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations of eligibility for individual properties or districts. See instructions in Guidelines for Completing National Register Forms (National Register Bulletin 16). Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the requested information. If an item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, styles, materials, and areas of significance, enter only the categories and subcategories listed in the instructions. For additional space use continuation sheets (Form 10-900a). Type all entries. 1. Name of Property historic name Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church other names/site number rtrth Presbyter; an Church
2. Location street & number lkZlt not for publication cit , town vicinity state Mi chi gan county Ingham code C65 zip code 48906
3. Classification Ownership of Property Category of Property Number of Resources within Property [X] private [] building(s) Contributing Noncontributing D public-local 0district 1 0 buildings 0 public-State Osite 0 0 sites 0 public-Federal 0 structure 0 0 structures Oobject 0 0 objects 0 Total Name of related multiple property listing: Number of contributing resources previously N A listed in the National Register None 4. State/Federal Agency Certification
As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this []] nomination 0 request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property 00 meets 0 does not meet the National gister cr'teria. 0 See continuation sheet. . · .!//7/.- . FY' Signature of certifying official Date Director, Bureau of Hi stDry State or Federal agency and bureau
In my opinion, the property D meets 0 does not meet the National Register criteria. 0 See continuation sheet.
Signature of commenting or other official Date
State or Federal agency and bureau
5. National Park Service Certification I, ~reby, certify that this property is: 0 entered in the National Register. 0 See continuation sheet. D determined eligible for the National Register. 0 See continuation sheet. D determined not eligible for the National Register.
0 removed from the National Register. 0 other, (explain:)------
Signature of the Keeper Date of Action 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (enter categories from instructions) Current Functions (enter categories from instructions) Religion/religious structure Religion/religious structure
7. Description Architectural Classification Materials (enter categories from instructions) (enter categories from instructions) foundation Concrete Prairie School walls Brick &Jngalow/Craftsman Other: Arts and Crafts roof Asphalt other ______
Describe present and historic physical appearance.
The Franklin Avenue (North) Presbyterian Church stands on the northwest corner of North Washington Avenue and West Grand River Avenue in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood. Facing south on West Grand River, Franklin Avenue (North) Presbyterian Church consists of a church building and an attached manse. The church building is a rectangular, gable-roof, dark brown brick building, with concrete and white-painted wood trim. At the street corner is a square tower topped by a louvered belfry. The church's vaguely Medieval form is clothed in non-historic, Arts and Crafts dress, including large triangular wood brackets under the gable eaves and a rose window shape in the front gable, but with the space divided into a grid pattern with a quatrefoil in each square. Attached to the church on the west is a two-story, hip-roof, dark brown brick manse, looking very domestic with a porch in the center of the front.
Entrance to the church is from Grand River Avenue and a wooden staircase leads from the narthex to the auditorium on the second floor. Large rounded plaster columns mark the auditorium entrance at the southeast corner of the building. The Akron-plan auditorium has semi-circular seating, facing a pulpit located in the auditorium's northwest corner. A sloping floor leads to the pulpit area which features an oak offertory table, flanked by a modern pulpit and lectern. Stained glass windows, dedicated to former pastors and to · early members of the congregation, punctuate the east and west walls of the room.
To the north of the auditorium is a Sunday school area including two floors of small classrooms grouped about a central space. A movable partition separated the Sunday school area from the auditorium. In 1963, the movable partition was replaced by a solid plaster wall.
The pastor's study and library is located at the southwest corner of the church, between the auditorium and manse. A descending stairway from the study leads directly into the first floor of the two-story, hip roof, brick-sheathed manse building. The manse's first floor contains a living room with fireplace, a dining room, and meeting rooms. The second floor contains bedrooms and storage rooms.
The Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church and manse have remained little altered over the years.
D See continuation sheet 8. Statement of Significance Certifying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: D nationally D statewide []] locally
Applicable National Register Criteria D A D B []] C D D
Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) D A DB DC D D DE D F D G
Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Period of Significance Significant Dates Architecture 1914-1916 N/A
Cultural Affiliation N/A
Significant Person ArchitecUBuilder N/A Bov.d, Edwyn A.
State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. The Franklin Avenue or North Presbyterian Church is unique in the tri-county Lansing area and unusual in the statewide context of early twentieth-century Protestant church architecture as a Prairie School/Arts-and Crafts-influenced auditorium church building. The church is important as one of only three churches known to be the work of Edwyn A. Bowd, Lansing's leading architect of public and institutional buildings in the early twentieth century and an architect whose work dating from about 1905 to 1925 is found widely distributed throughout the southern part of the state.
Franklin Avenue (North) Presbyterian Church was the daughter congregation of the.First Presbyterian Church of Lansing. On October 9, 1863 fifty-six persons, including twenty-five members of First Presbyterian, orga nized the church in Lower Town, known today as North Lansing. In 1864 local promoter James Seymour donated a lot to the Presbyterians for church purposes at the foot of Franklin Street, now Grand River Avenue. A brick church building rose on the site and was dedicated on October 3, 1865 during the pastorate of the Reverend Alfred c. Bryant.
Lansing's population and that of North Lansing more than doubled between 1900 and 1910. The old church was outgrown and lacked facilities considered essential for modern church work, such as a gymnasium. Plans were made to construct a larger edifice. The Reverend Richard Spetnagel, pastor of Franklin Presbyterian in 1913, proposed a plan that would house all church functions in one building. The parsonage, pastor's study, auditorium, church school, gymnasium and community clubrooms were combined into a simple plant.
Edwyn A. Bowd (1865-1940), a Lansing architect, received the commission to plan the church complex in 1914. Bowd was Lansing's most prominent civic and institutional architect at the time. He designed several Lansing fire houses, the public library, two Masonic Temple buildings, the State Office Building, and the Allegan Street Post Office. His commissions beyond Lansing included Classical Revival city halls in Holland and Hillsdale (1910, 1911) and the Beaux-Arts inspired Ingham County Courthouse (1902-1903). Bowd's known church commissions were few and all in Lansing: the 1892-1894 Late Victorian fieldstone First Baptist Church was among his earliest designs and the only other identified church design by Bowd is the Gothic-style St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (1911-1913), now the Cathedral.
IX] See continuation sheet NPS Form 1().800.a OAIB ApptoveJ No. 10244Xll8 (WII)
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet
Section number _____,8:::....___ Page --=2-
Bowd completed plans for the Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church manse on October 8, 1914, and for the church on December 15, 1914. The old church was razed in March, 1915, and the new church was dedicated debt free on Palm Sunday, April 16, 1916.
In 1935, when Franklin Avenue became Grand River Avenue, the congregation changed its name to the North Presbyterian Church. It continues to occupy the building. 9. Major Bibliographical References
[X] See continuation sheet Previous documentation on file (NPS): rt:Jne D preliminary determination of individual listing (36 CFR 67) Primary location of additional data: has been requested [ZJ State historic preseNation office D previously listed in the National Register D Other State agency D previously determined eligible by the National Register D Federal agency D designated a National Historic Landmark D Local government D recorded by Historic American Buildings D University SuNey# ______Oother D recorded by Historic American Engineering Specify repository: Record #______
10. Geographical Data Acreage of property ~On~e._!,a~c:!..re~------ Lansing South Quad UTM References A lL&J I 710 I 0 I 31 3 10 I 141713151512101 B LLJ I I I I I I I I Zone Easting Northing Zone Easting Northing c LLJ I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I D LLJ I I I I I I I I
D See continuation sheet
Verbal Boundary Description The property occupies the east 105 feet of Lots NLJrber 5 and 6 of Block No. 31, Original Plat, City of Lansing.
D See continuation sheet
Boundary Justification This is the entire plot associated with the church.
D See continuation sheet
11. Form Prepared By name/title C. C. Cotman/R. 0. Christensen organization Bureau of Hi story date August, 1987 street & number 208 North CapitDl Avenue telephone 517/373-0510 city or town -----~~lo.l..J.l..l:;;j.... ______state Michigan zip code 48918 NPS Form 1().80(k OAIS Apptovlll No. 102+{1018 (1-18)
United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet
Section number _ ____:::_9 _ Page--'----
9. Major Bibliographical References
Architectural Drawings. "Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church," Edwyn A. Bowd, Lansing, Michigan. October 8, 1914 (Manse) and December 15, 1914 (Church). Located at the North Presbyterian Church, 108 West Grand River, Lansing, Michigan.
Armstrong, Chester S. (Rev . ). Church Manual of the Franklin Street Presbyterian Church of the City of Lansing. Lansing: W. S. George and Company, 1869.
Cowles, Albert A. Past and Present of the City of Lansing and Ingham County, Michigan. Lansing: Michigan Historical Publishing Company, 1905.
Durant, Samuel W. History of Ingham and Eaton Counties, Michigan. Philadelphia: Ensign Publishers, 1880.
Historical Pageant-Drama of the Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church, March 9, 1938.
Lansing State Journal, April 14, 1916; April 17, 1916; October 19, 1963, and December 27, 1986.
North Presbyterian Church, Diamond Jubilee, October 16-19, 1938. Lansing: North Presbyterian Diamond Jubilee Committee.
North United Presbyterian Church, 100 Years, 1863 to 1963. Lansing: North Presbyterian Centennial Committee, 1963.
AENR87233A AENR87233D WASO Form· 177 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ("R" June 1984) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET
Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church Ingham County MICHIGAN Substantive Review
0 resubmission ___ RETURN ______0 nomination by person or local government _REJECT------0 owner objection Federal Agency: _____ 0 appeal Substantive Review: Osample 0 request D appeal NR decision Reviewer's comments: ~/)~~ ~j!;f~ Ro'?m./Cdtod•~ <.~· Rev1ewer (!,.~-~ Discipline i6 ~ Date ___1:]___f2 ____ see continuation sheet
Nomination returned for: __ technical corrections cited below __ substantive reasons discussed below
1. Name
2. location
3. Classification
Category Ownership Status Present Use Public Acquisition Accessible
4. Owner of Property
5. Location of Legal Description
6. Representation in Existing Surveys Has this property been determined eligible? 0 yes Dno
7. Description
Condition Check one Check one 0 excellent 0 deteriorated D unaltered D original site Ogood 0 ruins 0 altered D moved date ______Otair 0 unexposed
Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance
0 summary paragraph D completeness D clarity 0 alterations/integrity 0 dates 0 boundary selection 8. Significance
Period Areas of Significance-Check and justify below
Specific dates Builder/Architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph)
0 summary paragraph 0 completeness 0 clarity 0 applicable criteria 0 justification of areas checked 0 relating significance to the resource 0 context 0 relationship of integrity to significance 0 justification of exception 0 other
9. Major Bibliographical References
10. Geographical Data
Acreage of nominated property ------Quadrangle name ______UTM References
Verbal boundary description and justification
11. Form Prepared By
12. State His1Dric Preservation Officer Certification The evaluated significance of this property within the state is:
national state local
State Historic Preservation Officer signature
title date
13. Other
0Maps 0 Photographs 0 Other
Questions concerning this nomination may be directed to------
Signed------Date------Phone:------
G P O 9 1 8-4 50
Comments for any item may be continued on an attached sheet
MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF STATE LANSING
RICHARD H. AUSTIN SECRETARY OF STATE MICHIGAN 48918
BUREAU OF HISTORY
ADMINISTRATION , PUBLICATIONS ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION 208 N. Capitol Avenue 517-373-0510
STATE ARCHIVES 3405 N. Logan Street 517-335-9165
MICHIGAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM 208 N. Capitol Avenue 517-373-3559 March 14, 1988
Carol D. Shull, Supervisory Historian National Register of Historic Places National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior P.O. Box 37127 Washington, D.C. 20013-7127 Dear Ms. Shull: Enclosed are National Register of Historic Places nomination materials for the Franklin Avenue Presbyterian Church in Lansing, Michigan. I certify that the intent-to-nominate notification requirements have been fulfilled. This property is being submitted for listing in the National Register. No notarized statements of objection on written comments concerning this nomination were submitted to us prior to the submission of this nomination to you. Please direct all questions concerning this nomination to Robert 0. Christensen (517/335-2719). Sincerely, p A.Y/aU~/1/ ~~ M~rtha ~- Bigelow, Direc~r . Bureau of History and Michigan State Historic Preservation Officer MMB:ROC:cc
APR I 4 1988
MH-69 (8/86)