An old English parish church plunked down in the middle of chaotic, modern Atlanta? Definitely an unusual sight but Central Presbyterian came by its uniqueness very honestly. It grew from the creative vision of English born and trained Edmund George Lind, who had an extensive background in church architecture long before he came to Atlanta in 1882. He had seen many of these parish/Gothic churches in England and had already designed several during his long practice in Baltimore (1)
Born to Swedish immigrant parents in London, England in 1829, Lind gave up the study of law to take up architecture at the Government School of Design at Somerset House in 1847. While there, he learned architectural drawing from C. M. Richardson and watercolor painting from R. Redgrave of the Royal Academy. After two years, he was "articled" to architect John Blore of London for three years. From 1852 to 1855, he worked in architectural firms in his native city and in Yorkshire. Perhaps in pursuit of greater freedom of expression and design opportunities, the young architect emigrated to the United States in 1855. (2)
Lind settled in Baltimore and was soon working for the noted architect N. G. Starwether on the First Presbyterian Church. Except for his decade long stay in Atlanta from 1882 to 1893, Lind made Baltimore his home. Among his most important works there were the Masonic Temple, Farmers' and Planters' Bank, Franklin Square Presbyterian Church, Memorial Episcopal Church, the Savings Bank, and the magnificent Italianate country estate of Guilford. Most significantly perhaps, he designed the "fabulous library of the Peabody Institute" with its impressive reading room surrounded by five soaring interior tiers of books behind iron balconies. (3)
In the middle years of the nineteenth century, the profession of architecture was in a formative state -- an infant profession in terms of organization, standards, education and even members. Lind was a leading figure in the field and was one of the first members of the brand new American Institute of Architects in 1857. He became a fellow of the AIA in 1870 and founded the Baltimore Chapter in 1871, serving two terms as its president. He also served as vice-president of the national AIA in the 1870s. (4)
Lind's practice extended to Washington, D.C., Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, and into eastern North Carolina in the 1860s and 1870s. He was distinguished enough to serve on the "commission of experts to examine and report on the condition of the Washington Monument" as well as assistant supervising architect of the United States under President U. S. Grant. In the latter post, he designed the United States custom house and post office in Mobile, Alabama and undoubtedly traveled widely in the South. (5) Chances are good he came through Atlanta on these travels.
Despite what appears to have been a very successful, 25 year career in Baltimore, Lind moved his practice to the emerging capital of the New South in 1882. The main reason might have been his health. According to Charles Belfoure, Lind contracted tuberculosis and was advised to move to a warmer climate. (6) Also, at this time, Atlanta was entering a boom period following the successful International Cotton Exposition of late 1881. There was a definite need for skilled architects in the city as well as the lower South as a whole. (7)
Shortly after arriving in his new home, Lind's wife died of typhoid fever which must have both devastated him and given him second thoughts as to the healthfulness of Atlanta. (8) It also did not auger well for his practice which, in fact, never reached anywhere near the heights attained with the prestigious commissions he had enjoyed in Baltimore and Washington. He had many projects in Atlanta, the rest of Georgia, and even in Alabama, Florida and South Carolina but they were small scale for the most part. Central Presbyterian was his grandest, most visible design work during his deep South sojourn. (9)
This gently imposing church just across Washington Street from the state capitol, which was built immediately after Central Presbyterian was completed, would serve as his grand legacy. With a facade of light-colored Kentucky limestone and sides of matching colored brick, it gives a sense of coolness even on the hottest southern days. At three stories and with a steeply towering slate roof, it is certainly imposing without being austere, overpowering or grandly forbidding. Double Gothic arched doorways topped by equally large Gothic windows and a tracery filled oculus in the tall parapetted gable give the main facade a certain majesty. Small pyramidal roofed ventilating towers on the roof's ridge line, however, soften any feel of grandiosity.
The same can be said for the truncated tower on the south side of the church and the short belltower on the north. The latter may well be Lind's great triumph here. It rises squarely to the base of the front gable but has a variety of horizontal courses, buttresses, pointed arches and an elliptical window to give it added visual interest. It then narrows with shaped, short columns beside stone louvers before the slender pyramidal roof topped with a finial cross. Belfoure states that it is "far simpler than in most of his churches." (10) This homely but interesting tower keeps the whole creation grounded while maintaining the overall feel of a simple parish church set down in the middle of a major city.
Other examples of Lind's work have largely disappeared from Atlanta. Just behind Central Presbyterian stands the rectory of the nearby Shrine of the Immaculate Conception The simple depot and the Queen Anne cottage of Milton Candler (both in Decatur) remain although his Decatur Presbyterian Church was demolished in 1950. The beautiful Mary Willis Library in Washington, Georgia and the Gwinnett County courthouse in Lawrenceville still stand. (11)
The wonderful cluster of the Shrine (designed by William Parkins in 1869), Central Presbyterian, the rectory, the Georgia Freight Depot (designed by Max Corput in 1868) and the capitol (Edbrooke & Burnham) provide a rare group of Victorian era buildings with the churches in strikingly different Gothic styles. The capitol provides a neo-classical interpretation from the time and the freight depot an Italianate design to go with a pleasing combination of Gothic and stick styling in the rectory. Surrounded by these buildings, a viewer with a little imagination might imagine himself back in a world of horse-drawn streetcars, hugely bustled women, gentlemen in frock coats and the loud rattle and clangs of trains coming and going from the long gone Union Passenger Depot, which was just next door. (13) This is surely a fine legacy for Lind and his peers.
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(1) Charles Belfoure, Edmund George Lind: Anglo-American Architect of Baltimore and the South (Baltimore, 2009), 33-35 & 43-47.
(2) "Obituaries, E. G. Lind, F.A.I.A," AIA Quarterly Bulletin (April 1, 1909 - July 1, 1909), 130.
(3) "Obituaries, E. G. Lind," 130; Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton, N.J., 1976), 104; Mills Lane, Architecture of the Old South (Savannah, 1985), 218; Belfoure, 63-81; Correspondence with James T. Wollin , Maryland architect and Lind researcher, in the possession of the author.
(4) "Obituaries, E. G. Lind," 131.
(5) Richard Funderburke, "An Architect for the New South: The Atlanta Years of Edmund G. Lind, 1882-1893," The Georgia Historical Quarterly, Vol. LXXXI # 1 (Spring 1997), 30-31; Belfoure, 48-62, 99-106, 165-185 (E. G. Lind's project list printed in Belfoure).
(6) Belfoure, 137.
(7) Funderburke, 31-34.
(8) Belfoure, 137.
(9) "Project List of E. G. Lind" in Belfoure, 180-184. A number of commissions like those for Concordia Hall or the Georgia Military Institute in Georgia were larger than Central Presbyterian but were never built or were built from the designs of other architects.
(10) Belfoure, 143.
(11) Funderburke, 38-40.
(12) Funderburke, 36-37.
(13) Lind left Atlanta in 1893 and died in 1909 (see Belfoure, 163).
