Prow Roofs 1 | Places of Worship

By Michael Bridgeman

The prow roof has a long history, but is best known today for its use in mid-century design from the 1940s to the 1970s. Twentieth-century prows are the focus of my posts for the next two months, first highlighting ecclesiastical prows and then featuring prows on nonreligious buildings next month. As is my practice in these posts, the emphasis will be on local buildings which are easily seen in person, though I’ll expand my scope with examples from elsewhere in Wisconsin.

Madison has never been a large metro area and remains relatively small today. Consequently, we don’t always see the highest expressions of architectural types or styles. The prow roof is a notable exception: we have a stellar example at Frank Lloyd Wright’s First Unitarian Society Meeting House (900 University Bay Dr.) in Shorewood Hills. Designed in 1947 and completed in 1951, the meeting house is a National Historic Landmark, one of 26 Wright buildings that have earned this recognition. It is among Wright’s most influential designs.

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The meeting house has what might be called a full prow: the building mass thrusts forward at an acute angle—like the prow of a ship—and is capped by a projecting roof that mimics that angle. Here the prow ascends dramatically above the gathering space, rising by nearly 40 feet. As might be expected with a Wright design, the impact is extraordinary from both inside or outside of the building, communicating spiritual purpose without relying on traditional forms or styles. Wright likened the building’s form to hands clasped together in prayer. Others called it a flying wedge. The stone foundation cuts into the earth like a plow. Regardless of the metaphors, the meeting house is recognized as one of the most innovative examples of American church architecture.

When construction began on the First Unitarian Society meeting house in 1949, the site was considered suburban or even rural. The suburbanization of America after World War II stimulated a boom in church construction. At the time, church membership in the U.S. was above 70 percent, considerably higher than today’s 50 percent. In 1955 Time magazine reported that one in four new churches were built using “modern” styles. The prow was but one of many ways architects expressed the modern spirit, so that churches with prows are easy to spot in Madison, the state, and the country.

The two churches above are the work of Madison architect William V. Kaeser and both employ full prows. The original building for Covenant Presbyterian Church (326 S. Sego Rd.) was erected in about 1957. Facades on both ends of the building have obtuse angles under a roofline that extends at the peak of the gable to create deep, angled eaves. On the south façade the end of the prow roof is punctured by polygonal openings that cast shadows on the brick walls below. The west side of the church complex (not shown) has multiple prow roofs, most notably at the covered entry. Kaeser’s 1967 design for Madison Community of Christ, (5110 Kevin’s Way) is smaller building, but no less confident in using the full prow, with an acute angle to the left in the photo and an obtuse angle to the right. The entry wing has a flat façade with a restrained prow or “winged gable.” In these two designs Kaeser kept the roof ridges parallel to the earth; his prows do not soar like Wright’s.

All buildings, even the most mundane, deliver a message about their purpose and meaning. This is especially true for places of worship whose makers usually are very mindful of what their edifice will communicate—an impression shaped by belief, practice, tradition, history, location, and much more. Consider the pair of photos above of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church (Menomonie) which communicate very different ideas of “church” as understood in the western Christian tradition. This was my grandmother's congregation and I wish I'd asked her thoughts about replacing a traditional Gothic revival church, which I don’t remember at all, to a modernist building that I found unforgettable.

The sweeping prow roof of St. Joseph’s in Menomonie, designed in 1965 by Flinn & Saito of Iowa, is a three-inch concrete shell called a hyperbolic paraboloid. The side view above shows its saddle-like shape. The roof rises to 64 feet at its highest point over the main entrance, seen to the right in the photo. But the first such roof I saw was at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church (Elm Grove), about 10 miles from my childhood home. Designed by William P. Wenzler when he was 27, the cutting-edge church was completed in 1957. It is said to have been the first hyperbolic paraboloid, thin-shelled concrete roof built in the United States and is still my favorite prow in Wisconsin.

Ecclesiastical buildings with hyperbolic paraboloid roofs are uncommon. Most houses of worship with prows are less ambitious by intent or circumstance. In 1978 Bethany Evangelical Free Church (301 Riverside Dr.) replaced their 1912 building in the Late Gothic Revival style with an up-to-date structure that has an angled façade under a tilted prow. Here the roof barely extends beyond the brick walls that support it to help communicate the building’s “church-ness” without the conventions of stained glass, pointed-arch windows, or a steeple. First Lutheran Church in Amery, dedicated in 1963, has winged gables that extend only slightly at the roofline over the unfaceted walls of the main façade and the entry. This was a common approach for moderately modern churches and much less expensive than a full prow. The square steeple, topped by a cross rather than a spire, is a nod to tradition; stained glass windows were installed in 1974.

 

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

 

Ecclesiastical use of prows and prow roofs may have peaked in the decades immediately following World War II, but they remain potent markers of modernity. When Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (5701 Raymond Rd.) erected the first building on its campus in 1959, it had modest prow roofs like many of its contemporaries. About three decades later, a more emphatic prow roof was built over the expanded main entrance on the south side of the church complex, rising toward the sky and extending a wide welcome to those who enter.

In 2012 architectural historian Jim Draeger offered three continuing studies lectures titled “When God Went Mod.” One of his key takeaways: “In many Wisconsin towns, churches are the best examples of post-war architecture.” When you travel the state, pay particular attention to the religious buildings. You’ll see more than the “tip of the prow” I’ve offered here.

Image Credits

[1] First Unitarian Society Meeting House — WHS Architecture & History Inventory #5806.

[2] First Unitarian Society interior — Postcard, undated. William Wollin studio, Madison, Wis.

[3] St. Joseph’s Catholic Church circa 1955 — Postcard, undated.

[4] St. Joseph’s Catholic Church after 1965 — Postcard, undated.

[5] St. Joseph’s Catholic Church — WHS Architecture & History Inventory #233698.

[6] St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church — WHS Architecture & History Inventory #152142.

[7] First Lutheran Church — Postcard, undated.

All other photos by Michael Bridgeman.

Madison Trust