(formerly Euclid Avenue Christian Church), East 99th Street and Euclid Avenue, Cleveland; constructed 1905-1908; dedicated 1908. Romanesque.

Exterior: Most of the exterior of the church is green serpentinite quarried in the West Chester area, Chester County, southeastern Pennsylvania. The large rock-faced blocks are set as random ashlar. Serpentinite is a type of rock rich in serpentine minerals; the chief green mineral in this particular serpentinite is probably antigorite, a brownish-green serpentine mineral. Most trim is Berea Sandstone from Northeastern Ohio, but Indiana limestone is also used around some windows. Since its installation, the Berea Sandstone, once the lighter-colored of the two rocks, has become the darker due to natural weathering and pollutants. However, it has held up extremely well. In contrast, the serpentinite has not stood up to weathering as well; portions of the exterior of the green blocks have sloughed off. This weathering is mitigated some, however, by the thickness of the stone blocks. The serpentinite has also changed color somewhat. Older weathered surfaces tend to have a yellower cast than recently exposed surfaces.

Interior: The pillars and material used around the baptism pool are faux marble, more or less imitation Siena marble.

Remarks: Use of serpentinite is highly unusual in the Cleveland area. This serpentinite has been widely used closer to its origin in Pennsylvania (see Stone 1932, p. 105-107). There is also a serpentinite church in Columbus, the Broad Street Methodist Church (1885). The best known serpentinite church in the United States, however, may be the Pullman "Greenstone" United Methodist Church in Chicago (1892; see Lane, 1981, p. 44).

Many of the churches made of serpentinite are Romanesque in style. The revival of the Romanesque style in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was often accompanied by a taste for polychromy and thus serpentinite. The limited use of serpentinite is probably related to changing tastes in architectural fashions as well as the relative instability of the stone over time.

Most of the serpentinite churches have similar deterioration problems. (See Melvin and McKenzie, 1992, for a discussion of the problems of serpentinite deterioration of the Broad Street Church). The weathered serpentinite used for the exterior of East Mount Zion Baptist Church strongly contrasts with the serpentinite (Verde Antique) used for interior ornamentation in other churches (see, for example, St. James Church). When polished and kept from the elements, serpentinite holds a deep    green sheen.

                    Detail showing green serpentinite blocks used for the exterior.  A darker, horizontal strip of Berea Sandstone can also be seen. 

 

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