CALVARY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Calvary Presbyterian Church is an enigma.  The church is something of a Milwaukee landmark.  It is located on Wisconsin Avenue west of downtown and just to the east of the north-south freeway.  It's red painted brick exterior and extremely tall and narrow spire set it apart from other religious venues. Here are a couple of shots of the exterior.

The interior of the church is surprisingly bare.  Here is a shot looking toward the rear of the church.

The colored glass windows above the balcony are lovely, even though they are "fake."

I found the prominent dark-stained support timbers informal and somewhat off-putting.  But the most prominent feature of the interior was the cloth drapery in the sanctuary area, as shown in the following shot taken from the balcony.

I asked one of the church representatives what the function of the drapery was.  I assumed it might have an acoustic function.  No, he said, it simply serves to reduce the apparent size of the church.  The congregants, he said, don't feel as overwhelmed.  I asked him what the size of the church's congregation was.  He said it was about 50!  But, he said, it is growing.

John