Another One Bites the Dust

9/2/19 former University Christian Church

The day before I left for the Twin Cities, I was driving through the University District when I saw that bulldozers and excavators were busily gutting the former University Christian Church. Built at the turn of the 20^th century, it was an active church until last year, when its congregation apparently moved to Lake City. More recently, some social service organizations have used the building, but that was just temporary. I started seeing the writing on the wall – literally. When graffiti appears and people start using alcoves as their bedrooms, it’s clear that a building’s days are numbered.

I didn’t have time to sketch it then, but I saw that the ‘dozing was going fast, so I was afraid it would be flattened by the time I returned home. On Labor Day I took advantage of free street parking in the area to take a look. Relieved to see that at least some of the Gothic structure still remains (the part I like to sketch most anyway), I regret that I never sketched it when it was still whole.

Most likely it will be replaced by yet another box like these across the street.

More boring boxes.