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First Presbyterian Church of Beaver   Beaver, PA

Dedicated in 1892, the First Presbyterian Church in Beaver, Pennsylvania is a classic example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style as applied to church architecture. With its stately limestone bell tower, imposing belt coursing and soaring stone arches, the building is a landmark in the center of town. The original building was doubled in size in the mid 1950’s with the addition of a classroom wing, which combined buff brick and sensitively-detailed limestone trim in a manner that established its own identity, while harmonizing with the original structure.

Fifty years later, another generation embarked on an expansion of their thriving church. Filled to capacity throughout the week, the church needed to expand within a limited site to accommodate the changing requirements of worship, the needs of expanding outreach programs, and to bring the aging facility as a whole into the 21st Century with respect to accessibility, plumbing facilities, and life-safety.

The demands of contemporary worship, expanding Christian Education programs, and an ever- increasing slate of community-based activities were straining the infrastructure of the facility, which was essentially built to serve the needs of traditional worship and Sunday School only. The historic sanctuary was not adaptable to the needs of the alternate contemporary worship service. Interior circulation was a major problem, along with a lack of meeting space and modern toilet facilities. Much of the building was inaccessible to church members with mobility issues.

Several years of intensive programming and planning resulted in a scheme that completely renovated 6,800 square-feet of the existing buildings, including the addition of a new lobby in the center of the building and the construction of 9 new classrooms in the former lower level Fellowship Hall. The scheme also added a 13,200 square-foot wing that includes a new 4,500 square-foot Multipurpose Worship/Fellowship Hall, a new lower-level lobby, a five-stop elevator to provide access to all levels of the facility, and new stacked restroom facilities on three floors. The new addition was dedicated in June, 2005.

Built directly behind the original stone structure on the site of a small house, the new addition was conceived as a building with two halves that would act as a transitional element between the two older wings. Located immediately adjacent to the 1950’s classroom wing, the north half of the addition contains a new stairway, the elevator, and the new restrooms (all elements that were grouped together in an addition as the logical alternative to trying to cut them into a century-old structure). This “Service Wing” is clad in buff brick and mimics the gabled roof line of the classroom wing. As seen from the main commercial district one block away, the addition blends seamlessly with the original.

A new lower-level lobby separates the two halves of the addition. Located on an axis that extends through the center of the entire complex to a new front door cut into an existing stone wall, the new lobbies provide a needed connection to the parking lots to the rear of the site, and act as a “Main Street” within the complex.

The New Multipurpose Worship/Fellowship Hall fills out the south end of the addition. Constructed of stone and brick masonry walls with a laminated wood roof structure, this room functions as the setting for contemporary worship services, freeing the main Sanctuary for traditional worship. This room also serves as an activities center for group sports, as well as a dining room for church dinners. The primary masonry material is the buff brick, which is accented by a heavy stone belt course and stone banding alongside and above the wide arched windows. The south end of the Fellowship Hall features a gently-curving wall with four narrow arched windows. It references the scale and massing of the curved stone bays of the original Sanctuary, and connects to it with a simple brick stair tower.