LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1929, Page 185

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Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1929. 191

marked copies containing information on building costs,
es, the code of ethics regulating architect and client, ete.
enlarged bulletin contains four pages, each of approximately the
fa page in the Lutheran Witness.
We have six to eight hundred lantern slides, many of them
jored. containing exterior and interior views and details of the
+ of the older churches that are generally regarded as good prece-
b - as well as of the latest churches in this country. We have
gents ed exhibits at synodical and other meetings from time to time,
a ae ew arae photographs of the best churches, ancient and modern.
: vrctures have been given before congregations about to build and
“pefore the students at St. Louis, and slides have been sent to pastors
desiring their use. Recently a new set of 120 colored slides, showing
“the characteristics of the various styles— Saxon, Norman, Early
Gothic, Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic — have been made, and
“the slides were shown to the St. Louis students and will be shown
from time to time in connection with exhibits at Synod and elsewhere.

As in previous years, we have often been able to persuade con-
gregations to build smaller and more substantially. It is still very
common to get letters from a congregation of but 150 communicants
planning to build a church seating 400. Since the actual cost of
finished churches ranges from $200 to $450 per sitting in many cases,
we believe that at least $100,000 may be saved annually by the con-
gregations of Synod, were each congregation to build only a little
smaller than the oversized churches so commonly built. Several years
ago we checked results and came to the conclusion that at least this
amount was actually saved in cases of congregations with which we
have had correspondence, and yet the churches were amply large.

Attention has been given to the very high annual waste of money
through depreciation. We find that much of such depreciating of
church property is due to schemes for short-sighted economy. Thin
brick walls, flimsy frame buildings, poor roofs, makeshift guttering
and flashing, wooden window tracery and mullions, cheap materials
and bonding materials, wooden pinnacles and spires, and other such
cheap devices are fruitful sources of rapid depreciation. We have
found that the average economic life of a cheaply constructed build-
ing is but seventeen years, many even less. Thus much stress has
been Jaid upon less ornament and more durability.

The chairman of your Committee, Mr. A. F. Bernhard, has worked
out detailed drawings for a sound, strong roof, which may be built
very economically and yet is extremely substantial. This has been
used on a number of churches with good results and not only proves
economical and strong, but has held up under heavy wind-storms, that
have wrecked near-by buildings.

Another architect member of this committee, Mr. J. A. Fichter,

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