The Cook County herald., 1905-09-09

+. II a sky-scraper office building is in
dlgenous, as it were, to twentieth cen
tury progress, why not a sky-scraper
church?
AS modern enterprise in the mate
rial world often requires enormous
plants for natural development, why
should not theology, in keeping pace
with the progress and demands of the
times, be- extensively housed, also?
John D. Rockefeller, oil king, and
exponent of big things in this age, has
pondered these questions, and an
sWered them in the, affirmative.
He is arranging to build in Cleve-
land, Ohio, one of the biggest churches
In the~.world. ~ Announcement of his
intention has just been made by the
Rev. DIR. Charles A. Eaton, pastor of
the Euclid Avenue Baptist church of
that city, where Mr.. Rockefeller began
his remarkable career and where he
first engaged in church work.
1t is said that Mr.. Rockefeller will
donate $1O,O00,00O toward carrying out
his plans, including the erection of the
building and the endowment of the
work to be carried out there.
A great family house for the indi,
vldual, rather than family church,
the new structure is to be. Modern
metropolitan ideas and land limita-
t1ons require that it shoot far up into
the air, in order to provide room for
the many branches of ecclesiastical
undertaking to be housed there.
Present plans contemplate an i'm
mense structure, every foot of the
floor space to be used for church pur-
poses. The nearest approach to this
in the world will be the new Broadway
tabernacle, in New York, which is to
mount ten stories in the air.
Mr.. Rockefeller intends this new
giant of churches to be his greatest
and most lasting monument. 1t will
be memorial of his philanthropy and
interest in religious work.
The Euclid Avenue Baptist congre.
cation Of Cleveland is the first with
which the oil king connected himself
At that time he was simply grocer's
clerk, living in modest little house.
This wasi before the call of gigantic
finance had reached his ears: before
his fertiletbrain had conceived the
idea that the oil industry was beckon-
ing him to shape its marvellous future.
Having BEEN superintendent of the
Sunday SCHOOL, for many years and
deeply Interested in everything that
pertained to the;welfare of the church
and denomination, Mr. Rockefeller
never forgot Ehis first ecclesiastical
home. "
Sentiment has %bound him to it more
strongly than to any of the more mag
nificent churches with which he has
since been allied.
1t must not be imagined that the
church is dependent upon the oil mag
Mates bounty. A big church it has
been from it's foundation, and a big
church it always will be. Surrounding
conditions, however, are such as to
place it peculiarly in line with the
ideas Of growth and enterprise that
he has mapped out for it.
When built, the present structure
was located upon the. best part of
Euclid avenue at that time, as now,
among the most beautiful residence
streets of the United States. :.
The spread of commercialism grad
ually encroached upon these precincts.
The district now partakes more of a
business than of a residential nature:
The church has become a downtown
institution, but it is large and pros
porous still, and many of the best and
wealthiest families of Cleveland are
connected withsit.ys ..zs /: Z Z.s
Even at that. q contribution Of $1O,-
100000, made by the richest man in