Another beauty bites the dust – First Christian Church

By: J. David Chapman/October 6, 2022

Last year, I was awarded the Heritage Award for preserving historic sites by the Edmond Historical Society and Museum. Julie and I have spent several years trying to “save little old homes” from the wrecking ball. We have restored and saved homes built between 1895 and 1932m and most are in downtown Edmond and now used in our Airbnb portfolio. It is rewarding to allow travelers visiting Edmond to stay in those old homes and experience a little bit of the history of Edmond.

For years, I have watched the activity and controversy of the First Christian Church with its distinctive white egg-shaped dome, located at NW 36th Street and Walker in Oklahoma City. The historic structure was demolished recently. The 36-acre property, which included the former Jewel Box Theatre, was built in the 1950s and was home to one of the largest churches in the OKC area. The 25,000-square-foot church that was designed by architect R. Duane Conner was raised to iconic stature when it became a community care center, of sorts, in the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. People worldwide saw the emergency response efforts headquartered from the unique building and it became synonymous on television with the recovery. It was literally the place where families directly affected by the bombing were encouraged to gather to find out information about their loved ones that might have been in the buildings.

I used the word “beauty” in the title of this column. I am not sure I would call this building beautiful, but I would definitely reserve the terms iconic and historic for this structure. The building was put on the National Registry of Historic Places on March 14, 2011. That was a fitting award for the building, but I believe the community saw this building as more considering its role in recovery and healing in one of the most defining and devastating events in our city’s history.

I suppose I should not be surprised when community leaders announced that there would be a service to acknowledge community grief in relation to the demolishing of the building. I have been writing in this column for years about the influence the built environment can have on our society and community. I think we can all agree the First Christian Church was one of those structures.

J. David Chapman is professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).