Photograph by Chris Naffziger
St. Louis will be welcoming a new member of the cultural scene this Saturday, August 1. The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, at 3524 Russell Boulevard, just east of Grand, will be displaying a portion of the Karpeles collection of manuscripts, specifically an exhibit on the Wright Brothers' first flight, including firsthand witness accounts of their flight and correspondence with the French Aero Club. The museum takes over what was once the Third Christian Scientist Church, long occupied for several decades by another congregation that recently vacated the building.
The story of the Karpeles Manuscription Library Museum begins with Dr. David Karpeles, a veritable Renaissance man who lives in California. While he earned a doctorate in history, Dr. Karpeles began his for-profit career when he was six years old, selling coupons. With various positions at General Electric, as well as time in Minnesota, Dr. Karpeles pioneered various inventions in artificial intelligence.
Dr. Karpeles began to collect historic manuscripts, eventually gathering together over a million individual pieces, ranging from the original draft of the Bill of Rights and even Albert Einstein’s notes for his famous E=mc² equation. Buying up historic properties, particularly vacant churches, Dr. Karpeles established his manuscript libraries in order to bring his historic documents to cities that traditionally lacked large collections of primary material, such as Duluth, Minnesota or Fort Wayne, Indiana. St. Louis’s location is the newest Karpeles location, and is actually the largest metropolitan area to receive one of the manuscript libraries.
True to form, Dr. Karpeles purchased the old Third Christian Scientist church building on Russell Boulevard, just across Reservoir Park, one of a string of Christian Scientist buildings built in the first decades of the 20th Century. Designed by Albert B. Groves, a famed St. Louis architect who also designed the Mark Twain Hotel and City Hall’s rotunda, the church opened in 1911. Christian Science rejected revival styles such as the Gothic Revival, arguing that medieval churches with heavy stained glass reflected a more primitive Christianity, and instead embraced the Beaux-Arts style common in America at the time.
Groves answered those demands with a stunning open-plan church, eschewing traditional church architecture. The main sanctuary is located up two sweeping flights of stairs, bringing the visitor into the middle of the room. Straight ahead, the reader’s platform, which looks more like a stage now due to some renovations, occupies the back wall of the church. Behind the stairs, rows of pews fill the sanctuary. Overall, due to its continuous occupancy, the church is in good condition, and possibly will be available for rental to groups in the near future.
Kerry Manderbach, St. Louis native and the new director of the St. Louis branch of the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum recently gave this author a tour of the new facility. Currently, the primary exhibition space is right inside the front door, where there are a variety of different documents on display. Admission is always free, and Manderbach is planning for a soft opening on August 1. Among the current variety of manuscripts on display include a signed contract from Babe Ruth to the American League, as well as a page from Mark Twain’s failed attempt at turning Tom Sawyer into a play. The exhibition will cycle through every three months, with new manuscripts arriving from the headquarters in California.
Since the old church building is large, the St. Louis Media History Foundation will also be moving into a small gallery off of the main foyer. First up is a Media History exhibit on the late Richard Miller, former owner of St. Louis radio stations KXLW-AM and KADI-FM. It’s really wonderful to see this old church find new life as a cultural resource in South St. Louis. Too many of the city’s cultural institutions are located in the central corridor, and too many old churches sit vacant and crumbling throughout the city. The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum is a welcome addition to St. Louis.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at naffziger@gmail.com.
UPDATE, 7/29/15: In an earlier version of this article, we did not mention that the soft August 1 opening would include a Wright Brothers exhibit, and stated that the Miller exhibit would be centered around KSHE, rather than KXLW-AM and KADI-FM.
