Built St. Louis: City Churches
St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church

St. Augustine rose on the city's north side in 1896; it stands west of the Hyde Park neighborhood at Lismore and Hebert. The stout Gothic building was constructed to serve a German congregation. It ceased operation as a Catholic church in 1979 and passed to the Christ Baptist Church in the early 1980s; it last operated as a Christian Outreach Center. The building appears to be closed today, a massive hulk surrounded by tired houses and vacant lots, in an area that has seen better days but retains some last measure of inner-city urban vigor.

The church has seen better days as well; its massive stained-glass windows are mostly boarded over, and are exposed only in places where the boards have failed. One wonders if urban renewal will reach this beleagured neighborhood in time to save the building from the same neglect that is claiming Bethlehem Luthran and St. Liborius.

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