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Akron Plan is an architectural term related to a large body of American Protestant churches built between the Civil and First World wars. Though its origins were limited to religious education—the Sunday school—its current meaning has been more expansively applied to describe entire church complexes. Metamorphosis of the term since the 1910s has lead to a wide variety of understanding and interpretation.

Origins

The first Akron Plan, however, was built in 1872 for First Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio as an independent free-standing structure designed exclusively for Sunday school use.

Following the American Civil War, Rev. John Heyl Vincent collaborated with philanthropist Lewis Miller on a new regimen for religious education. Miller was a Methodist Sunday school leader who had earlier worked with Vincent on the Chautauqua Movement. About 1870 they turned their interests to

in a design by , Walter Blythe, and architect Jacob Snyder.^[1] Congregationalists, Baptists, Presbyterians and other non-liturgical Protestant denominations also erected this style of building.^[2]

Metamorphosis of a Term

In its current application, an Akron Plan church is typified by an auditorium form of worship space with adjacent connecting classrooms for religious education on one or two levels. The plan promoted efficiency of movement by congregants between worship and Sunday school, yet allowed those spaces to function independently through the use of movable partitions. Its flexibility accommodated joint services between adults and children and also provided overflow seating at times of heavy attendance.

Selected Examples

References

^ Robert T. Englert (February 2004). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: First Presbyterian Church". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2009-06-14.
^ When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America. Jeanne Halgren Kilde. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0195179722.`p.185

External links

American Religious Buildings:The Akron Plan Sunday School

External sources

[nrhpinv_ny-1] Robert T. Englert (February 2004). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: First Presbyterian Church". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2009-06-14.

[2] When Church Became Theatre: The Transformation of Evangelical Architecture and Worship in Nineteenth-Century America. Jeanne Halgren Kilde. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0195179722.`p.185

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