ST. MARY'S CHURCH
Wilmington, North Carolina
Located at 220 South Fifth Avenue (corner of Fifth & Ann Street) this is a private facility. A Spanish Baroque church in brick and tile is beautiful both in style and in the quality of its finish. Built without steel, wood beams or framing, and without nails, the building employs brick and tile structurally as well as decoratively. Its plan is that of a Greek cross with a high dome over the crossing. The church building is the work of a father and son, both named Rafael Guastavino. Though the older Guastavino was an architect who had won competitions and accepted commissions, he is not known primarily as an architect. He arrived in the United States in 1881 with his son, a knowledge of Spanish building techniques and enough money to begin a new life. The younger Guastavino studied architecture in New York and won an architectural competition, but he then practiced little architecture, preferring, as his father, to promote their system of cohesive construction.
"Wilmington North Carolina - An Architectural and Historical Portrait" by Tony P. Wrenn photos by Wm. Edmund Barrett.
