Sioux City History and Culture by Bicycle Part 113: William LaBarthe Steele Part 8: Sioux City Baptist Church

Sioux City Baptist Church was formely called 1st Congregational Church. It is also known as the church with the white dome. Designed by William L. Steele a dome was not a typical design on a Christian church. This church building is unique in that is was designed and built with one. Located at the corner of 13th and Nebraska Streets the building is a Prairie School design, with the exception of the dome.

At a cost of $80,000 to build the new church, the cornerstone for the church was laid on January 12, 1917, the first anniversary of the fire of the original church that was located at 8th and Nebraska Streets. The cornerstone is from the original 1889 structure that was destroyed in the fire and likely the only surviving piece.

The original 1889 building was the first of the large church buildings constructed in Sioux City. Though not designed by William L Steele the readers of this blog will see the impressive collection of large church buildings Steele either designed or designed a remodel.

The former 1st Congregation Church, current Sioux City Baptist Church is on the National Register of Historic Places:
Sioux City Baptist Church ** (added 1979 - Building - #79000953)
1301 Nebraska Ave., Sioux City
Historic Significance: Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Steele,William
Architectural Style: Prairie School
Area of Significance: Architecture
Period of Significance: 1900-1924
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Religion
Historic Sub-function: Religious Structure
Current Function: Religion
Current Sub-function: Religious Structure

Digital scan of the article from the Sioux City Daily Tribune January 13, 1917 page 11:


Digital scans of an article called an Architectural Gem and a drawing from the thesis Sermons in Stone:




Photo's of the church as it looks today:

History and Culture by Bicycle: Update

As a lot of you can tell I have not posted anything recent in this blog. The reason is simple. It is too darn cold, snowy and icy out to be going out and taking photo's. At least for me it is. How ever that does not mean I am not busy gathering the info. I need to continue with posting about historical and cultural sites, locations and events. Far from it. I do have a few things to post about that I need to do a little bit more of a internet search for.

I am also working on my next large historical project for this blog. It is going to be on William LaBarth Steel. I have already posted about his architectural style and some of the buildings he designed or has taken credit for designing. I have a lot more to post about and have recently found out I have barely scratched the surface. I am doing most of my research at the Pearl Street Research Center in downtown Sioux City. They literally have several boxes of files on Steele.

Here is a tentative idea on how I am going to post about William L. Steele. First I will do a recap post about all of the buildings he is credited for desiging that I have posted about so far. These buildings will be catagorized by type, commercial, churches and houses. They will be in one post that will include more information that I have on him. Then I will post about the buildings he is credited for that I have not posted about, like the buildings I have psoted about they will be catagorized by type, commercial, churches and then houses. After which I will post about the buildings he is credited for that are no longer standing today and again they too will be catagorized as mentioned above. Included in this information will be information from a thesis that was written about him called Sermons in Stone. It is about the churches he designed.

I have a lot of research to do on William L. Steele and by the time it is noce enough to take photo's of the buildings I will have enough to start posting about him once again.