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Aural Heritage Preservation of Historic American Churches
As historically significant church buildings are remodeled and destroyed, we also lose the aural heritage that has shaped America's diverse Christian narratives. This project has the following specific objectives:
The aural heritage data and auralization products created by the project are available for free and open access. The data is documented as impulse responses (IRs) digital audio files widely used in audio engineering, acoustics, and music research.
This project is generously supported by The Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life and Faith.
All photographs and audio recordings featured in this project were captured by the research team, under the supervision of Dr. Doyuen Ko, with the express consent of the participating churches. Distribution, reproduction, or commercial sale of this data, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.
Supervisor
Dr. Doyuen Ko (Audio Engineering Technology, Belmont University)
Graduate Research Assistants
The microphone array and playback rig varied between measurement trips. The configuration used at each church is listed below by state.
Select a church in the View tab and click Church Info for the full historical write-up and acoustic measurement data. Brief summaries are shown below.
A historic predominantly African American church with deep ties to the Civil Rights Movement. James Lawson hosted civil protest workshops here attended by Diane Nash, John Lewis, and others. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A Gothic Episcopal church designed in the English Parish style by New York firm Dudley and Wills. Served as an armory during the Civil War and became an all-Black congregation in 1896. Listed on the National Historic Register since 1972.
The first Episcopal church in Tennessee, designed in the Victorian Gothic style by Francis Hatch Kimball. Known for 55 memorial stained-glass windows and a historic pipe organ. Became the Cathedral of the Diocese of Tennessee in 1997.
A Korean immigrant congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in the former home of country music legend Hank Williams — a Nashville landmark purchased and preserved in 1978.
A Gothic Revival landmark completed in 1931, designed by architects Charles I. Barber and John Russell Pope. Features a Hugh Tyler mural, intricate stained-glass windows, an antiphonal pipe organ, and a bell tower silent for 75 years before 2006.
Designed by William Strickland in the Egyptian Revival style and completed in 1851. Considered by many to be "the single most important Egyptian Revival building in the world." Designated a historic landmark in 1993.
A log church built by Scots-Irish Presbyterians in Bourbon County. Site of the 1801 Cane Ridge Revival, the climax of the Second Great Awakening, drawing an estimated 20,000–30,000 people. A stone shrine was built over the structure in 1957 to preserve it.
The oldest congregation in continuous existence in Lexington. Pastor Robert J. Breckinridge, a noted anti-slavery voice, hosted Abraham Lincoln at a Thanksgiving service in 1847. The current Gothic Revival building was completed in 1872, designed by Cincinnatus Shryock.
Known as "Indiana's Oldest Church," the parish dates to a log church built beside Sieur de Vincennes' fort on the Wabash River. The current building, begun in 1826, was modeled on the Basilica of St. Joseph in Bardstown, Kentucky and holds murals by Wilhelm Lamprecht and a crypt containing the four bishops of Vincennes. Named a cathedral in 1834 and elevated to Minor Basilica by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
Home of the Ferdinand Benedictines, the second largest community of Benedictine sisters in the United States. Known as the "Castle on the Hill," the Romanesque church was built from 1915 to 1924 and features Italian marble floors, German hand-carved woodwork, an 87-foot-high dome, and 89 angels in its interior. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; its full restoration was an Official Project of Save America's Treasures.
One of the oldest mission churches in the United States, originally named St. Anthony and renamed in 1716. Built of adobe made on site, with walls roughly 10 feet thick at the base and a roof carried on overhead logs called vigas. An extensive 1962 renovation under Father Staadtmueller restored the traditional pueblo-style flat roof and refinished the exterior in cement plaster.
The oldest extant shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States, built of adobe on a cruciform plan for Santa Fe's Guadalupe District. Its vigas, corbels, and choir loft came from La Castrense, a Santa Fe military chapel. Designated a historic site on three trails — the Santa Fe Trail, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, and the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.