1925 - Sanctuary, modified Akron Plan
Our sanctuary is a modified Akron Plan sanctuary. The Akron Plan was named for its city of origin where the First M. E. Church was looking to create flexible space that could solve practical Sunday school space problems. The design was meant to allow children to move from large groups into small separate rooms quickly by arraying individual rooms around the periphery of the auditorium. The design was very popular in the 20th century. The idea was an auditorium sanctuary - not unlike Shakespeare’s renaissance theatre – in which tier upon tier of boxes fully encircled the performance oval.
As implemented at Woodland, in response to Hayes Farish’s preference for a self-contained sanctuary, the semi-circular auditorium is surrounded by a second-story balcony. The pulpit does not sit precisely on the diagonal, but is off center, toward one side. The semi-circular birch wood balcony, supported by heavy-beamed ceiling pilasters, rises 22 feet above the floor. And as you know, our Sunday school rooms sit behind the chancel wall. Woodland, like many churches, adopted a modified Akron Plan.[1]
[1] Kilde, 179 When Church Became Theatre: The transformation of Evangelical architecture Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
As implemented at Woodland, in response to Hayes Farish’s preference for a self-contained sanctuary, the semi-circular auditorium is surrounded by a second-story balcony. The pulpit does not sit precisely on the diagonal, but is off center, toward one side. The semi-circular birch wood balcony, supported by heavy-beamed ceiling pilasters, rises 22 feet above the floor. And as you know, our Sunday school rooms sit behind the chancel wall. Woodland, like many churches, adopted a modified Akron Plan.[1]
[1] Kilde, 179 When Church Became Theatre: The transformation of Evangelical architecture Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002