At Temple U., One Last Look Inside Conwell's Spectacular Church

Baptist Temple (Chronicle photograph by Lawrence Biemiller)

Temple University is named after the Baptist Temple of the Rev. Russell H. Conwell, a preacher who drew thousands to services every week and who founded a hospital as well as the university. But the church building itself has been empty and increasingly decrepit since structural concerns forced the university to close it in the early 1980s.

Now the university plans to gut what remains of the interior and use the building’s shell for a concert hall. Read an article about the Temple in this week’s Chronicle, and take a virtual tour of this spectacular ruin.