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There actually was a circle here once, like Soldiers' and Gates'
Circles, which were all part of the vast urban jewelry of the Frederick Law
Olmsted park system. The circle was obliterated to ease the flow of traffic
through the intersection.
At No. 1 Symphony Circle, Edward Green designed the present home of the
First Presbyterian Church in 1889. The congregation, now 175 years old, first
met in 1812, in a rude structure at what is now Shelton Square. The present
church, built in the Romanesque style hugs the ground. Its vaulting arches
enclose exquisite stained glass windows, while its stately copper-roofed
campanile rises so high in the air that it can be seen from nearly any vantage
point on the west side.
Across the street, at No. 33, stands the fully restored Birge Mansion,
which was a candidate for demolition just four years ago. Built in 1897 for George
Birge, the founder of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company, the Georgian style
mansion was modeled on the lines of a villa Birge had seen on the Riviera. Two
pavilions, cornered with stone quoins and housing palladian and tri-part
windows, flank a center section which incorporates three round arched windows
supported and separated by two tiers of Tuscan columns, and fronted by faux
balustrades at the second floor. The carriage entrance on the north side has an
arcaded porch and a fountain.
Across the circle, in 1939, Eliel Saarinen designed the Kleinhans Music
Hall in the International style which increasingly found a home in the United
States as war approached in Europe. The curvilinear outer walls create a
womb-like core incorporating the great hall and the chamber music room.
Extensions at either side of the great stage house the physical plant, while extensions at the other end of the
structure contain the public entrances. It is no accident that the structure is
shaped like a human being.
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