Now the trio is ready to open the place for official business. They want to transform the space into an art center, bed and breakfast and a maker space to teach kids various skills, including skating, welding and woodworking.

In upstate New York, the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity moved into a former church. A 19th century Episcopal church in Denver is now a nightclub. And a yoga studio briefly occupied a former Baptist church in New Orleans damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

In St. Louis, creative agency Obata was drawn to the huge windows at the former Markham Memorial Presbyterian Church on Menard Street in Soulard. The company restored the 19th century-era church into its offices over 40 years ago, and it has become part of the company’s identity, said Executive Vice President Chris Haller.  “It’s a beautiful building,” Haller said. “It really impresses clients.”
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Many churches here are built in the Gothic Revival style, with ornate decorations and ribbed vaults adorning ceilings, or influenced by the Renaissance style of Florence or Tuscany. Their dramatic architecture, once awe-inspiring to congregants, now galvanizes creative reuse both locally and across the U.S. 

“They represent craft that is no longer reproducible,” said Michael Allen, a preservationist and senior lecturer at Washington University.
But while cities like Chicago or Indianapolis often demolish interiors and keep just the shell of the church, St. Louis efforts often aim to preserve the insides, Allen said.
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St. Liborius served 4,500 German immigrants and their descendants in its heyday. But by 1992, congregants numbered fewer than 200, and the archdiocese merged it with other parishes. The Catholic Worker project called the Karen House used the three-building complex as a homeless shelter, but couldn’t handle the upkeep.  A decade ago, the charity handed over the keys to Sk8 Liborius. Years of neglect had nearly ruined the place. Stolen copper gutters and caps and a coffin-sized hole in the rectory’s roof allowed rain to pour in like waterfalls. Mortar crumbled. A floor joist rotted. And the complex, in its entirety, lacked modern construction, plumbing and electricity.

“We got it just in time,” said Blum.