Twelve-year-old Edward Rugerio recalled how surprised he was the first time he visited St. Basil Roman Catholic Church earlier this year. It was the stained-glass windows that floored him.
"Outside they look like nothing," he said. But once inside the church, he said, the sun streamed through them, dappling the floor with dozens of colors.
Edward is a student at CityLife Downtown Charter School, and earlier this year he and the 75 other children then in the sixth grade visited eight landmark places of worship on or near Wilshire Boulevard.
They went to seven churches and a synagogue, learning the histories of the buildings and what they reveal about life in Los Angeles. Called the Sacred Spaces Project, the semester-long program was a collaboration between the charter school, now in its second year, and the Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve the area's historical, architectural and cultural resources.
The students saw the pool-like baptismal font at the Wilshire Christian Church, studied the lavish interiors of St. James Episcopal Church and Wilshire Boulevard Temple, and stared at Immanuel Presbyterian's stenciled ceiling.
They took notes. Some took photos, and others sketched what they saw, including such memorable details as the enormous pipe organ at First Congregational Church and the Gothic ceiling at St. James.
Jacki Breger, who founded the charter school and is its executive director, said the project was ideal for a school that uses the city as its classroom. (The school is in the process of moving into new space near MacArthur Park.)
"The kids understand that buildings tell stories," Breger said. "We can learn who and what came before us by studying buildings."
With grants from the History Channel and Comcast, the students researched, wrote and illustrated a booklet, "The Sacred Spaces of Wilshire Boulevard: A Guide for Kids by Kids," which the conservancy recently printed and hopes to make available to schools and cultural institutions.
The project was a revelation to many of the students, who didn't realize faith came in so many different denominations. Few of the mostly Latino students had ever been inside a synagogue before. And most didn't know that churches could look like St. Basil's, a spiky cluster of 12 concrete columns honoring the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes of Israel.
