What was once the ‘holy doughnut’ is soon to become what many will hopefully be able to claim as the place where they recorded their first ‘hole-in-one.’

Architect Vincent G. Kling is best known for designing the majority of big projects around Philadelphia’s City Hall in the 1960s and 1970s, but one of his most impressive designs is actually in King of Prussia, writes Inga Saffron for inquirer.com.

Kling was commissioned by a consortium of Baptist organizations in 1962 to build a shared home for them in King of Prussia. However, since Baptists do not have a governing body and each church and mission operates independently, they asked Kling to create a design that would express equality and unity.

The resulting three-story office building, known at that time as the American Baptist Convention, was a continuous ring divided by stair towers into five segments. It was quickly dubbed the “Holy Doughnut” and “Baptist Bagel” by its employees.

To this day, the building embodies a light-hearted, Googie charm prevalent in mid-century modernism.

The 250,000-square-foot compound was home to over 700 people in its heyday. Sadly, the church membership has dropped off before the Baptist Convention decided to put its signature building up for sale.

Read more at The Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.

The land was recently purchased and a Top Golf location is pegged to go in its place. We recently detailed the deal in a story found here. 

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