First Baptist Church of Ventura

First Baptist Church of Ventura is a historic church at 101 S. Laurel Street in Ventura, California. It was built in 1926 and renovated extensively into the Mayan Revival style in 1932. Declared a landmark by the City of Ventura In 1975, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.[2][3] Since 1952, it has been home to the Ventura Center for Spiritual Living.[4]

First Baptist Church of Ventura
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	101 S. Laurel St., Ventura, California
Coordinates	34°16′45″N 119°17′4″W
Area	0.3 acres (0.12 ha)
Built	1926; 1932
Architect	Stacy-Judd, Robert Benjamin
Architectural style	Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals
NRHP reference No.	09000466[1]
Added to NRHP	July 3, 2009

According to its NRHP nomination, it was deemed nationally significant "as a fine and essentially unaltered example of a scarce property designed in the Mayan Revival style by its most prominent and widely-recognized proponent, architect Robert B. Stacy-Judd of Los Angeles. The First Baptist Church of Ventura exemplifies architectural exoticism by representing a moment in American architectural history when the public's desire for the new and different was at its peak. The property is the product of a rare convergence of national cultural events and a unique force of personality."[5]

Some of his other notable Southern California commissions include the Aztec Hotel, (Monrovia), the Masonic Temple (North Hollywood, California), the Philosophical Research Society, (Los Feliz) and the Atwater Bungalows, (Elysian Park). The other architect known for working in this style was Frank Lloyd Wright. In Los Angeles his Hollyhock House and Ennis House are relevant examples. The Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was a zenith of this style. His son, the landscape architect and architect Lloyd Wright, designed the John Sowden House in a similar style.