Architecture: Monument to an Occasion

In 1946, Winston Churchill journeyed to the small Missouri town of Fulton to accept an honorary degree from little-known Westminster College. His acceptance speech made Fulton a historic site. "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic," Churchill said, "an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." To combat the forces that lurked behind it, he proposed a "fraternal association" between the U.S. and Great Britain.

Seeking to commemorate the occasion, Westminster began looking for a memorial in 1961. The college decided that nothing could be more appropriate than a church designed by Sir Christopher Wren. As...