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Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts

Monday, June 19, 2017

Saint Mary of the Angels Convent was constructed in the 1920's and was home to a small number of comparatively ripened nuns until its closure about 10 years ago. I tried finding interesting historic dates or events to mention but I think the most interesting thing that ever happened here was probably the psychedelic paint scheme used in the chapel.

Click here for the video.

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

 © 2017 sublunar

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Church #12 was constructed at the turn of the 20th Century and six years later they erected a school building here. It remained in service to the original denomination for exactly 90 years before it was sold in the 1990s and abandoned sometime fairly recently.

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Church #12 © 2017 sublunar

Thursday, February 18, 2016

The historic Unitarian Church in Keokuk Iowa was dedicated on Dec. 2, 1874 and is the oldest standing church in the city. Unitarian Churches were known for their use of logic and reason rather than blind faith in their interpretations of the Bible and this attracted many freethinkers of the time. Among the prominent early church members was a physician and lawyer named Samuel Freeman Miller. Miller, an optimist and progressive rationalist, helped found Keokuk's First Unitarian Church in 1853 and personally drafted its articles of incorporation. Shortly thereafter his business partner, Lewis Reeves, died after contracting Asiatic Cholera. Just a few months later, Samuel Miller's wife Lucy died of "consumption" which is what we now know as Tuberculosis. This series of tragedies left him a single father of 3 daughters in addition to now being the sole proprietor of his law practice. His mastery of Law earned the attention of the top courts in the nation and as a result he was later appointed to the United States Supreme Court just after the start of the American Civil War in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln. He served in that role for 28 years, becoming one of the most influential Justices to serve in that capacity until his death in 1890 following which his funeral service was held in this church.

The Unitarian Church remained active here for well over 100 years before ultimately closing its doors some time around 2000, at which time there had been a Christian TV station broadcasting from the basement. Since then the building has been allowed to slowly succumb to the elements. A valiant preservation effort was mounted around 2011 to help restore the building. They removed the windows in an effort to safely store them during roof maintenance. But the maintenance never came and the windows have been left piled up inside which has left the building even more open to the elements as a result. It seems that the preservation of this building never gained traction and the site is increasingly threatened by demolition. The city has been trying to take ownership of the building for years in order to demolish it, despite an engineering survey which declared the structure otherwise in good structural condition aside from a roof that is in the advanced stages of a slow motion collapse. I would normally consider obfuscating the identity of such a vulnerable location as this but knowing its on its last legs, hope for preservation is quickly running out. There is a facebook page dedicated to the site's preservation but it hasn't been updated in over a year.

Click here for video.

Source(s)1, 2.

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Keokuk Unitarian Church © 2016 sublunar

Saturday, August 29, 2015

In the Fall of 1817, John M. Peck and James E. Welch arrived in the village of St. Louis to perform missionary work. At this time, Saint Louis was a town of roughly 3,000 inhabitants. These men performed a dilligent search and turned up a total of seven other Baptists in the entire city. They joined together in the acquisition of a small room on Main Street south of Market for the first meeting place of Saint Louis Baptists. The First Baptist Church was formed on February 18th, 1818, three years before Missouri was admitted as the 24th state of the Union. Their first official church building was an "edifice of brick, forty feet in front by sixty feet deep on the southwest corner of third and Market streets".

The early Baptist church of Saint Louis would see many additions and changes. There would be fires and demolitions of various church buildings throughout the 1800's leading all the way up to the present church. In the early days, they often used Chouteau's Pond in which to perform their baptisms.

On December 8th of 1906, ground was broken for the new Baptist Church building. The cornerstone was laid on April 27th, 1907. Each member of the committee of the church was given a ceremonial trowel. Many of those present used their trowel to help spread the mortar. The trowels were then nickel-plated and engraved as souvenirs.

There was a copper box placed under the cornerstone. Inside this time capsule, the committe placed copies of Saint Louis newspapers, church manuals, World's Fair maps, a list of members, an order of the exercises for cornerstone laying (printed on silk), photographs of members, pictures of the building process, many other assorted photographs and documents and a book titled "Saint Louis Through a Camera".

The building was inspired by the architecture of Lombardy and North Italy in general. The brick used was all from the same burning. The darkest bricks were used in the base and carefully, gradually lightened in color towards the top of the bell tower. The trim was all made from special original designs and carefully molded. Altogether, it is comprised of about 1,000,000 bricks. Over 58,000 bricks were ground by hand for the major arches and accented pieces of ornamentation. The arches were assembled at the time they were ground, labeled and packed in such a way so that the masons at the site of the construction would simply reassemble them on-site. It was said that this building represented the finest brickwork in the United States. Unfortunately, however, in 1951 the top 60 feet of the bell tower was removed due to structural problems.

The congregation remained in this building only until 1955, when it moved west along with many of its neighbors and peers at the time. The church building itself would remain in use by a variety of other congregations until sometime in the late 2000's. In the 1980's, the Life Cathedral called this building home and they hosted gospel concerts here which were broadcast on KIRL-AM radio through the 80s and 90s. By the late 2000's, the building was vacant. And as of my first visit, which occurred in 2009, the electric and water were still on. See my first visit here. Since then, however, the building has gone downhill quickly. The basement is filled with water and damage to the shingles has caused water to leak into the sanctuary.

The building was sold recently to Cathedral Square Brewery, who is currently undergoing a $4 Million renovation. The brewery plans call for a restaurant and beer garden. Construction is set to take 8-12 months to complete and work has just begun. Just this past week, they boarded up all doors and windows in an effort to keep out vagrants and have begun clearing up the vegetation.

Click here for video.

Source: Second Baptist Church Souvenir Volume Commemorating the Dedication of the New Buildings (St. Louis 1908).

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar

Second Baptist Church © 2015 sublunar