Category: Religion

Monday April 19, 2010

Post author By Woody
Post date Monday April 19, 2010

HARWINTON, CONNECTICUT – I drove to Harwinton today to visit the Connecticut DEP office there, to pick up a boat license. Like most other Litchfield County towns Hawinton has a Congregational Church on a small green – the congregation dates to 1738. The 1935 “Connecticut Guide” says this about Hawrinton

In Harwinton Village, the Congregational Church was built in 1806. The design is simple but pleasing, with the heavily molded cornice of pediment and roof. The 3 front doorways have rounded fanlights and pedimented hoods. Above the central doorway is a Palladian window, repeated in the tower. On the north of the Church is the stone Memorial Chapel, beautiful but incongruous, given by Collis P. Huntington, the financier of the Southern Pacific R. R., in memory of his mother. Huntington was born in the town in1821, and worked on a farm here until the age of 14, when he went to New York to seek his fortune.

Tags Connecticut, Harwinton

-Woody's Picks Landscape Religion Street Urban

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Congregation Shaaray Tefila (Hebrew for Gates of Prayer) at Second Avenue and 79th Street. The current sanctuary of this congregation, which was organized in 1859, was dedicated in 1959. It was converted from a Trans-Lux movie theater. I’ve taken the liberty of posting the image twice – once in color and once in gray scale.

Tags New York, Synagogue, Upper East Side, Urban

-Woody's Picks Landscape Religion Small town

Saturday April 10, 2010

CORNWALL BRIDGE, CONNECTICUT – St. Bridget Church. A Catholic church. Late 19th Century gothic revival, The is very little information online, except that this congregation recently celebrated its 125th anniversary. I took this because of the unusual point of view – the image is taken from a highway bridge that runs above the church. The view is generally obscured by trees except for one spot where this shot is possible. Because of the limited choice in angles there was no way to eliminate the utility wires. May reaction at the time was “The wires are there. We’ll just make them part of the image.” I’m afraid that without a pole or some other indication that they are intentional, they look like a mistake.

St. Bridget Church, Cornwall Bridge Connecticut

Tags Church, Congregational Church, Connecticut, West Cornwall

Religion Small town

Sunday April 4, 2010 (Easter)

Post author By Woody
Post date Sunday April 4, 2010
1 Comment on Sunday April 4, 2010 (Easter)

SHARON, CONNECTICUT – Back to shooting Litchfield County Churches on Easter Sunday. This is Christ Episcopal Church in Sharon. According to the Church’s history “In April, 1755, the town of Sharon granted the members of the Church of England permission to erect their first church. The congregation rapidly increased and outgrew their church by 1764 when a new “really neat and beautiful” church was built. During the Revolutionary War, the building was desecrated when it was used for military purposes, turned into barracks, and then converted into a stable. In subsequent years, it fell into extreme disrepair and was finally torn down. . . . Circumstances shifted for the Parish in 1809 when the town’s Episcopalians officially organized as a parish and formally established themselves as part of the Protestant Episcopal Church on May 27th. With a clergy and vestry of their own, the members began construction on the existing brick building that was consecrated on November 24, 1819.”

Congregational churches built in he 1820s were most often federal style. See my blog entries for November 21, 22 and 29, 2009. The gothic revival came later to the Congregational churches. Interestingly the Episcopalians built gothic revival structures from the late 1700s onward. See my entries for January 2 and February 14, 2010.

Tags Connecticut, Litchfield County, Sharon CT

-Woody's Picks Landscape Religion Urban

Monday March 22, 2010

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – A day on foot in New Orleans. The French Quarter feels like a tourist trap – not much to photograph that hasn’t been done many, many times before. Walked around the Garden District – there are still many Katrina-damaged houses and public buildings around the edges of the Garden District. Again, this is an old (and mostly unfairly told) story so I skipped it. I’ve settled on the following image (up to my old tricks) – Zion Lutheran Church on St. Charles Street. This is a Missouri Synod church. The congregation was founded in 1847 by German immigrants. The present building dates to 1871. Its gothic architecture bears a relationship to the churches that I’ve been photographing in Connecticut, which is what attracted me to it.