Sunday, November 25, 2007

St. Paul, Norwalk




The old organ


All pictures from around the turn of the century.

14 comments:

Alex Fries said...

just wait till i get close-ups of the old high altar. I bet it'll blow Jeffery's top.

ShariYS said...

GASP! ... let me guess ... it doesn't look anything like that anymore, right? ...

ShariYS said...

I don't think I've ever seen (or would want to see) an orange church in my life ...

Lopped the tower off too, I'll bet ...

ShariYS said...

I just took a look at Delphos St. John's website. Rather gratifying to see, from the outside at least, a historic church that does NOT appear to have been subjected to massive wreckovations!
http://www.delphosstjohnparish.org/

Alex Fries said...

once i find my current pictures i'll do a post on them.

Jeffrey Smith said...

The mess can be seen HERE. Orange overdose, windows that look like a harem, resurrifix that looks like the leader of the group-sing at Woodstock. All that's missing is a row of hookahs.

Jeffrey Smith said...

Delphos is HERE. Just type the parish or town in the white box at the top of the page and click on "search blog".

ShariYS said...

Re St. John's: Beautiful. Fabulous. Unspoiled, dignified. A clock tower, even. Right up there on a par with Historic St. Pat's. Respectful of its history and architectural intent. And at least the digital sign is in the front yard!

Re St. Paul's: scary. Downright scary. Disrespectful of ... just about everything. If they were going to do something like that, why the hell didn't they just tear down the old one and put up their Age of Aquarius church? (NOT that I think it would have been such a great idea ...) That color -- looks like some sort of hideous forever sunset ...

Jeffrey Smith said...

"Age of Aquarius church"? I like that. Permanent quote status immediately.
I've been told the color's not always quite so glaring.

Alex Fries said...

it really does depend on the lighting situation. But the theme is most deffinenetly orange. From the carpets, to the walls, to the ceiling, to the tiles on the floor. They carried the theme over to the new additions (the high school/ j/h and the "parish center". Orange...Orange...and more orange.

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey & Kyle, normally my taste is pretty congruent with yours. So I concede that the new St. Paul's is a bit bizarre.

But examining the photo of the old St. Paul's closely, I think it is worth pointing out that Victorianism sometimes was carried to a very inartistic excess. For me, the old St. Paul's falls into that category (judging by the photos alone).

Jeffrey Smith said...

You have a point. The stencilling in the vaults and over the windows could have been toned down for a better design. The angel statues on top of the communion rail and on top of the ambo could be said to have been going overboard.

mlec91283 said...

I know that people can use the excuse of using Vatican II directives for ruining the interior of the church, but what in the world would make them destroy the tower in that manner? If they removed the steeple, they should have just left it at that, sort of like Notre Dame Paris. It would have been a much more visually appealing alternative, I think, than the current abbreviated tower.

Alex Fries said...

The tower was removed because they didn't take care of it....it was rotted out...