Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
Went up to Erie today in northwestern PA and photographed a bunch of churches I never have before. Still not done today, got a few more to go to for Sunday night Palm Sunday fish dinners. The Catholics and Orthodox sure do love their fried fish.
 AF5_0021 by photolitherland, on Flickr
Church of the Nativity, a Russian Orthodox Church, one of the most incredible churches Ive ever seen.
 AF5_0057 by photolitherland, on Flickr
St. Lukes Catholic Church
 AF5_0048 by photolitherland, on Flickr
Assumption Greek Orthodox, this church was built in the 80's surprisingly and looks like a generic boring suburban church from the outside.
 AF5_0091 by photolitherland, on Flickr
St. Stanislaus (Polish Catholic) in the now ghetto of east Erie, this church I am fairly certain will close soon, it was built in 1898. The Erie Catholic Diocese closed and merged a good majority of the Catholic Churches here about 2 years ago and closed about 5 beautiful historic churches, which are now sitting rotting. This church was one of the few that survived. St. Lukes, pictured 2 above is much healthier than this church and more centrally located. The vast majority of parishes in PA and well, just about everywhere are comprised of people over the age of 55 or 60, if not even older. This also applies to Orthodox churches and I would image in 10 years, nearly every last one will be closed in PA. So, its very important to photograph these places before they are lost forever. A lot of the churches Ive photographed since moving to PA 4 years ago have already closed. |
Awesome photography... awesome subjects, but I couldn't make them look this good.
A couple notes:
- the church you have labeled St. Luke's is actually St. Joseph's (on Sassafras Street in midtown Erie near St. Vincent Hospital). Saint Luke's is a 1950s-ish church on Erie's upper east side (East 38th by Mercyhurst University (which also has a pretty chapel on campus that you might want to shoot).
- Saint Stan's was my family's parish. Too bad the east side of Erie is in such rough shape because so many great old churches are located there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
The 1930 First Presbyterian Church in downtown Erie, from a couple of days ago.
 AF5_0107 by photolitherland, on Flickr |
This is a great church, especially ornate for a Presbyterian. It's more properly known in Erie as First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant or just Church of the Covenant. Erie likely has the highest quality church architecture per capita in the nation, owing to it being a major center for European Catholic immigration a century+ ago and also because it is the largest Catholic diocese (by area) in the state, and one of the most Catholic cities in the US. The quality and diversity of religious architecture in Erie rivals or surpasses many larger US cities.