Yet, somehow, Project reader Rob M. found a way. And he's kindly shared the spoils of his voyage.
So how about an interior peek at everybody's favorite Badlands relic?
!%@$# yeah!
Great photos, especially if all you've ever seen of this place are black-and-white historical images.
Two thoughts come to mind:
One, again, what's interesting is what the Archdiocese left behind. Vestments? Diplomas and trophies? Seriously? You couldn't be bothered to take that with you? And what's with leaving the clerestory windows?
Two, this place looks surprisingly good. I mean, sure, I wouldn't want to go have a romantic picnic here, or pitch a tent and spend the night. But for a church that has not seen literally one iota of human care in 18 years, St. Bonaventure looks pretty damn good. Some of the paintwork is still so bold and bright--especially in the side aisles--that it's almost hard to believe it's been vacant for so long.
This place looks 10 times better than poor Assumption BVM, which looks like it had a neutron bomb set off in its interior. It looks better than the last interior St. Boniface pictures I saw.
Hell, in many ways it doesn't look much worse for wear than Ascension of Our Lord. If I put pictures side by side, would you be able to tell which was the vacant parish and which was the active one? The answers wouldn't come so easily, I think.
I have no idea what the structural state is, but I doubt it's worse than Assumption. If they can skirt the wrecking ball (and signs are good), this place can, too. It's just a shame Fairhill is so far away from any sort of love.
Regarding those "top-of-the-world" windows which remain on site at St. Bonaventure Church (9th & Cambria), they're very high and therefore difficult to remove safely. They're also much smaller and less valuable than the "reclaimed" nave, transept, and apse windows were. Plus they're American-made, rather than imported from Germany or Austria. Here's what the tome STAINED GLASS IN CATHOLIC PHILADELPHIA (copyright 2002, Saint Joseph's University Press, page 327) has to say, in conjunction with a photograph of "St. Elizabeth of Hungary Feeds the Poor," one of the old Saint Bonnie's windows in the University's collection: "If a parish could not afford stained-glass windows for the entire church, donors would often purchase stained glass for the sanctuary first. As more funds became available, the remainder of the church would be glazed with stained glass. The windows that formerly glazed the sanctuary of St. Bonaventure Church [1889-1993] were made by the Tyrolese Art Glass Co., and cost $350 apiece. These imported windows, as well as the less expensive clerestory windows ($150 apiece) from the Philadelphia firm of William Reith, were installed in time for the church's 1906 dedication. The ten aisle windows ($250 apiece) and two transept windows ($2,400 apiece), made by the German firm of Glasmalerei Gassen & Blaschke, were not installed until several years later." So my guess is that the Archdiocese and/or Beyer Studio did some cost-benefit-risk analysis and decided that those windows of the individual saints were just "more trouble than they were worth." Just imagine the scaffolding required to get way up there, like when Rev. Leo Klassen (then the pastor) had the interior ceilings repainted in the 1960s ... Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, the Catholics were NOT the last people to use this as a church. The Archdiocese sold all the buildings, church, school, priest house and convent to several different religious groups. I had a letter from the archdiocese which told me which groups they were but I lost it somewhere along the way. These pictures are great. Thank you for taking and posting them. I guess you were not brave enough to venture into the basement chapel. There is a door by the steps that lead to the choir loft, which leads to the basement chapel. We use to go in their for daily mass in the winter time. Lots of doors and passageways leading to the basement, the priest house and who knows where else. So sad to see it sitting there abandoned and so sad to see that wonderful neighborhood destroyed. It use to be so beautiful and well maintained.
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