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Volunteers serve lunch to hurricane survivors at the Community Center of St Bernard.
For more information about the Community Center of St Bernard visit our website, www.ccstb.org
Community Garden
*This is my entry for "Filling in the Block"
My city was lacking of a green space so I created this garden to bring the community together. It provides fresh produce and connects the community to the environment.
Strasbourg (/ˈstræzbɜrɡ/, French pronunciation: [stʁaz.buʁ, stʁas.buʁ]; German: Straßburg, [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace were historically Alemannic-speaking, hence the city's Germanic name.[5] In 2006, the city proper had 272,975 inhabitants and its urban community 467,375 inhabitants. With 759,868 inhabitants in 2010, Strasbourg's metropolitan area (only the part of the metropolitan area on French territory) is the ninth largest in France. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 884,988 inhabitants in 2008.[6]
Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.[7]
Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is immersed in the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012.[8]
Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany.
Etymology and Names
The city's Gallicized name (Lower Alsatian: Strossburi, [ˈʃd̥rɔːsb̥uri]; German: Straßburg, [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is of Germanic origin and means "Town (at the crossing) of roads". The modern Stras- is cognate to the German Straße and English street, all of which are derived from Latin strata ("paved road"), while -bourg is cognate to the German Burg and English borough, all of which are derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz ("hill fort, fortress").
Geography
Strasbourg seen from Spot Satellite
Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the River Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the River Ill, which here flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.
The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between 132 metres (433 ft) and 151 metres (495 ft) above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some 20 km (12 mi) to the west and the Black Forest 25 km (16 mi) to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north-south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, and major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks.
The city is some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Paris. The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) to the north, or 650 kilometres (400 mi) as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, or 150 kilometres (93 mi) by river.
Climate
In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg's climate is classified as Oceanic (Köppen climate classification Cfb), with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, totaling 631.4 mm (24.9 in) annually. On average, snow falls 30 days per year.
The highest temperature ever recorded was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. The lowest temperature ever recorded was −23.4 °C (−10.1 °F) in December 1938.
Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from the dominant winds by the Vosges and Black Forest mountains, results in poor natural ventilation, making Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France.[10][11] Nonetheless, the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution.
Prehistory
The first traces of human occupation in the environs of Strasbourg go back many thousands of years.[16] Neolithic, bronze age and iron age artifacts have been uncovered by archeological excavations. It was permanently settled by proto-Celts around 1300 BC. Towards the end of the third century BC, it developed into a Celtic township with a market called "Argentorate". Drainage works converted the stilthouses to houses built on dry land.[17]
From Romans
The Romans under Nero Claudius Drusus established a military outpost belonging to the Germania Superior Roman province at Strasbourg's current location, and named it Argentoratum. (Hence the town is commonly called Argentina in medieval Latin.[18]) The name "Argentoratum" was first mentioned in 12 BC and the city celebrated its 2,000th birthday in 1988. "Argentorate" as the toponym of the Gaulish settlement preceded it before being Latinized, but it is not known by how long. The Roman camp was destroyed by fire and rebuilt six times between the first and the fifth centuries AD: in 70, 97, 235, 355, in the last quarter of the fourth century, and in the early years of the fifth century. It was under Trajan and after the fire of 97 that Argentoratum received its most extended and fortified shape. From the year 90 on, the Legio VIII Augusta was permanently stationed in the Roman camp of Argentoratum. It then included a cavalry section and covered an area of approximately 20 hectares. Other Roman legions temporarily stationed in Argentoratum were the Legio XIV Gemina and the Legio XXI Rapax, the latter during the reign of Nero.
The centre of Argentoratum proper was situated on the Grande Île (Cardo: current Rue du Dôme, Decumanus: current Rue des Hallebardes). The outline of the Roman "castrum" is visible in the street pattern in the Grande Ile. Many Roman artifacts have also been found along the current Route des Romains, the road that led to Argentoratum, in the suburb of Kœnigshoffen. This was where the largest burial places were situated, as well as the densest concentration of civilian dwelling places and commerces next to the camp. Among the most outstanding finds in Kœnigshoffen were (found in 1911–12) the fragments of a grand Mithraeum that had been shattered by early Christians in the fourth century. From the fourth century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Bishopric of Strasbourg (made an Archbishopric in 1988). Archaeological excavations below the current Église Saint-Étienne in 1948 and 1956 unearthed the apse of a church dating back to the late fourth or early fifth century, considered to be the oldest church in Alsace. It is supposed that this was the first seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Strasbourg.
The Alemanni fought the Battle of Argentoratum against Rome in 357. They were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their King Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. On 2 January 366, the Alemanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire. Early in the fifth century, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.
In the fifth century Strasbourg was occupied successively by Alemanni, Huns, and Franks. In the ninth century it was commonly known as Strazburg in the local language, as documented in 842 by the Oaths of Strasbourg. This trilingual text contains, alongside texts in Latin and Old High German (teudisca lingua), the oldest written variety of Gallo-Romance (lingua romana) clearly distinct from Latin, the ancestor of Old French. The town was also called Stratisburgum or Strateburgus in Latin, from which later came Strossburi in Alsatian and Straßburg in Standard German, and then Strasbourg in French. The Oaths of Strasbourg is considered as marking the birth of the two countries of France and Germany with the division of the Carolingian Empire.[19]
A major commercial centre, the town came under the control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I. The early history of Strasbourg consists of a long conflict between its bishop and its citizens. The citizens emerged victorious after the Battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262, when King Philip of Swabia granted the city the status of an Imperial Free City.
Around 1200, Gottfried von Straßburg wrote the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, which is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages.
A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic. The deadly bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on 14 February 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: over a thousand Jews were publicly burnt to death, with the remainder of the Jewish population being expelled from the city.[20] Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm. The time to leave the city was signalled by a municipal herald blowing the Grüselhorn (see below, Museums, Musée historique);.[21] A special tax, the Pflastergeld (pavement money), was furthermore to be paid for any horse that a Jew would ride or bring into the city while allowed to.[22]
Construction on Strasbourg Cathedral began in the twelfth century, and it was completed in 1439 (though, of the towers, only the north tower was built), becoming the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. A few years later, Johannes Gutenberg created the first European moveable type printing press in Strasbourg.
In July 1518, an incident known as the Dancing Plague of 1518 struck residents of Strasbourg. Around 400 people were afflicted with dancing mania and danced constantly for weeks, most of them eventually dying from heart attack, stroke or exhaustion.
In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city, under the political guidance of Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck and the spiritual guidance of Martin Bucer embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther. Their adherents established a Gymnasium, headed by Johannes Sturm, made into a University in the following century. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession. Protestant iconoclasm caused much destruction to churches and cloisters, notwithstanding that Luther himself opposed such a practice. Strasbourg was a centre of humanist scholarship and early book-printing in the Holy Roman Empire, and its intellectual and political influence contributed much to the establishment of Protestantism as an accepted denomination in the southwest of Germany. (John Calvin spent several years as a political refugee in the city). The Strasbourg Councillor Sturm and guildmaster Matthias represented the city at the Imperial Diet of Speyer (1529), where their protest led to the schism of the Catholic Church and the evolution of Protestantism. Together with four other free cities, Strasbourg presented the confessio tetrapolitana as its Protestant book of faith at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1530, where the slightly different Augsburg Confession was also handed over to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early sixteenth century and the establishment of Imperial Circles, Strasbourg was part of the Upper Rhenish Circle, a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of Holy Roman Empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, the first printing offices outside the inventor's hometown Mainz were established around 1460 in Strasbourg by pioneers Johannes Mentelin and Heinrich Eggestein. Subsequently, the first modern newspaper was published in Strasbourg in 1605, when Johann Carolus received the permission by the City of Strasbourg to print and distribute a weekly journal written in German by reporters from several central European cities.
From Thirty Years' War to First World War
The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648, and retained its status as a Free Imperial City. However, the city was later annexed by Louis XIV of France to extend the borders of his kingdom.
Louis' advisors believed that, as long as Strasbourg remained independent, it would endanger the King's newly annexed territories in Alsace, and, that to defend these large rural lands effectively, a garrison had to be placed in towns such as Strasbourg.[23] Indeed, the bridge over the Rhine at Strasbourg had been used repeatedly by Imperial (Holy Roman Empire) forces,[24] and three times during the Franco-Dutch War Strasbourg had served as a gateway for Imperial invasions into Alsace.[25] In September 1681 Louis' forces, though lacking a clear casus belli, surrounded the city with overwhelming force. After some negotiation, Louis marched into the city unopposed on 30 September 1681 and proclaimed its annexation.[26]
This annexation was one of the direct causes of the brief and bloody War of the Reunions whose outcome left the French in possession. The French annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove most Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace, because both had a special status as a province à l'instar de l'étranger effectif (a kind of foreign province of the king of France). Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was taken from the Lutherans to be returned to the Catholics as the French authorities tried to promote Catholicism wherever they could (some other historic churches remained in Protestant hands). Its language also remained overwhelmingly German: the German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students included Goethe and Herder.
The Duke of Lorraine and Imperial troops crossing the Rhine at Strasbourg during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1744
During a dinner in Strasbourg organized by Mayor Frédéric de Dietrich on 25 April 1792, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise". The same year François Christophe Kellermann, a child of Strasbourg was appointed the head of the Mosel Army. He led his company to victory at the battle of Valmy and saved the young French republic. He was later appointed Duke of Valmy by Napoléon in 1808.
During this period Jean-Baptiste Kléber, also born in Strasbourg, led the French army to win several decisive victories. A statue of Kléber now stands in the centre of the city, at Place Kléber, and he is still one of the most famous French officers. He was later appointed Marshal of France by Napoléon.
Strasbourg's status as a free city was revoked by the French Revolution. Enragés, most notoriously Eulogius Schneider, ruled the city with an increasingly iron hand. During this time, many churches and monasteries were either destroyed or severely damaged. The cathedral lost hundreds of its statues (later replaced by copies in the 19th century) and in April 1794, there was talk of tearing its spire down, on the grounds that it was against the principle of equality. The tower was saved, however, when in May of the same year citizens of Strasbourg crowned it with a giant tin Phrygian cap. This artifact was later kept in the historical collections of the city until it was destroyed by the Germans in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war.[27]
In 1805, 1806 and 1809, Napoléon Bonaparte and his first wife, Joséphine stayed in Strasbourg.[28] In 1810, his second wife Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma spent her first night on French soil in the palace. Another royal guest was King Charles X of France in 1828.[29] In 1836, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte unsuccessfully tried to lead his first Bonapartist coup in Strasbourg.
During the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Strasbourg, the city was heavily bombarded by the Prussian army. The bombardment of the city was meant to break the morale of the people of Strasbourg.[30] On 24 and 26 August 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts (most famously the Hortus deliciarum), rare Renaissance books, archeological finds and historical artifacts. The gothic cathedral was damaged as well as the medieval church of Temple Neuf, the theatre, the city hall, the court of justice and many houses. At the end of the siege 10,000 inhabitants were left without shelter; over 600 died, including 261 civilians, and 3200 were injured, including 1,100 civilians.[31]
In 1871, after the end of the war, the city was annexed to the newly established German Empire as part of the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen under the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt. As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale, such as the Neue Stadt, or "new city" around the present Place de la République. Historian Rodolphe Reuss and Art historian Wilhelm von Bode were in charge of rebuilding the municipal archives, libraries and museums. The University, founded in 1567 and suppressed during the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment,[citation needed] was reopened in 1872 under the name Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität.
Strasbourg in the 1890s.
A belt of massive fortifications was established around the city, most of which still stands today, renamed after French generals and generally classified as Monuments historiques; most notably Fort Roon (now Fort Desaix) and Fort Podbielski (now Fort Ducrot) in Mundolsheim, Fort von Moltke (now Fort Rapp) in Reichstett, Fort Bismarck (now Fort Kléber) in Wolfisheim, Fort Kronprinz (now Fort Foch) in Niederhausbergen, Fort Kronprinz von Sachsen (now Fort Joffre) in Holtzheim and Fort Großherzog von Baden (now Fort Frère) in Oberhausbergen.[32]
Those forts subsequently served the French army (Fort Podbielski/Ducrot for instance was integrated into the Maginot Line[33]), and were used as POW-camps in 1918 and 1945.
Two garrison churches were also erected for the members of the Imperial German army, the Lutheran Église Saint-Paul and the Roman Catholic Église Saint-Maurice.
1918 to the present
A lost, then restored, symbol of modernity in Strasbourg : a room in the Aubette building designed by Theo van Doesburg, Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Following the defeat of the German empire in World War I and the abdication of the German Emperor, some revolutionary insurgents declared Alsace-Lorraine as an independent Republic, without preliminary referendum or vote. On 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day), communist insurgents proclaimed a "soviet government" in Strasbourg, following the example of Kurt Eisner in Munich as well as other German towns. French troops commanded by French general Henri Gouraud entered triumphantly in the city on 22 November. A major street of the city now bears the name of that date (Rue du 22 Novembre) which celebrates the entry of the French in the city.[34][35][36] Viewing the massive cheering crowd gathered under the balcony of Strasbourg's town hall, French President Raymond Poincaré stated that "the plebiscite is done".[37]
In 1919, following the Treaty of Versailles, the city was annexed by France in accordance with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" without a referendum. The date of the assignment was retroactively established on Armistice Day. It is doubtful whether a referendum in Strasbourg would have ended in France's favour since the political parties striving for an autonomous Alsace or a connection to France accounted only for a small proportion of votes in the last Reichstag as well as in the local elections.[38] The Alsatian autonomists who were pro French had won many votes in the more rural parts of the region and other towns since the annexation of the region by Germany in 1871. The movement started with the first election for the Reichstag; those elected were called "les députés protestataires", and until the fall of Bismarck in 1890, they were the only deputies elected by the Alsatians to the German parliament demanding the return of those territories to France.[39] At the last Reichstag election in Strasbourg and its periphery, the clear winners were the Social Democrats; the city was the administrative capital of the region, was inhabited by many Germans appointed by the central government in Berlin and its flourishing economy attracted many Germans. This could explain the difference between the rural vote and the one in Strasbourg. After the war, many Germans left Strasbourg and went back to Germany; some of them were denounced by the locals or expelled by the newly appointed authorities. The Saverne Affair was vivid in the memory among the Alsatians.
In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the oldest European institutions. It moved into the former Imperial Palace.
When the Maginot Line was built, the Sous-secteur fortifié de Strasbourg (fortified sub-sector of Strasbourg) was laid out on the city's territory as a part of the Secteur fortifié du Bas-Rhin, one of the sections of the Line. Blockhouses and casemates were built along the Grand Canal d'Alsace and the Rhine in the Robertsau forest and the port.[40]
Between the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and the Anglo-French declaration of War against the German Reich on 3 September 1939, the entire city (a total of 120,000 people) was evacuated, like other border towns as well. Until the arrival of the Wehrmacht troops mid-June 1940, the city was, for ten months, completely empty, with the exception of the garrisoned soldiers. The Jews of Strasbourg had been evacuated to Périgueux and Limoges, the University had been evacuated to Clermont-Ferrand.
After the ceasefire following the Fall of France in June 1940, Alsace was annexed to Germany and a rigorous policy of Germanisation was imposed upon it by the Gauleiter Robert Heinrich Wagner. When, in July 1940, the first evacuees were allowed to return, only residents of Alsatian origin were admitted. The last Jews were deported on 15 July 1940 and the main synagogue, a huge Romanesque revival building that had been a major architectural landmark with its 54-metre-high dome since its completion in 1897, was set ablaze, then razed.[41]
In September 1940 the first Alsatian resistance movement led by Marcel Weinum called La main noire (The black hand) was created. It was composed by a group of 25 young men aged from 14 to 18 years old who led several attacks against the German occupation. The actions culminated with the attack of the Gauleiter Robert Wagner, the highest commander of Alsace directly under the order of Hitler. In March 1942, Marcel Weinum was prosecuted by the Gestapo and sentenced to be beheaded at the age of 18 in April 1942 in Stuttgart, Germany. His last words will be: "If I have to die, I shall die but with a pure heart". From 1943 the city was bombarded by Allied aircraft. While the First World War had not notably damaged the city, Anglo-American bombing caused extensive destruction in raids of which at least one was allegedly carried out by mistake.[42] In August 1944, several buildings in the Old Town were damaged by bombs, particularly the Palais Rohan, the Old Customs House (Ancienne Douane) and the Cathedral.[43] On 23 November 1944, the city was officially liberated by the 2nd French Armoured Division under General Leclerc. He achieved the oath that he made with his soldiers, after the decisive Capture of Kufra. With the Oath of Kuffra, they swore to keep up the fight until the French flag flew over the Cathedral of Strasbourg.
Many people from Strasbourg were incorporated in the German Army against their will, and were sent to the eastern front, those young men and women were called Malgré-nous. Many tried to escape from the incorporation, join the French Resistance, or desert the Wehrmacht but many couldn't because they were running the risk of having their families sent to work or concentration camps by the Germans. Many of these men, especially those who did not answer the call immediately, were pressured to "volunteer" for service with the SS, often by direct threats on their families. This threat obliged the majority of them to remain in the German army. After the war, the few that survived were often accused of being traitors or collaborationists, because this tough situation was not known in the rest of France, and they had to face the incomprehension of many. In July 1944, 1500 malgré-nous were released from Soviet captivity and sent to Algiers, where they joined the Free French Forces. Nowadays history recognizes the suffering of those people, and museums, public discussions and memorials have been built to commemorate this terrible period of history of this part of Eastern France (Alsace and Moselle). Liberation of Strasbourg took place on 23 November 1944.
In 1947, a fire broke out in the Musée des Beaux-Arts and devastated a significant part of the collections. This fire was an indirect consequence of the bombing raids of 1944: because of the destruction inflicted on the Palais Rohan, humidity had infiltrated the building, and moisture had to be fought. This was done with welding torches, and a bad handling of these caused the fire.[44]
In the 1950s and 1960s the city was enlarged by new residential areas meant to solve both the problem of housing shortage due to war damage and that of the strong growth of population due to the baby boom and immigration from North Africa: Cité Rotterdam in the North-East, Quartier de l'Esplanade in the South-East, Hautepierre in the North-West. Between 1995 and 2010, a new district has been built in the same vein, the Quartier des Poteries, south of Hautepierre.
In 1958, a violent hailstorm destroyed most of the historical greenhouses of the Botanical Garden and many of the stained glass windows of St. Paul's Church.
In 1949, the city was chosen to be the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights and European Pharmacopoeia. Since 1952, the European Parliament has met in Strasbourg, which was formally designated its official 'seat' at the Edinburgh meeting of the European Council of EU heads of state and government in December 1992. (This position was reconfirmed and given treaty status in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam). However, only the (four-day) plenary sessions of the Parliament are held in Strasbourg each month, with all other business being conducted in Brussels and Luxembourg. Those sessions take place in the Immeuble Louise Weiss, inaugurated in 1999, which houses the largest parliamentary assembly room in Europe and of any democratic institution in the world. Before that, the EP sessions had to take place in the main Council of Europe building, the Palace of Europe, whose unusual inner architecture had become a familiar sight to European TV audiences.[45] In 1992, Strasbourg became the seat of the Franco-German TV channel and movie-production society Arte.
In 2000, a terrorist plot to blow up the cathedral was prevented thanks to the cooperation between French and German police that led to the arrest in late 2000 of a Frankfurt-based group of terrorists.
On 6 July 2001, during an open-air concert in the Parc de Pourtalès, a single falling Platanus tree killed thirteen people and injured 97. On 27 March 2007, the city was found guilty of neglect over the accident and fined €150,000.[46]
In 2006, after a long and careful restoration, the inner decoration of the Aubette, made in the 1920s by Hans Arp, Theo van Doesburg, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and destroyed in the 1930s, was made accessible to the public again. The work of the three artists had been called "the Sistine Chapel of abstract art".
Architecture
Strasbourg, Cathedral of Our Lady
The city is chiefly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the Petite France district or Gerberviertel ("tanners' district") alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned Maison Kammerzell stands out.
Notable medieval streets include Rue Mercière, Rue des Dentelles, Rue du Bain aux Plantes, Rue des Juifs, Rue des Frères, Rue des Tonneliers, Rue du Maroquin, Rue des Charpentiers, Rue des Serruriers, Grand' Rue, Quai des Bateliers, Quai Saint-Nicolas and Quai Saint-Thomas. Notable medieval squares include Place de la Cathédrale, Place du Marché Gayot, Place Saint-Étienne, Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait and Place Benjamin Zix.
Maison des tanneurs.
In addition to the cathedral, Strasbourg houses several other medieval churches that have survived the many wars and destructions that have plagued the city: the Romanesque Église Saint-Étienne, partly destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing raids, the part Romanesque, part Gothic, very large Église Saint-Thomas with its Silbermann organ on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Schweitzer played,[49] the Gothic Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune with its crypt dating back to the seventh century and its cloister partly from the eleventh century, the Gothic Église Saint-Guillaume with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture, the Gothic Église Saint-Jean, the part Gothic, part Art Nouveau Église Sainte-Madeleine, etc. The Neo-Gothic church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique (there is also an adjacent church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Protestant) serves as a shrine for several 15th-century wood worked and painted altars coming from other, now destroyed churches and installed there for public display. Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental Ancienne Douane (old custom-house) stands out.
The German Renaissance has bequeathed the city some noteworthy buildings (especially the current Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie, former town hall, on Place Gutenberg), as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several hôtels particuliers (i.e. palaces), among which the Palais Rohan (1742, now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the "Hôtel de Hanau" (1736, now the city hall), the Hôtel de Klinglin (1736, now residence of the préfet), the Hôtel des Deux-Ponts (1755, now residence of the military governor), the Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin (1725, now seat of the administration of the Port autonome de Strasbourg) etc. The largest baroque building of Strasbourg though is the 150 m (490 ft) long 1720s main building of the Hôpital civil. As for French Neo-classicism, it is the Opera House on Place Broglie that most prestigiously represents this style.
Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district, the Neustadt, being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damage during World War II. Streets, boulevards and avenues are homogeneous, surprisingly high (up to seven stories) and broad examples of German urban lay-out and of this architectural style that summons and mixes up five centuries of European architecture as well as Neo-Egyptian, Neo-Greek and Neo-Babylonian styles. The former imperial palace Palais du Rhin, the most political and thus heavily criticized of all German Strasbourg buildings epitomizes the grand scale and stylistic sturdiness of this period. But the two most handsome and ornate buildings of these times are the École internationale des Pontonniers (the former Höhere Mädchenschule, girls college) with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles[50] and the École des Arts décoratifs with its lavishly ornate façade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica.[51]
Notable streets of the German district include: Avenue de la Forêt Noire, Avenue des Vosges, Avenue d'Alsace, Avenue de la Marseillaise, Avenue de la Liberté, Boulevard de la Victoire, Rue Sellénick, Rue du Général de Castelnau, Rue du Maréchal Foch, and Rue du Maréchal Joffre. Notable squares of the German district include: Place de la République, Place de l'Université, Place Brant, and Place Arnold
As for modern and contemporary architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (such as the huge Palais des Fêtes and houses and villas like Villa Schutzenberger and Hôtel Brion), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the Cité Rotterdam, for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in the architectural contest) and, in the very extended Quartier Européen, some spectacular administrative buildings of sometimes utterly large size, among which the European Court of Human Rights building by Richard Rogers is arguably the finest. Other noticeable contemporary buildings are the new Music school Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain and the Hôtel du Département facing it, as well as, in the outskirts, the tramway-station Hoenheim-Nord designed by Zaha Hadid.
Place Kléber
The city has many bridges, including the medieval and four-towered Ponts Couverts that, despite their name, are no longer covered. Next to the Ponts Couverts is the Barrage Vauban, a part of Vauban's 17th-century fortifications, that does include a covered bridge. Other bridges are the ornate 19th-century Pont de la Fonderie (1893, stone) and Pont d'Auvergne (1892, iron), as well as architect Marc Mimram's futuristic Passerelle over the Rhine, opened in 2004.
The largest square at the centre of the city of Strasbourg is the Place Kléber. Located in the heart of the city's commercial area, it was named after general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, born in Strasbourg in 1753 and assassinated in 1800 in Cairo. In the square is a statue of Kléber, under which is a vault containing his remains. On the north side of the square is the Aubette (Orderly Room), built by Jacques François Blondel, architect of the king, in 1765–1772.
Parks
The Pavillon Joséphine (rear side) in the Parc de l'Orangerie
The Château de Pourtalès (front side) in the park of the same name
Strasbourg features a number of prominent parks, of which several are of cultural and historical interest: the Parc de l'Orangerie, laid out as a French garden by André le Nôtre and remodeled as an English garden on behalf of Joséphine de Beauharnais, now displaying noteworthy French gardens, a neo-classical castle and a small zoo; the Parc de la Citadelle, built around impressive remains of the 17th-century fortress erected close to the Rhine by Vauban;[52] the Parc de Pourtalès, laid out in English style around a baroque castle (heavily restored in the 19th century) that now houses a small three-star hotel,[53] and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture.[54] The Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg (botanical garden) was created under the German administration next to the Observatory of Strasbourg, built in 1881, and still owns some greenhouses of those times. The Parc des Contades, although the oldest park of the city, was completely remodeled after World War II. The futuristic Parc des Poteries is an example of European park-conception in the late 1990s. The Jardin des deux Rives, spread over Strasbourg and Kehl on both sides of the Rhine opened in 2004 and is the most extended (60-hectare) park of the agglomeration. The most recent park is Parc du Heyritz (8,7 ha), opened in 2014 along a canal facing the hôpital civil.
"Candid photography is snapshot photography that focuses on spontaneity rather than technique, on perfecting the immersion of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation".
Deep Creek Middle School and The Island School come together to work on community projects during the semester. Last week, they met their buddies!
My first Gig photoshoot..Local Band performing at the community centre. I took the pictures with very low lighting.
Anabel González, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), at the Innovators Community Meeting 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland, 16 March. Copyright: World Economic Forum/Marc Bader
Fruits of the Earth, for 52Weeks2014 theme: Earth
So this not my garden... but someone's else's hard work in the Community Gardens.
Our new bus. Lease return from Jonesville Community Schools.
2012 IC CE (MaxxForceDT), Allison Automatic, Air Brakes/Ride/Door. 9,575 miles.
Not to thrilled about this bus...
Love the fence line, the line of trailers, the line of electricity and above all that are these big fluffy clouds.
above Thompson Pass, AK
Crowberry, Stereocaulon, Cladonia, Flavocetraria, Arctostaphylos
my lichen photos by genus - www.flickr.com/photos/29750062@N06/collections/7215762439...
my photos arranged by subject, e.g. mountains - www.flickr.com/photos/29750062@N06/collections
31 October 2013. Photos above and below, eastwards to Handel Street.
There are in fact two walkways/alleys between Marchmont Street and Handel Street. The Community Garden is a slightly zig-zag path. The other - on the right of this photo - runs along the northern edge of the Brunswick Centre ("The Brunswick") and gives access to some of its shops and central plaza.
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§ Marchmont Association, Bloomsbury London WC1.
§ Skoob Books. With Judd Books at 82 Marchmont Street two of the best secondhand and remaindered bookshops I know in London.
§ Article in The Guardian newspaper by Steve Rose about the Brunswick Centre: "Scrubs up beautifully".
§ Street Map and aerial view with Google Maps.
§ 1972 article about the Brunswick Centre from The Architectural Review.
Located in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, the Ginkgo Community Gardens grow approximately 1,500 pounds of vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers each year and donate them to Uptown-area non-profit organizations. Currently, Ginkgo donates produce to Vital Bridges' GroceryLand, a food pantry that serves low-income persons living with HIV/AIDS.
Formerly known as the Chesley Centennial Park this greenspace is over 2 acres in size, the largest park in the community. The park is protected forever from urban development as part of the condition of bequeathing it to the town. The park includes a river (where many of us learned to swim), skateboard park, 4 ball diamonds, playground, splash pad, picnic areas, modern swimming pool and tobagganing hill.
Fun in the Sun, Project Hawai'i,
teens mentor homeless children while exploring the wonders of the Hawaiian Islands.
info@ProjectHawaii2008.com
Operated by: Community Transit
Built in: 2004
Manufacturer: New Flyer Industries
Model: D40i
Notes:
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24402 is seen departing the Everett Station en route to smokey Point on the 201 line
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Please do not use this photo or any part of this photo without first asking for permission, thank you.
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Students paint fences at Lincoln Log Cabin Historical Site in Lerna, Il as part of Jumpstart Community Service Projects on August 21, 2021. (Dominic Baima)
Detroit is almost unlike any place I've ever lived in. It seems that when the ones in charge are unwilling or unable to provide, the people have to form a bond in order to keep on. And so they do; and so the community, the death of which is lamented in so many places, thrives. It may not be the most genteel of situations, but what is gained far outstrips what is lost.
I was strongly encouraged to settle down in the suburbs. The best thing I can say about the suburbs is that they're not for me.
Detroit is almost unlike any place I've ever lived in. Almost, because it reminds me uncannily of my time growing up in Kiev. This may be my bias, or this may be the way for me to live happily. We'll revisit this question in the future.
Highbridge, The Bronx
Summary
The Union Reformed Church of Highbridge in the South Bronx was constructed in 1887-88 to the design of Alfred E. Barlow, a little-known architect who began his career in suburban residences. Highbridgeville (later known as Highbridge) developed along the high ridge of land along the Harlem River located to the south and east of High Bridge (1838-48, John B. Jervis, engineer), part of the Croton Aqueduct system that brought New York City its first adequate water supply. The village was initially populated with the workers (mostly Irish) who built the aqueduct, bridge, and also the railroad along the river. A Protestant “Union Sunday-School of Highbridgeville” was established in 1860, and a chapel was built in 1866 on Highbridge (later Ogden) Avenue.
After 1874, the church became affiliated with the Reformed Church of America, and became known as the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge. As the congregation grew, a larger building was needed. The significant firm of D.C. Weeks & Son was the builder. Built of random-coursed, rockfaced gneiss ashlar with red sandstone trim, the church is one story with a taller square bell tower at the southwest corner. The Ogden Avenue facade has a steeply-pitched gable and three round-arched windows with voussoirs, connected to the tower by a tourelle, and both side elevations have buttresses and round-arched windows with leaded stained glass.
The eastern (altar) end contains a leaded stained-glass rose window (1889) manufactured by the Tiffany Glass Co., with a geometric design composed of seven circular motifs. The Union Reformed Church of Highbridge (now Highbridge Community Church), one of the Bronx’s significant 19th-century religious structures, is also one of the finest surviving churches in New York City in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, named after one of the greatest American architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886). It is particularly unusual within New York as a more informal, suburban example of the style.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
Union Reformed Church of Highbridge
Highbridgeville (later known as Highbridge) in the South Bronx developed on the high ridge of land along the Harlem River located to the east of High Bridge (1838-48, John B. Jervis, engineer), which was constructed as part of the Croton Aqueduct system that brought New York City its first adequate fresh water supply. The village was initially settled by the workers who built the Croton Aqueduct and High Bridge, as well as the railroad along the river. Almost entirely Irish originally, these workers were followed later by other European and Jewish immigrants. The Bronx shore of the Harlem River began to be subdivided in the later 19th century for building lots along the main thoroughfare, Highbridge Avenue. It was re-named Ogden Avenue in 1876, in honor of William B. Ogden (1805-1877), the first mayor of Chicago and first president of the Union Pacific Railroad, who after his retirement owned a Highbridge estate called “Villa Boscobel.” Initially, there were few neighborhood amenities and but one small district school; this was replaced by Public School 91 (1889, George W. Debevoise), 1257 Ogden Avenue.
As no church was located within several miles of Highbridgeville, the area’s Protestants organized a religious congregation in October 1860, which was led by William Newton Clark and incorporated in 1864. The “Union Sunday-School of Highbridgeville” held classes in various neighborhood buildings until funds were donated to purchase property and to construct a chapel on Highbridge Avenue. After its completion in 1866, it became the religious center of the community with regular Sunday School meetings. In order to establish a formal church, the congregation called a meeting in June 1874 to vote on a specific Protestant denomination. The Reformed Church of America was chosen and, after official recognition, the church became known as the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge. From 1870 to 1884, the church was served by the pastor of the Mott Haven Reformed Church, Rev. Hasbroek DuBois. After 1884, with the installation of its own minister, Daniel Hoffman Martin, the membership of the church grew rapidly and a larger building was needed. Additional property was purchased, the old chapel was moved to the east, and a new church edifice constructed between December 1887 and its dedication in December 1888, at a contracted cost of $18,000. The rockfaced gneiss church, measuring 43 by 70 feet, was designed by Alfred E. Barlow in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, then at the height of its popularity. The New York Times called it a “new and picturesque home.” D.C. Weeks & Son was the builder. This significant firm, established in 1840 by DeWitt Clinton Weeks and including his son, Francis
M. Weeks, as a partner in the 1860s, was responsible for the construction of numerous mansions, churches, institutions, and office buildings in New York and elsewhere, including St. Thomas Church (1865, Richard M. Upjohn; demolished), Fifth Avenue and West 53rd Street; the first American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould; demolished); World (Pulitzer) Building (1888-90, George B. Post; demolished), Park Row and Frankfort Street; Biltmore, the George W. Vanderbilt Estate (1888-95, Richard Morris Hunt), Asheville, North Carolina; and Morton F. Plant Residence (1903-05, Robert W. Gibson), 651 Fifth Avenue.
The Richardsonian Romanesque style was named after one of America’s greatest architects, Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), who created an American interpretation of the Romanesque based on French and Italian prototypes. His Trinity Church (1873-77), Boston, as well as his many libraries and other buildings, firmly established Richardson’s professional reputation and launched the popularity and influence of the style. Following Richardson’s precedent, many architects employed it in the 1880s and 90s for a wide variety of building types, ranging from mansions to courthouses, university structures, and railroad stations, and including many notable churches. The style was characterized by its appearance of massiveness and such features as rockfaced masonry, round-arched fenestration, and steeply pitched roofs with towers and dormers. The noted architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler expressed the opinion in 1903 that “the Romanesque, in the Richardsonian version of it, gave a more rational promise in church building than in almost any other of the phases... there is very much to be said in favor of Romanesque as the most suitable style for church architecture.”
The Union Reformed Church of Highbridge is one of the finest remaining examples of the style in New York City. The major features of the church, including the asymmetrical massing of the forms, the bell tower, the arched openings, and the rockfaced gneiss stonework accented by red sandstone, combine to create a masterful, skillfully articulated, and characteristic example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. It is particularly unusual within New York City as a more informal, suburban example of the style. A contemporary example outside of New York is St. Mary’s-in-Tuxedo (1887-88, William A. Potter), Tuxedo Park. Only a few major, fully-urban examples of the style survive in Manhattan, including Holy Trinity (later St. Martin’s) Episcopal Church, Rectory, and Parish House (1887-89, Potter), 230 Lenox Avenue in Harlem; and St. Agnes Parish House (now part of Trinity School)(c. 1890-92, Potter), 121 West 71st Street.
In 1889, a leaded stained-glass rose window manufactured by the Tiffany Glass Co., with a geometric design composed of seven circular motifs, was installed in the rear (altar end) of the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge. Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933), originally a painter and later a decorator, started working in stained-glass windows in the mid-1870s and established the Tiffany Glass Co. in 1885. The firm’s early work was largely in the development of ornamental stained glass for windows, which were notable for their brilliant colors and the varied textures within the glass. Robert Koch, in his study Louis C. Tiffany, Rebel in Glass (1982), noted that “the best Tiffany windows made prior to 1890 are generally those of purely decorative and geometric design. Examples of such ornamental use of glass may be seen in... the windows of the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge.” Koch further noted the increasing rarity of in situ Tiffany windows in New York, based on an 1893 listing of churches and public buildings in the U.S. containing Tiffany work – “since that time more than half of the churches in New York in which Tiffany had a hand in the decoration have been demolished.”
Alfred E. Barlow, Architect
Little is known of the background of architect Alfred E. Barlow (1855-1926), who was apparently born in Brooklyn, the son of English-born machinist John Barlow. His career, however, strongly parallels that of fellow architect William Augustus Bates. Barlow was first listed in New York and Brooklyn directories as an architect in 1877, thereafter with an office in Manhattan and residence in Brooklyn. Bates and Barlow were two of the founders (along with Thomas Hastings and Cass Gilbert, etc.) in 1879 of the Architectural Sketch Club, which became the Architectural League of New York the following year. A League publication in 1906 stated that “most of [the founders] were at that time in the employ of Herter Brothers,” one of the nation’s leading interior decoration firms. Bates (1853-1922), the son of a New Jersey lumber merchant, was born in Michigan, educated in Cleveland, and entered Herter Brothers as a draftsman in 1872, where he remained until around 1881, working on one of the most noteworthy commissions of the day -- the decoration of William H. Vanderbilt’s twin mansions (1879-82, Trench & Snook; demolished), Fifth Avenue and West 51st Street. Bates established his own architectural practice in 1882, which specialized in country estates, resort buildings, and suburban houses. He was one of the leading (if lesser known) East Coast proponents of the Queen Anne style (closely influenced by English architect Richard Norman Shaw), as well as the Shingle style. Both Bates and Barlow contributed designs to William T. Comstock’s publication American Cottages (1883), and numerous of Bates’s designs around the country were published in contemporary architectural periodicals, as were some of Barlow’s, including “Astonfield” (1882), a Queen Anne style country estate for Samuel Rhodes. Bates designed Wentworth Hall and Cottages (1881-89), a large resort complex in the White Mountains at Jackson, New Hampshire, as well as the Wentworth residence (1891-92); and at least five houses (1888-99) in the exclusive enclave of Tuxedo Park, New York. The wealthy pharmaceutical businessman and real estate developer William Van Duzer Lawrence (who founded Sarah Lawrence College in 1926), a friend of Bates from Michigan, hired him in 1890 as lead architect for the planned suburban community of Lawrence Park in Bronxville, New York. Bates moved here by 1893, and worked in the community until his death in 1922, including as a partner in the firm of Bates & [Kenneth G.] How after 1910. Bates’s houses (at least 35 of which are extant) were mostly in variants of the Shingle style.
The exact nature of the collaboration between Barlow and Bates is unknown, although they shared the same office address from 1885 until 1910, and an architectural directory listed them as “Barlow & Bates” in 1892. It is probable that Barlow performed work for Bates. They were also associated architects for the Mission Revival style Hotel Gramatan (1905; demolished) in Lawrence Park (which became Bates’s residence). New York’s Great Industries in 1884 had described Barlow as a partner in the firm of Charles W. Romeyn & Co., along with Arthur Jay Stever, working on projects such as Alfred Corning Clark’s enormous Dakota Stables building (1883; demolished) at Broadway and West 75th Street. There are not many known independent commissions of Alfred E. Barlow, though a few of them were prominent. He designed five rowhouses (1887) at 15-23 West 120th Street; the Ivy Club remodeling (1887; demolished), Princeton University; the Berkeley Lyceum (1887-88; demolished), 21 West 44th Street, a theater for amateur players; the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge (1887-88); the medieval chateau-inspired Samuel R. Smith Infirmary (1888-90), 101 Stanley Avenue, Staten Island; a stable/loft building (1891) at 19 Vestry Street; a neo-Federal style town house (1904) at 868 Lexington Avenue; and a store-and-loft building (1907) at 49 West 45th Street. In 1910, Barlow was living in Red Bank, New Jersey, he declared bankruptcy in 1916, he had moved by 1920 to Long Island City, and died in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Later History of the Church A large stone parsonage was constructed nearby in 1890, which remained in use until 1925
– it was sold and moved down the block, extant today at No. 49 West 167th Street. Due to the growth of the congregation, utilitarian additions were made to the rear of the church (apparently in 1901 and 1913). Rev. Daniel G. Verway served as the pastor for thirty years, until 1946. The old chapel building was demolished for an ambitious educational building (Walter J. Campbell, architect) planned with quarters for the pastor and sexton and administrative offices – it was never completed and only a utilitarian two-story, brick-clad Sunday School building was constructed in 1924 at the eastern end of the church property (this structure and the easternmost 50 feet of the lot are excluded from this designation).
The 19th-century character of Highbridge, composed mostly of small homes, changed greatly with the construction of large apartment buildings in the 20th century, spurred in part by the Jerome Avenue elevated railroad in 1918 and the subway (with a stop at the Grand Concourse and 161st Street) in 1933. The Art Deco style Noonan Plaza Apartments (1931, Horace Ginsberg and Marvin Fine), bordering the church’s property to the south, is one of the premiere complexes in the neighborhood. After World War II, the southwest Bronx, including Highbridge and the area of the Grand Concourse, began to suffer a severe decline. The rapid de-industrialization of the city, increasing suburbanization, heavy-handed urban renewal policies, disinvestment by area landlords, and the redlining of much of the Bronx by local banks all contributed to the economic downturn of the area. The owners of Noonan Plaza defaulted in 1976, and during the 1970s, many apartment buildings were abandoned by their owners and were set on fire, and the neighborhood suffered a catalogue of ills until it began to stabilize in the 1980s. The demographic composition of the Highbridge neighborhood also underwent substantial changes. The area’s residents, largely of European Jewish extraction, began to move to suburban areas, and the west Bronx became a diverse urban community as African-Americans and Latin Americans settled here. By the 1980s, the neighborhood began to experience renewal, as seen by the rehabilitation of Noonan Plaza in 1980-82 for federally subsidized apartments. The former Union Reformed Church of Highbridge, now Highbridge Community Church (sharing its building with Emmanuel Presbyterian Church) stands as a poignant reminder of the earlier history of the Highbridge neighborhood, and is one of the most distinctive churches in the Bronx and New York City.
Description
Built of random-coursed, rockfaced gneiss ashlar with red sandstone trim, the Union Reformed Church of Highbridge is a one-story structure with a taller square bell tower at the southwest corner. The wide, steeply-pitched roof (originally covered by slate shingles, now asphalt shingles) terminates at the eastern end in a polygonal louvered cupola with a tall conical roof. West (Ogden Avenue) Facade: The west facade, rising from a stone foundation/retaining wall with a stone watertable, consists of the main body of the church with a steeply-pitched gable and three round-arched windows with voussoirs, connected to the bell tower by a tourelle with a conical roof (capped by roofing tiles) and a pierced parapet wall. The base of the tourelle was originally columnar, but was re-built battered. The three windows have geometric-patterned leaded stained glass (covered by plexiglass panels). The gable, tourelle, and tower are pierced by slit windows. A utility meter is attached to the base of the church.
The peak of the gable bears an historic ornamental wrought-iron cross. Tower: A cornerstone at the base of the tower bears the date “1888.” Each face of the top section of the tower (which contains an 1866 bell, from the earlier chapel) has large corner columns above a stone molding, two round sandstone arches (originally with louvers, many of which survive) supported by sandstone colonnettes, surmounted by a checkerboard-patterned spandrel and a corbelled stone cornice. The eaves are bracketed. The pyramidal roof of the tower was originally covered with slate shingles (now asphalt shingles); the base of the original ornamental weathervane is extant. South Facade: The main entrance is in the base of the tower, approached by three bluestone steps. The round-arched surround consists of a compound-molded sandstone arch, surmounted by rockfaced sandstone voussoirs, and supported by triple rockfaced sandstone columns with molded capitals, edged by quoins. There are non-historic wooden double doors.
The wooden tympanum is ornamented by carved foliation surrounding a circle. A small Gothic lantern hangs above the entrance. The main body of the church has stone buttresses alternating with round-arched windows with leaded stained glass (covered by metal-mesh grilles) and voussoirs. The east end flares out into a polygonal wing capped by a peaked polygonal roof that joins the main gable roof; a stone chimney rises from the juncture with this wing. There is a non-historic metal door in the basement at this end. North Facade: The north entrance, at the western end, is located in a pedimented portico, supported by bracketed stone piers, with grey slate shingle facing and a peaked roof. The round-arched entrance surround consists of a sandstone tympanum surmounted by double rows of rockfaced sandstone voussoirs, supported by triple rockfaced sandstone columns with molded capitals. The spandrel has stone corbels supporting a molded cornice. There are three bluestone steps and non-historic wooden double doors.
The main body of the church has stone buttresses alternating with round-arched windows with leaded stained glass (covered by metal-mesh grilles) and voussoirs. Two non-historic lanterns are placed next to the buttresses. The east end flares out into a polygonal wing capped by a peaked polygonal roof that joins the main gable roof. East Facade: The original east facade, clad in red brick, consists of the main central body of the church (now partly obscured) having a taller central pavilion with a hipped roof that rises to the polygonal louvered cupola, flanked by the polygonal wings. The central pavilion contains a Tiffany Glass Co. leaded stained-glass rose window (1889), composed of a geometric design with seven circular motifs (covered by a square metal-mesh grille). The southern polygonal wing has a paneled wooden door and a window (both covered with metal-mesh grilles). There are two utilitarian one-story additions (apparently 1901 and 1913), clad in brick (the northernmost is parged with concrete) and pierced by windows and a door.
Property Features: Along Ogden Avenue there is a stone post with non-historic wrought-iron gates, and an historic wrought-iron fence (with signage) atop the stone retaining wall to the north of church; and bluestone steps, stone posts, historic wrought-iron gates, and an historic wrought-iron fence atop the stone retaining wall to the south. On the south side are bluestone stairs (with iron railings) leading to the basement at the east end; bluestone stairs with cheek walls and wrought-iron railings leading to the entrance; a low rubble stone retaining wall bordering the lawn; and a flagstone and concrete walkway. On the north side are an asphalt driveway; a flagstone walkway by the church; and a yard. On the east side are an asphalt parking lot, yard, and a walkway.
- From the 2010 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report