View allAll Photos Tagged Existence
Sometimes all it takes is being alone in a field of grass with nature all around to make you feel at peace. We often find our lives consumed with the hustle of daily life and it takes a trip to our happy place to find our center. I don't have to pack too long or travel too far to find my reason for being. My backyard is a wonderland of mystery just waiting to be explored. I may never be anything more than someone you once knew. My only hope is that a piece of me remains to be explored long after I am gone.
I often wonder why I have been placed on this earth. Is it to carry a gun so that you can feel safe and free? I have done that. Is it to change an infinite number of watch batteries so that you can make it to work on time? I have done that too. Or is it to simply capture a moment so that you can experience something you may never see from a side of the planet I have never been? In time the gun will be replaced with something more advanced and the watch battery will be long since expired. My ticket will have been punched, but I hope the life I lived will remain for others to experience for eternity. That is the power of a camera!!!
Horfield Parish Church
Although no documentary evidence of the foundation of the church appears to be in existence, there is some evidence that there could well have been a place of Christian worship at Horfield from a very early date. Until the building of the school in 1838 (for which authority to enclose part of the common was granted) the churchyard was completely circular in form.
Horfield appears in the Domesday Book as 'Horfelle in Langlei Hundred, the property of the King in Horfelle VII hides'. The book was compiled principally to record the extent, value and ownership of the lands, therefore the omission of a direct reference to an actual church building by no means precludes its existence. The Anglo-Saxon church would have been constructed of timber – tree trunks sawn in half, lengthways, would have formed the “pillars” of the nave and the spaces, in between, would have been of wattle and daub construction; the roof being of thatch.
n 1893 the church was considerably enlarged by removing the chancel and rebuilding it on a larger scale eastwards of a high central lantern tower, together with a Lady Chapel and short transepts. The south transept was completed with an eastern door and porch in 1921 and the north transept was constructed to include a sacristy with organ chamber over it in 1929. This constituted the church as we see it today, with the exception of the removal of the chancel screen, the repositioning of the font to the south transept and the formation of St. Edmund's chapel. The Stations of the Cross were originally in St. Edmund's church.
The organ, built in 1885 by Palmer of Kings Square, Bristol, was originally situated in the north chancel aisle. In 1927, it was moved to a purpose-built chamber above the new Sacristy with a detached console in the choir. It remained in this state until 1973, when Percy Daniel of Clevedon electrified the action and carried out numerous tonal modifications. At some stage, a fine tuba stop was removed. By 1994, the organ was in desperate need of a major overhaul and, following the receipt of a generous legacy, this work was very ably carried out by E. A. Cawston; weaknesses in the action were addressed and several new stops added, including a number of mutations and a Great Trumpet. In 2015, a new solid-state action was installed by Nicholson’s of Worcester, and the opportunity was taken to revoice the Trumpet (now playable on both the Swell and Great), to add a sub-octave coupler on the Swell and to stabilise the winding system. The result is a fine and versatile instrument, ideally suited to the needs of the church.
Taken with a Nikon D7000
Unsmoked ham, wholegrain mustard, mayonnaise, Flora (obviously), and some Boursin. The most awesome sandwich in existence.
What would become the largest airline in the world owes its existence to an insect: the boll weevil. In response to weevil infestations of Southern cotton fields, Collett Woolman proposed using aerial cropdusting. No one had ever tried aerial spraying before, and Woolman’s Huff Daland Dusters became the world’s first cropdusting company. Huff Daland began spraying from Macon, Georgia in May 1924; a year later, it moved to Louisiana.
Eventually, Woolman raised enough money to buy Huff Daland outright, and in anticipation of expanding into airmail and passenger operations, renamed it Delta Air Service in reference to the Mississippi Delta region it would be operating from. Delta rapidly expanded its routes throughout the South, but nearly went out of business when the US government awarded airmail routes through the South to American Airlines; when it was learned that American was involved in a bribery scandal, Delta was able to get the route instead, ensuring its survival. In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters to Atlanta, which had become the central hub of its operations.
Postwar, Delta began to expand once more. It acquired Chicago and Southern Airlines in 1953, which gave Delta its first boost: before 1953, its routes were limited to the US South and its primary aircraft were war-surplus Douglas DC-3s and DC-4s. Using Chicago and Southern’s Lockheed L-049 Constellations, Delta could now fly routes through the Caribbean and into Canada.
In 1959, Delta entered the jet age by purchasing Douglas DC-8s; to represent their new aircraft, Delta changed its livery to introduce the “widget”—a stylized Greek-alphabet delta, referencing the airline name and its new swept-wing jets. The widget remains Delta’s logo to the present day. The airline went transcontinental soon thereafter, and to boost traffic on this route, became one of the launch customers of the Convair 880. Though the airline could boast a flight time between Atlanta and Los Angeles of less than three hours in the sleek 880, the airliner’s reputation as a gas hog would not keep it in Delta’s fleet for long. The last of its DC-7s were sold in 1970, making the airline all-jet.
Delta had a near stranglehold on the Southern market and extensive contacts in the Midwest, but lacked any sort of presence in the West or Northeast, and, aside from its Caribbean connections, none overseas. The airline took steps to rectify that situation: in 1972, it bought out Northeast Airlines, giving it significant routes in the Boston-New York area. To boost its transcontinental routes, Delta bought its first wide-body aircraft, Boeing 747s, in 1970, but these proved to be unprofitable and were sold; instead, Delta took on Lockheed L-1011 Tristars, and would go on to become the world’s largest operator of the L-1011 and one of the longest. Finally, in 1978, Delta was able to acquire a European route from Atlanta to London using Tristars.
Delta weathered the deregulation period of the early 1980s carefully, concentrating on its domestic routes and continuing its expansion slowly, rather than overreaching—a trend that was to lead to the demise of many of its competitors. In 1987, Western, facing bankruptcy and unable to conclude a deal with Continental, was taken over by Delta, giving the latter its long-awaited network in the American West and Pacific Northwest. It also left Delta as the largest airline in the US and allowed Delta to expand into Latin America.
Delta also began its Delta Connection service in 1987, partnering with Comair, Skywest, and Atlantic Southeast, which remained independent companies but repainted its aircraft in Delta liveries. In 1991, Delta bought a controlling interest in Pan American, with the promises to keep the latter in business. However, it was more profitable for Delta to let the legendary airline die off and take over its transatlantic routes, and by 1992, Delta was now the largest American transatlantic carrier. With the acquisition of Pan Am’s fleet, it also allowed Delta to make inroads into the Asian market.
The post-9/11 recession and the week-long grounding of US airlines hit Delta particularly hard, losing so much money that not even a government bailout could do more than delay further losses. The airline dropped most of its Asian routes, consolidated its fleet by retiring the aging L-1011 fleet and selling MD-11s inherited from Western, moved some business from its regional hubs to Atlanta, and cut salaries. Delta still ended up filing bankruptcy in 2005. Nonetheless, the austerity measures worked. Delta was also able to save money by refurbishing its MD-80 fleet rather than replacing them—the MD-80s were cheaper to operate than many newer airliners—and sold off some of its Delta Connection airlines or absorbed them entirely. After fending off an attempt at a buyout by US Airways, Delta emerged from bankruptcy in 2007; in celebration, the airline introduced another livery (its third in seven years) that reintroduced the widget.
It would expand still further. In 2008, it was announced that Delta and Northwest Airlines would merge, with the latter being absorbed by Delta. With a combined fleet of nearly 800 aircraft, this made Delta the largest airline in the world by fleet size, and in the top five by passengers flown annually. Today, Delta retains this title, with a worldwide network to every continent, with 300 destinations.
This 727, N1650, shows the classic Delta scheme used from the 1960s until 2001. The Delta widget was carried on the tail and the forward fuselage. N1650 was inherited from Northeast with the merger, and stayed with Delta until 1982, after which it was sold to Pan American. It was eventually scrapped in 1999.
Adding colour to my life is perhaps the best way to describe the effect on me when I became Jojo. No more boring clothes or seemingly like everyone else it would seem that need to hide the fact that I like sex and being sexy. As Christopher I felt like I was trapped in some sort of cage and it led to poor self-esteem as I didn't like myself as what I could see was not the real me or the dreams in my head. I never thought there would be a way but thankfully the times changed and at last I was able to step out into the sunshine and now I am trangendered enough to be happy..
The day starts slowly for these railway boys. They sleep under photos of goddesses.
They are close friends with the main gang leader in this railway station. Gang leaders are boys in their late teens or early 20s who often beat and manipulate younger boys. They introduce sniffing glue to new boys, creating the dependency they need to stay in control.
Photo © 2012 IMB / Graham HIll
“We are strange beings, we seem to go free, but we go in chains - chains of training, custom, convention, association, environment - in a word, Circumstance - and against these bonds the strongest of us struggle in vain” - Mark Twain
Halifax Transit 2014 New Flyer Xcelsior XD40 #1195 is seen during the day on route 55. Notice the block number is 4. This block did our dead 402 in the morning and afternoon and deadheaded to Sambro to do the 402s after that.
This bus 1195 was stuck in traffic during its Dilivery and was a late arrival.
Medallion 184-185, Æ 49.52 g. M COMMODVS ANTONINVS AVG PIVS BRIT Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust r. Rev. IMP TR P X IMP VII COS IIII P P Victory, naked to waist, seated r. on shields and arms, holding branch and shield inscribed VICT / BRIT. Before her, trophy. C 394. Gnecchi 80 and pl. 83, 7. BMC medallion 16.
Extremely rare. A magnificent coin perfectly struck in high relief with an untouched dark
green patina. A vigorous portrait of high style and an interesting and finely detailed
reverse type. One of the finest Roman bronzes in existence.
Virtually as struck and Fdc
Ex NAC sale 11, 1998, 458.
This medallion of 184/5 proclaims a Roman victory in a war in Britain, which Dio describes as the most serious military engagement of Commodus’ reign. It began when tribesmen crossed the Antonine Wall or Hadrian’s Wall and murdered a senior official, seemingly the governor. To prosecute the war Commodus appointed Ulpius Marcellus, who conducted ‘ruthless’ campaigns into southern Scotland, and possibly even into the southern highlands. At some point in the conflict the soldiers – perhaps upset about difficult conditions – tried to proclaim a legionary legate named Priscus as their candidate for emperor, but to no effect.
In 184 Commodus earned the premature title of Britannicus, for it is clear that warfare on the island continued in the following year, if not longer. Indeed, Dio suggests that in 185 the insubordinate army in Britain sent 1500 of its members to Rome to make their case against the praetorian prefect Perennis, at which point Commodus handed him over for lynching. Another source, the Historia Augusta, repeats the lynching story, but indicates the prefect’s death resulted from his dismissal of legionary legates.
It would seem that troubles in the West at this time were not limited merely to Britain, for the Historia Augusta also records “the deserters’ war,” which closely resembles the revolt of the Bagaudae, which Diocletian’s comrade Maximian had to suppress before he was hailed emperor about a century later, in 286.
NAC51, 333
Strandfontein Sewage Works
Although the uninitiated will often turn up their noses at the idea of voluntarily visiting a sewage farm, such places are often exceptionally rich in birdlife. This is especially true of the extensive Strandfontein sewage works, arguably the best waterbird locality close to Cape Town, whose existence is under threat from a new motorway. The abundant and diverse birdlife makes it an ideal destination for the beginner and serious twitcher alike, and it is possible to see more than 80 species on a summer morning. A major advantage is the opportunity to bird from the comfort and security of your car, which can be used as a moving hide. The vast network of reed-fringed pans which radiate out from the sewage plant buildings is connected by good gravel roads, but beware of occasionally treacherous sandy patches, especially along the southern coastal road.
To enter the Strandfontein sewage works from the Cape Town side, take the M5 free-way southwards from Cape Town and turn left into Ottery Road at the Ottery turn-off; continue for 4.5 km until the junction with Strandfontein Road (M17); turn right here, and continue (southwards) along Strandfontein Road for 4 km; turn right again at the ‘Zeekoeivlei’ sign (1 on site map, opposite) within a stand of gum trees just after a petrol station and opposite Fifteenth Avenue. To enter the works from the False Bay side, turn north onto Strandfontein Road from Baden Powell Drive, 6.8 km east of the Muizenberg traffic circle, and you’ll reach the Zeekoeivlei turn-off after 4.1 km.
Baden Powell Drive (R310) follows the False Bay coast westwards to Muizenberg and Simon’s Town, and eastwards to the N2 highway near Somerset West. Strandfontein can thus conveniently be visited after Sir Lowry’s Pass (p.60).
The poorly marked entrance to the works is adjacent to a derelict building at the south end of Zeekoeivlei (2), where African Fish Eagles are often seen roosting in the trees to the west. Bird numbers and water levels at Strandfontein vary widely depending on the year and season, and the route suggested below is intended as a general guide to the most productive areas.
Continue along the tar road towards the plant buildings, and check the deep pans on both sides of the road (3 and 4) for Black-necked Grebe, Maccoa Duck, Southern Pochard, and Cape Teal. Here too you will see the first of various other waterfowl species that are common throughout the sewage works, such as Cape Shoveller, Yellow-billed Duck and Red-billed Teal, while Purple Gallinule stalk along the reed-lined edges. Levaillant’s Cisticola is very common in long grass fringing the pans, and agitated birds draw attention to themselves with their characteristically frenetic calls. White-throated and European Swallows (summer) and Brown-throated Martin dart low overhead.
Where the road meets the sewage plant itself, continue to the left of the buildings, and scan pan 5 for a good variety of waterfowl. The adjacent small, muddy pan at 6 often host somewhat scarcer species such as Southern Pochard and Wood Sandpiper. The road between the two pans is regularly used in summer as a roost by large numbers of White-winged Terns, which can be seen flying over pans throughout the area.
At this point, retrace your route and continue to the pan at 7. This pan, and the small, reed-enclosed pond at its northern end, are usually also productive. At the ‘hub’ of the wheel of large pans, turn left. Pan 8, on your right, invariably holds good numbers of birds, notably Black-necked Grebe, White Pelican, Greater Flamingo and Maccoa Duck.
The western and northern corners of pan 9 are always worth investigating. The former often has an exposed beach frequented by waders (including Avocet); the latter is good for scarcer ducks such as Cape Teal and South African Shelduck, and occasionally Hottentot Teal. Continue around the northern apex of pan 9 and head south past pan 0. The reeds in this vicinity are particularly good for African Sedge Warbler, Cape Reed Warbler and, in summer, African Marsh Warbler. Very much more evident in the alien thicket are Cape Francolin and Cape Bulbul. Pan 0 itself usually offers great birding, providing a good selection of waterfowl and wading birds in its northern reaches.
Options are now limited by sandy roads, so we suggest that you retrace your route and turn left along the southern border of pan 9. This is an especially good area for African Marsh Harrier, which is virtually guaranteed to be seen flying low over the alien thicket and adjacent reedbeds. Head south again, and cast a glance over pan A for African Black Oystercatcher. Turn right where the road meets the coastal dunes, where Swift and Sandwich Terns and Little Stint (summer) often roost. Spare a moment to look up from your telescope and enjoy the splendid view over False Bay and its embracing mountains!
Good numbers of waterbirds can reliably be found on pan B. Cape and White-breasted Cormorants, White Pelicans and miscellaneous waterfowl roost on the large, sandy island and on the pan edge (C on map), while rafts of assorted ducks bob on the usually choppy water. A pair of South African Shelduck often frequents this pan, as do flocks of Greater Flamingo.
Having absorbed all pan B has to offer, continue past a series of relatively unexceptional pans before re-entering the central wheel at E. The small pan at D is often productive, as is E. Before leaving, you might find it worthwhile to check pan F for Great Crested Grebe.
What would become the largest airline in the world owes its existence to the boll weevil. In response to weevil infestations of Southern cotton fields, Collett Woolman proposed using aerial cropdusting. No one had ever tried aerial spraying before, and Woolman’s Huff Daland Dusters became the world’s first cropdusting company. Huff Daland began spraying from Macon, Georgia in May 1924; a year later, it moved to Louisiana.
Eventually, Woolman raised enough money to buy Huff Daland outright, and in anticipation of expanding into airmail and passenger operations, renamed it Delta Air Service in reference to the Mississippi Delta region it would be operating from. Delta rapidly expanded its routes throughout the South, but nearly went out of business when the US government awarded airmail routes through the South to American Airlines; when it was learned that American was involved in a bribery scandal, Delta was able to get the route instead, ensuring its survival. In 1941, Delta moved its headquarters to Atlanta, which had become the central hub of its operations.
Postwar, Delta began to expand once more. It acquired Chicago and Southern Airlines in 1953, which gave Delta its first boost: before 1953, its routes were limited to the US South and its primary aircraft were war-surplus Douglas DC-3s and DC-4s. Using Chicago and Southern’s Lockheed L-049 Constellations, Delta could now fly routes through the Caribbean and into Canada.
In 1959, Delta entered the jet age by purchasing Douglas DC-8s; to represent their new aircraft, Delta changed its livery to introduce the “widget”—a stylized Greek-alphabet delta, referencing the airline name and its new swept-wing jets. The widget remains Delta’s logo to the present day. The airline went transcontinental soon thereafter, and to boost traffic on this route, became one of the launch customers of the Convair 880. Though the airline could boast a flight time between Atlanta and Los Angeles of less than three hours in the sleek 880, the airliner’s reputation as a gas hog would not keep it in Delta’s fleet for long. The last of its DC-7s were sold in 1970, making the airline all-jet.
Delta had a near stranglehold on the Southern market and extensive contacts in the Midwest, but lacked any sort of presence in the West or Northeast, and, aside from its Caribbean connections, none overseas. The airline took steps to rectify that situation: in 1972, it bought out Northeast Airlines, giving it significant routes in the Boston-New York area. To boost its transcontinental routes, Delta bought its first wide-body aircraft, Boeing 747s, in 1970, but these proved to be unprofitable and were sold; instead, Delta took on Lockheed L-1011 Tristars, and would go on to become the world’s largest operator of the L-1011 and one of the longest. Finally, in 1978, Delta was able to acquire a European route from Atlanta to London using Tristars.
Delta weathered the deregulation period of the early 1980s carefully, concentrating on its domestic routes and continuing its expansion slowly, rather than overreaching—a trend that was to lead to the demise of many of its competitors. In 1987, Western, facing bankruptcy and unable to conclude a deal with Continental, was taken over by Delta, giving the latter its long-awaited network in the American West and Pacific Northwest. It also left Delta as the largest airline in the US and allowed Delta to expand into Latin America.
Delta also began its Delta Connection service in 1987, partnering with Comair, Skywest, and Atlantic Southeast, which remained independent companies but repainted its aircraft in Delta liveries. In 1991, Delta bought a controlling interest in Pan American, with the promises to keep the latter in business. However, it was more profitable for Delta to let the legendary airline die off and take over its transatlantic routes, and by 1992, Delta was now the largest American transatlantic carrier. With the acquisition of Pan Am’s fleet, it also allowed Delta to make inroads into the Asian market.
The post-9/11 recession and the week-long grounding of US airlines hit Delta particularly hard, losing so much money that not even a government bailout could do more than delay further losses. The airline dropped most of its Asian routes, consolidated its fleet by retiring the aging L-1011 fleet and selling MD-11s inherited from Western, moved some business from its regional hubs to Atlanta, and cut salaries. Delta still ended up filing bankruptcy in 2005. Nonetheless, the austerity measures worked. Delta was also able to save money by refurbishing its MD-80 fleet rather than replacing them—the MD-80s were cheaper to operate than many newer airliners—and sold off some of its Delta Connection airlines or absorbed them entirely. After fending off an attempt at a buyout by US Airways, Delta emerged from bankruptcy in 2007; in celebration, the airline introduced another livery (its third in seven years) that reintroduced the widget.
It would expand still further. In 2008, it was announced that Delta and Northwest Airlines would merge, with the latter being absorbed by Delta. With a combined fleet of nearly 800 aircraft, this made Delta the largest airline in the world by fleet size, and in the top five by passengers flown annually. Today, Delta retains this title, with a worldwide network to every continent, with 300 destinations.
N484DA is finished in Delta's late 1999s-early 2000s scheme, the one time in Delta's modern history that the widget disappeared from the tail. This was not very popular, which led to the widget's reintroduction in the current scheme in 2007. N484DA wore this scheme for only a short time before Delta retired its 727 fleet in 1999; it had spent its entire career with the airline, which it joined in 1974. It was scrapped sometime between 1999 and 2003.
Former St. Peter's German Evangelical Church, Winant Place, Kreischerville (Charleston), Staten Island
The St. Peter's German Evangelical Church at Kreischerville (now Free Magyar Reformed Church) is representative of the many small churches built for immigrant congregations on Staten Island during the second half of the nineteenth century. The church complex - church, parish house, and rectory - recalls the era when Charleston was known as Kreischerville, as well as the early-twentieth-century period when Hungarian immigrants maintained the separate identity of the small village. Erected in 1883 as the gift of local industrialist Balthasar Kreischer, the church reflects the paternalistic role that industrialists often played in the development of quasi-company towns such as Kreischerville. Though characteristic of the small, wood-framed structures built in the villages of Staten Island and elsewhere, the Carpenter Gothic church, probably designed and built by local craftsmen, is distinguished by its unusual porch that is domestic in scale and form, and by the emphasis on verticality provided by the tall spire and rows of small gabled dormers in the steeply-pitched gable roof.
Through its pastor, the Reverend Jacob Ganss, who led the German congregation throughout its existence, the Kreischerville Church was linked with nearby German Protestant congregations. As the Hungarian population in the village of Kreischerville grew, a Magyar Reformed church was established in 1915 and met in St. Peter's church, which the Hungarian congregation soon acquired The attached parish hall, an early addition to the church, and the rectory, designed by builder/architect Royal Daggett and built in 1926 by the Hungarian congregation, complete the complex, which is enclosed by a distinctive fence with posts of Kreischer brick. The history of the Hungarian congregation, which in 1933 affiliated with the small Hungarian Reformed Church in America denomination (established in 1920), documents the important role that churches played in the lives of immigrant groups.
The Development of Kreischerville
During the early and mid-nineteenth century, the town of Westfield on the southwestern side of Staten Island was a rural area with scattered small settlements; because of the extensive land holdings of the Androvette family, the hamlet near the juncture of Arthur Kill Road and Sharrotts Road was known as Androvetteville. Sharrotts Road connected the community with the village of Woodrow to the east, while the Arthur Kill Road led north to Rossville and the Blazing Star Ferry and also south to Tottenville and additional ferry service to New Jersey. Several small lanes led to the waterfront, much of which was salt marshy and homes not located near the main roads were near the shore. The residents of Androvetteville included farmers, oystermen, ship joiners, and watermen. By 1850, there were two stores in the hamlet and the West Baptist Church stood north of the intersection of Sharrott's Road and Arthur Kill Road.
The area around Androvetteville changed dramatically in the mid-1850s with the discovery of refractory fire clays in the vicinity, and the purchase of clay deposits and subsequent development of a fire bricks manufacturing works by Balthasar Kreischer." In 1845 Kreischer and a partner had established a business in Manhattan to produce fire brick - a fire-resistant brick used in many industrial applications. Kreischer soon was sole proprietor of the operation that was one of the first in the United States to provide fire brick. In 1853 Kreischer became aware of refractory clay deposits in Westfield.
He acquired several tracts with clay deposits and purchased the rights to mine clay on nearby land. Two years later Kreischer established a brick works at the edge of (he Arthur Kill (Staten Island Sound), and in 1858 he enlarged his works on Staten Island with the construction of an addition to the factory for the production of clay retorts (vessels made of fire clay in which coal was heated to produce gas). As Kreischer's brick works and clay mining began to dominate Androvetteville, the area became known as Kreischerville. In 1876 the Staten Island facility was enlarged and at that time the Manhattan plant was closed; the newly-expanded works were destroyed by fire in 1878 and were immediately rebuilt. The Kreischer Brick works was a major producer of building materials in the metropolitan area, and like many operations, maintained a headquarters in Manhattan.
Balthasar Kreischer, who retired from active management of the brick works in 1878, died in 1886; the Arm of B. Kreischer & Sons was continued by three of his children: George F., who had joined the company in 1870, Charles C., and Edward B.^ In 1887 George Kreischer entered into an agreement with the New York Anderson Pressed Brick Company and the Anderson works was built adjacent to the Kreischer facility. The brick works were again badly damaged by Arc and rebuilt in 1892. The Kreischer family's involvement with the firm terminated in 1899, its sale forced by financial problems.
The main impetus for the growth of the village of Kreischerville was the provision of housing within walking distance of the brick works. It appears that some of the properties Kreischer acquired for his company's clay deposits already had dwellings on them and that he erected several additional dwellings to house the work force; by the early 1890s the Kreischer family owned around twenty-five houses in Kreischerville. On the parcel immediately north of the works stood one of the existing houses, an old Androvette family dwelling (now No. 122 Androvette Street). By 1875 Kreischer had built two large tenements for workers: a frame building east of the older Androvette house that housed six families and a nearby larger brick structure for twelve households (neither of the tenement buildings is standing). By the mid-1880s, a number of double houses had been built on the Kreischer firm property as housing for workers. The Kreischer firm did not own all of the property in the village, however, and members of families that had long been located in the area, like Peter Androvette, owned their own homes in addition to houses they rented to workers and lots they sold for new construction. Double houses, or semi-detached cottages, would become the dominant housing type in the village, with nearly twenty such structures built, including the Kreischer Street Workers' Houses erected by Androvette c.1890 at Nos. 71-73, 75-77, 81-83, and 85-87 Kreischer Street.
The relative geographic isolation of Kreischerville prompted the development of an entire village with numerous services as well as its own company town culture. Because Kreischerville, like many industrial communities was dominated by, but not entirely controlled by, the local industrialist - in this case Balthasar Kreischer - it can be considered a quasi-company town; the control of Kreischer over the village was tempered by preexisting development and local interests in the community. In 1863 a KreischerviHe post office was established. The Kreischerville school, District School No. 7, which during the mid-1880s served over two-hundred students, was located just north of the center of the village on Arthur Kill Road. Private enterprise appears to have thrived in Kreischerville.
During the early 1870s Kreischer helped to establish Nicholas Kilmeyer as proprietor of a genera! store in the building that stands at 4321 Arthur Kill Road (at the comer of Winant Place). Soon there were several provision stores in the village and two bakers. The Kilmeyer Union Hote! and Saloon (at the comer of Arthur Kill Road and Sharrotts Road), the Neilsen Hotel (at the comer of Androvette and Kreischer Streets), and a boarding house offered lodging. The Order of Germain a Lodge No. 26 met in Kilmeyer's Hall; that group, or the Society for the Support of the Poor of St. Peter's Church, was probably the benevolent society established by 1886 to provide aid to sick or injured workers.
During the last decades of the nineteenth century, houses lined Androvette Street. Winant Place, Kreischer Street, Manley Street, Arthur Kill Road, and Sharrotts Road. During the 1890s, the village residents were mainly German and Irish immigrants, most of whom were laborers at the brick works, the clay pits, the International Ultramarine Works (between Kreischerville and Rossville), and the S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company at Prince's Bay. The village residents included blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and a tinsmith and p!umber, oystermen, and several watermen and boat captains.
According to reminiscences of residents, Kreischer considered the town named after himself to be a family community, and in a paternalistic manner he advanced money to purchase homes and assisted employees through sickness and trouble. Having become an American citizen, he encouraged his employees - mostly German immigrants like himself - to attain citizenship. His force in the community is reflected in memories that there was a "good tight fence around the entire village," and that 'the gates were dosed early in the evening, which perhaps have exaggerated the role of the extensive picket fencing enclosing the yards of village houses that is documented in historic photographs.
As was common in industrial towns, the Kreischer family maintained conspicuous residences. Kreischer built a grand villa-type residence (probably in the 1860s, no longer standing) on the crest of the hills above the factory (on the east side of the Arthur Kill Road) that visually dominated the village. Around 1886 Charles and Edward Kreischer moved into a pair of similar Stick Style wood villas on the east side of Arthur Kill Road; the house built for Charles Kreischer still stands at 4500 Arthur Kill Road (attributed to Palliser & Palliser, it is a designated New York City Landmark).
Around the turn of the century, the population of Kreischerville began to change as did the employment situation. The federal census of 1900 routinely listed "day laborer" as the occupation of many residents, although there were still several small service businessmen in town. As the more limited operation of the brick works after 1899 diminished the immediately local employment possibilities, more workers traveled to the White dental works and the Atlantic Terra Cotta Works (established 1897) in Tottenville.^ A significant addition to the predominantly German population was the influx of many workers from Hungary and neighboring areas in Central Europe. In 1900 most of the recent Hungarian immigrants in Kreischerville were single men who boarded in the homes of Anton Killian and John Lasiacasca on Arthur Kill Road, George Lasco on Androvette Street, and others. Hungarian families soon occupied other types of housing in the village, including the many double houses; the Magyar populadon and its social institutions would remain a visible portion of the population of Kreischerville during the twentieth century.
The St Peter's German Evanselical Reformed Church of Kreischerville
Following an attempt to establish a German congregation in Kreischerville in 1879, the St. Peter's German Evangelical Reformed Church of Kreischerville^ was incorporated March 13, 1882, with Jasper D. Heitman and Christopher Bie! as trustees and William Beekman and Philip Eckert as deacons. The group was formally organized under the direction of the Reverend Leopold Mohn, who was the pastor of the German Evangelical Church in Hoboken as well as director of the "Martha Institute," a private German-American school associated with that church. The name chosen by the congregation, St. Peter's Evangelical Reformed Church, reflects the diverse Protestant denominations represented by die German
immigrants The use of the neutral name, "Evangelical," which in German usage was equivalent to "Protestant," suggests that the German-speaking congregation probably included Swiss and Alsatian members who had been Calvinists or Reformed, as well as Lutherans. The St. Peter's congregation soon supported a Women's Society, a Society for the Support of the Poor, and a Young People's Society.
In May 1883, the firm of B. Kreischer & Sons acquired from Lewis Androvette a four-acre lot on the north side of Winant Place which bordered the lot on which the Kilmeyer store stood. On July 1st of that same year, a church building was formally presented to the congregation by Mr. Kreischer. "St. Peterskirche," as it became known to Kreischerville residents, was reported to have cost $15,000 and was furnished with an unusually good organ, and carved pews and wainscoting. The Kreischer family conspicuously occupied a pew at the front of the church that faced the choir. When the prominent industrialist died in 1886, Kreischer's funeral was held in St. Peterskirche prior to burial in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Balthasar Kreischer's will stipulated that his heirs hold the church property in trust for the congregation as long as the family business was carried on by his sons; since the Kreischer firm was sold to Peter Androvette in 1899, in compliance with that provision, the Kreischer heirs conveyed the church property to the congregation the following year.
The construction of a church building by Balthasar Kreischer in the village bearing his name was characteristic of the common practice of paternalistic-oriented industrialists to provide churches, libraries, and community hall buildings in company towns. However, the establishment of a German congregation and the role of benefactor played by Kreischer seem to have occurred at a rather late date in the development of the industrial community of Kreischerville - thirty years after the brick works were opened. The delay may have been related to the dominance of the German-American immigrant community by secular community groups rather than religious ones, and the lack of a truly dominant German Protestant denomination.
Or perhaps the Baptist and Methodist congregations in the village had, but no longer, served the community's religious needs Nevertheless, Kreischer's ability to reinforce the German heritage he shared with much of his workforce, by worshipping with them in their native tongue in a church building he provided, was a final step in the development of KreischerviHe as a quasi-company town. Kreischer's will also provided for the use of the church as a school, a provision that remains unexplained. A public school had been established in KreischerviHe by the mid-1870s; Kreischer may have been referring to instruction in the German language. St. Peter's German Evangelical Church at KreischerviHe was one of several churches established on Staten Island by the sizeable German population that began to settle there after 1850; the congregations included the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Port Richmond (incorporated 1852 and name changed 1918); the German Evangelical Church at Stapleton (incorporated 1857); the German-English Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul, West New Brighton (incorporated 1895); and the German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church in Linoleumville (now Travis, incorporated 1910).
The German congregation of St. Peter's Church was served throughout its history by one pastor - the Reverend Jacob Ganss. During December 1882, Ganss first preached in Kreischerville, and in 1883, the year he was ordained at New Dorp by the (Dutch) Reformed Church of America (under whose authority many Protestant German churches were organized), he was called as pastor of the church. During his early years on Staten Island, the Reverend Ganss also served nearby congregations; aRer presiding at a late morning service on Sundays in KreischerviHe, he preached in Bergen (now Jersey City), New Jersey during the late afternoon and at an evening service in Hoboken.
The Reverend Jacob James Ganss (1859-1930), a native of Germany, graduated from the University of Mainz, Germany, and did post-graduate work at the University of Basel, Switzerland, before immigrating in 1880, at the age of twenty-one, to the United States where he first settled in Brooklyn. Ganss soon became a tutor at the Dr. Mohn's Martha Institute in Hoboken, where he was also a student in languages. (He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Taylor University, Indiana, in 1898.) The Reverend Ganss also served a German congregation in Perth Amboy which was enroHed in 1908 as a congregation in the Reformed Church of America; by 1914 the Reverend Dr. Ganss was preaching at the growing St. Paul's Evangelical Reformed Church in Perth Amboy during the morning and to the smaller congregation on Staten Island in the afternoon. The Reverend continued to serve the Perth Amboy Church from his home (now 4313 Arthur Kill Road, purchased in 1902 Rom the St. Peter's congregation) on Staten Island until his death in 1930.
A Second Congregation — The Free Magyar Reformed Church
By 1915 a Hungarian congregation had been meeting regularly in the St. Peter's German church. With Reverend Louis Nanassy presiding, the congregation incorporated in June of that year as the Magyar Reformed Church of KreischerviHe New York and Vicinity and afHHated with the German Reformed Church.Through the assistance of the Reverend Jacob Ganss, the Hungarian congregation was able to purchase the church and dedicate it for their use on September 1, 1919. Around the same time, the congregation called as pastor the Reverend Joseph Nagy, who had immigrated in 1911 from Hungary; with his wife, Helen, and their two children, he resided at 19 Winant Place in what is now the kitchen and bathroom portion of the Parish Hall.
In 1922 the Reverend Kalman Toth was installed as pastor, and as the church flourished, plans were made to erect a rectory; the project was realized during the summer of 1926 when a dwelling was built by George Robinson to plans provided by builder/architect Royal Daggett." A division in the church occurred in 1933 when the Reverend Toth left to establish another church in Rossville. The congregation in Charleston then reincorporated as the Free Magyar Reformed Church of Staten Island, New York; since that time the church has been affiliated with the Hungarian Reformed Church in America.
The congregation in Charleston maintained an active religious and social program, furthering the goals of the Hungarian community. Services were conducted in the Hungarian language until October 1985, at which time the Hungarian and English services were combined. The church provided Hungarian language classes for children of the congregation Rom the early 1930s through the early 1950s. The church and the parish hall, with its stage, remain in regular use for worship and as the setting for church-related and social events; when there is no resident pastor, the rental of the rectory helps support the small, independent congregation.
The history of the Magyar church in Charleston illustrates the important role that churches played in the lives of immigrant groups. During the Rrst years of the twentieth century, a period of heavy immigration from Hungary, many Hungarian, or Magyar, churches were organized.' The Magyar churches represented several denominations: Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Greek Catholic (Byzantine Rite), and those affiliated with the Reformed Church in America.
These Hungarian churches in America were noted as particularly careful to maintain the religious traditions of their native land, as well as the Hungarian language which was often taught in church-related schools. In some places, the Hungarian church was the only Magyar "territory" - as property owned (or at least controlled) by the immigrant group - and conceptually it was the one place where the immigrants could truly fee! at home. Many congregations celebrated Hungarian national holidays and consciously tried to serve as a bridge between the old traditions and the new way of life in America. The churches sponsored service clubs, which with the Magyar fraternal organizations, were important social links for the immigrant community.
In the aftermath of World War 1, the Hungarian churches in America, many of which were formally affiliated with and assisted in building programs by the Reformed Church of Hungary, were advised in 1920 to afEIiate with either the Reformed Church of the United States or the Presbyterian Church. In 1924, seven congregations which did not wish to so align themselves formed the Free Magyar (now Hungarian) Reformed Church in America as an independent denomination. The Free Magyar congregations were located in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. The denomination, with which the Charleston church affiliated in 1933, has remained one of the smaller ones in the United States, with thirty member churches today.
Description
The St. Peter's German Evangelical Church, Parish Hall, and Rectory are located on a slight rise on the north side of Winant Place in the village of Charleston. The church building and attached parish hall, at 19-23 Winant Place, and the rectory at 25 Winant Place form a complex united by a fence consisting of posts built of brick of various shades, some with Kreischer markings, that are spanned by lengths of chain-link fencing and gates along the front edge of the yards.
The church building is a one-and-one-half-Story structure with a gable end facing the street from which a spire rises above the ridge-line. To the east of the church extends an entry hall that joins the sanctuary with a small dwelling which is used as a kitchen and coat hall. To the rear of the sanctuary and the dwelling extends the parish hall. The sanctuary portion of the church and the south facades of the wing to the east are sheathed with white aluminum siding (installed 1976); the wood elements of the porch, the tongue-and-groove porch flooring and steps, and the foundation (faced with concrete), are painted.
The wood porch that extends across the facade of the church has a shed roof with a central bay which projects as an intersecting gable roof The porch is constructed with square posts and beams that are modeled extensively with chamfering. The posts that terminate with capital blocks are flanked by paired brackets at the roof eaves; the posts are connected at balustrade height by a single chamfered horizontal wood member. From the king-post-like bracing at the apex of the porch roof hangs a sign with the name of the church and date of 1916.
The exposed rafters (chamfered as well) of the porch roof have carved ends Wood steps, flanked by modem metal handrails, lead to the central entrance which has paneled double-leaf doors topped by an arched fanlight which is divided by muntins and has leaded glass with a diamond pattern. A rose window, the leaded glass of which incorporates two rondels, is centered in the gable face within an arched enframement. At the front edge of the gable ridge rises a spire which consists of a square tower supported by a flared base; the belfry area is now covered by horizontal louvers. The tall, pyramidal wood spire is sheathed on the top portion with copper and on the lower portion with asphalt material; the spire is terminated by a ball finial and lightning rod which terminates with a star.
The main body of the church is pierced by arched windows set high in the side facades, just below the projecting boxed eaves; these windows have sash divided into thirds on the exterior and are fitted on the interior with historic leaded colored glass windows. The upper portion of the roof, which is sheathed with dark-colored asphalt shingles, is pierced by several small gabled dormers, the faces of which are covered with aluminum siding. A tall chimney constructed of several shades of Kreischer brick (built during the 1930s) rises Rom the rear portion of the main block.
The three-bay enRance hall to the east of the sanctuary has a brick stoop (rebuilt during the late spring of 1994) leading to the entrance in the west bay. There is a bulkhead cellar entrance adjacent in the east bay of this portion of the complex. The dwelling portion of the structure has an irregular pyramidal roof Rom which a chimney extends. A small shed-roofed wood porch (on concrete piers) with an X-braced balustrade extends at one side of the Ront facade of the structure.
Windows in the south and east facades of the entrance hall and kitchen portion of the complex have one-over-one aluminum sash. The exterior walls of the parish hall are sheathed with asphalt sheets. The exposed rafter ends at the eaves of the parish hall are carved on the east and west walls. The parish hall interior is lit by three sets of grouped tall windows -- in the east wall and at the east and west ends of the north facade — which have four-over-four double-hung wood sash (with exterior storm windows). There is an exterior door near the middle of the north wall of the hall and a door takes the place of one of the windows in the east wall.'
Concrete walks extend along the fence and lead to the main entrance of the church and the door in the entry hall. A flag pole stands to the east of the walk and the posts that supported an announcement board remain west of the walk.^ The portion of the yard in Ront of the entry is paved with granite blocks adjacent to the building. The remaining portion of the brick walk leading to the porch entrance in the east wing is edged with granite and brick curbing. Brick paving (of sidewalk width) edges much of the church complex; a brick-lined gutter along the west side of the church leads to the street A driveway separates the church Rom the rectory.
The rectory, a two-and-one-half-story house with a gable-roofed main block, is sited close to the church, leaving a large yard to the west. The rectory, sheathed in aluminum siding (installed 1977), is on a foundation that is a combination of smooth and rock-faced concrete block; lattice screens enclose the porch foundation between the concrete block piers. The porch has a closed balustrade and square posts supporting the hipped roof that nearly spans the facade. Steps constructed of various shades of Kreischer brick lead to the porch. The central entrance has a storm door and modem wood door. The three-bay facade has window openings with one-over-one aluminum sash; there is a smaller window with similar sash centered in the attic gable face. Wood steps lead to a rear entrance. To the rear of the house there is a fenced play yard and a garage and shed building which is clad in asphalt sheathing.
- From the 1994 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
You lived, But have you ever thought of the evidence for your life? You left nothing ,but better than the pains you give to the others...
By Moxkyr
Quorn.
The first European squatters and pastoralists arrived in the Quorn area in the 1850s but the town did not come into existence until 1875. It was named after Quorn in Leicestershire by Governor Jervois whose private secretary came from there. South Australian Railways chose the site for the town of Quorn and in 1878 the government sold the first blocks of land. In 1879 Quorn became the first terminus of the Great Northern Railway line from Port Augusta. The current station with its charming Dutch gables was built in 1916. However Quorn’s greatest period of importance as a railway centre was between 1917 and 1937 when it was the junction for both the western line to Perth and the northern line to Oodnadatta and Alice Springs. This importance continued during World War II when over 400 people in the town were employed by the railways as it was a major troop stop over point with the Country Women’s Association providing over 1 million meals to the servicemen. The establishment of a new standard gauge railway to Marree and the Leigh Creek coal fields west of the Flinders Ranges in 1956 saw the town decline. The various hotels in the main street located to service the needs of travelling rail passengers then became a movie set for several films including: The Sundowners, Sunday Too Far Away, Robbery under Arms, The Shiralee and more recently Gallipoli.
Quorn’s early development was similar to that of many SA towns. One of the first structures (1878) was a flour mill for the wheat farmers built by Mr Cowan. Mr Dunn the wealthy flour miller of Mt Barker built a second three storied flour mill in 1879. It was converted to a motel in the 1960s and is now a backpacker’s accommodation centre. Other early buildings were the Austral Hotel (1878), where many of us will stay, and the Criterion Hotel built in 1881 and the Transcontinental Hotel in 1878. The first National Bank opened in 1878, along with the Post Office, the Court House (1879) and Matthews Emporium (1886). The first church in town was a Methodist Church in 1880, followed by the Anglican (1880 replaced in 1897), Catholic (1883), the Salvation Army Hall in 1884(now a gallery) and the Lutheran Church in 1890. Three years after its founding, Quorn had a population of 540 and was the 19th largest town north of Adelaide! A reservoir was made for the railways and the town. Other important public town buildings were the Institute (1881) and the Town Hall (1907). A school started soon after the founding of the town and in 1909 it became a Higher Primary School and then in 1914 it became a High School. It was the first high school in the north of SA. Quorn continued to grow in importance once the railway was extended from Quorn through to Oodnadatta in 1891.
Colebrook Home in Quorn was established by the Australian Aborigines Mission. It began as a children’s home for Aboriginals in Oodnadatta in1926 .In 1927 the home moved to Quorn with 12 children in residence. In 1933 the Mission got a new house, 2 miles outside Quorn and in 1935 the 30 resident children were sent to Magill for the summer holidays. This practice continued until 1940 when the children spent the summer holidays at Eden Hills. Following this, the Mission established Colebrook Children’s Home at Eden Hills. Among the children raised at Colebrook were several prominent Aboriginal leaders in SA including Lowitcha O’Donoghue, Faith Thomas and Ruby Ahchee( Hammond).
An open source photo gallery which aims to offer you some of our best takes – Use this photos for personal or commercial purposes, attribution is appreciated but not required – Here you go – Njoy!
Buryed down, a century to a half since.
Pulled up from the cemetery and placed on gravel with a dozenth of others.
At the end of its usefulness and forgotten.
Captured at the end of the Graveyard of Akureyri, my hometown.
2019-01-29: H.E. Mr. Aziz Rabbah, Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development, Kingdom of Morocco addressing the audience during the conference of CIF's 10 year of existence in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
Kreischerville, Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Peter's German Evangelical Church at Kreischerville is representative of the many small churches built for immigrant congregations on Staten Island during the second half of the nineteenth century. The church complex - church, parish house, and rectory - recalls the era when Charleston was known as Kreischerville, as well as the early-twentieth-century period when Hungarian immigrants maintained the separate identity of the small village. Erected in 1883 as the gift of local industrialist Balthasar Kreischer, the church reflects the paternalistic role that industrialists often played in the development of quasi-company towns such as Kreischerville. Though characteristic of the small, wood-framed structures built in the villages of Staten Island and elsewhere, the Carpenter Gothic church, probably designed and built by local craftsmen, is distinguished by its unusual porch that is domestic in scale and form, and by the emphasis on verticality provided by the tall spire and rows of small gabled dormers in the steeply-pitched gable roof.
Through its pastor, the Reverend Jacob Ganss, who led the German congregation throughout its existence, the Kreischerville Church was linked with nearby German Protestant congregations. As the Hungarian population in the village of Kreischerville grew, a Magyar Reformed church was established in 1915 and met in St. Peter's church, which the Hungarian congregation soon acquired The attached parish hall, an early addition to the church, and the rectory, designed by builder/architect Royal Daggett and built in 1926 by the Hungarian congregation, complete the complex, which is enclosed by a distinctive fence with posts of Kreischer brick. The history of the Hungarian congregation, which in 1933 affiliated with the small Hungarian Reformed Church in America denomination , documents the important role that churches played in the lives of immigrant groups.
The Development of Kreischerville
During the early and mid-nineteenth century, the town of Westfield on the southwestern side of Staten Island was a rural area with scattered small settlements; because of the extensive land holdings of the Androvette family, the hamlet near the juncture of Arthur Kill Road and Sharrotts Road was known as Androvetteville. Sharrotts Road connected the community with the village of Woodrow to the east, while the Arthur Kill Road led north to Rossville and the Blazing Star Ferry and also south to Tottenville and additional ferry service to New Jersey. Several small lanes led to the waterfront, much of which was salt marshy and homes not located near the main roads were near the shore. The residents of Androvetteville included farmers, oystermen, ship joiners, and watermen. By 1850, there were two stores in the hamlet and the West Baptist Church stood north of the intersection of Sharrott's Road and Arthur Kill Road.
The area around Androvetteville changed dramatically in the mid-1850s with the discovery of refractory fire clays in the vicinity, and the purchase of clay deposits and subsequent development of a fire bricks manufacturing works by Balthasar Kreischer." In 1845 Kreischer and a partner had established a business in Manhattan to produce fire brick - a fire-resistant brick used in many industrial applications. Kreischer soon was sole proprietor of the operation that was one of the first in the United States to provide fire brick. In 1853 Kreischer became aware of refractory clay deposits in Westfield.
He acquired several tracts with clay deposits and purchased the rights to mine clay on nearby land. Two years later Kreischer established a brick works at the edge of , and in 1858 he enlarged his works on Staten Island with the construction of an addition to the factory for the production of clay retorts . As Kreischer's brick works and clay mining began to dominate Androvetteville, the area became known as Kreischerville. In 1876 the Staten Island facility was enlarged and at that time the Manhattan plant was closed; the newly-expanded works were destroyed by fire in 1878 and were immediately rebuilt. The Kreischer Brick works was a major producer of building materials in the metropolitan area, and like many operations, maintained a headquarters in Manhattan.
Balthasar Kreischer, who retired from active management of the brick works in 1878, died in 1886; the Arm of B. Kreischer & Sons was continued by three of his children: George F., who had joined the company in 1870, Charles C., and Edward B.^ In 1887 George Kreischer entered into an agreement with the New York Anderson Pressed Brick Company and the Anderson works was built adjacent to the Kreischer facility. The brick works were again badly damaged by Arc and rebuilt in 1892. The Kreischer family's involvement with the firm terminated in 1899, its sale forced by financial problems.
The main impetus for the growth of the village of Kreischerville was the provision of housing within walking distance of the brick works. It appears that some of the properties Kreischer acquired for his company's clay deposits already had dwellings on them and that he erected several additional dwellings to house the work force; by the early 1890s the Kreischer family owned around twenty-five houses in Kreischerville. On the parcel immediately north of the works stood one of the existing houses, an old Androvette family dwelling . By 1875 Kreischer had built two large tenements for workers: a frame building east of the older Androvette house that housed six families and a nearby larger brick structure for twelve households . By the mid-1880s, a number of double houses had been built on the Kreischer firm property as housing for workers. The Kreischer firm did not own all of the property in the village, however, and members of families that had long been located in the area, like Peter Androvette, owned their own homes in addition to houses they rented to workers and lots they sold for new construction. Double houses, or semi-detached cottages, would become the dominant housing type in the village, with nearly twenty such structures built, including the Kreischer Street Workers' Houses erected by Androvette c.1890 at Nos. 71-73, 75-77, 81-83, and 85-87 Kreischer Street.
The relative geographic isolation of Kreischerville prompted the development of an entire village with numerous services as well as its own company town culture. Because Kreischerville, like many industrial communities was dominated by, but not entirely controlled by, the local industrialist - in this case Balthasar Kreischer - it can be considered a quasi-company town; the control of Kreischer over the village was tempered by preexisting development and local interests in the community. In 1863 a KreischerviHe post office was established. The Kreischerville school, District School No. 7, which during the mid-1880s served over two-hundred students, was located just north of the center of the village on Arthur Kill Road. Private enterprise appears to have thrived in Kreischerville.
During the early 1870s Kreischer helped to establish Nicholas Kilmeyer as proprietor of a genera! store in the building that stands at 4321 Arthur Kill Road . Soon there were several provision stores in the village and two bakers. The Kilmeyer Union Hote! and Saloon , the Neilsen Hotel , and a boarding house offered lodging. The Order of Germain a Lodge No. 26 met in Kilmeyer's Hall; that group, or the Society for the Support of the Poor of St. Peter's Church, was probably the benevolent society established by 1886 to provide aid to sick or injured workers.
During the last decades of the nineteenth century, houses lined Androvette Street. Winant Place, Kreischer Street, Manley Street, Arthur Kill Road, and Sharrotts Road. During the 1890s, the village residents were mainly German and Irish immigrants, most of whom were laborers at the brick works, the clay pits, the International Ultramarine Works , and the S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Company at Prince's Bay. The village residents included blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and a tinsmith and p!umber, oystermen, and several watermen and boat captains.
According to reminiscences of residents, Kreischer considered the town named after himself to be a family community, and in a paternalistic manner he advanced money to purchase homes and assisted employees through sickness and trouble. Having become an American citizen, he encouraged his employees - mostly German immigrants like himself - to attain citizenship. His force in the community is reflected in memories that there was a "good tight fence around the entire village," and that 'the gates were dosed early in the evening, which perhaps have exaggerated the role of the extensive picket fencing enclosing the yards of village houses that is documented in historic photographs.
As was common in industrial towns, the Kreischer family maintained conspicuous residences. Kreischer built a grand villa-type residence on the crest of the hills above the factory that visually dominated the village. Around 1886 Charles and Edward Kreischer moved into a pair of similar Stick Style wood villas on the east side of Arthur Kill Road; the house built for Charles Kreischer still stands at 4500 Arthur Kill Road .
Around the turn of the century, the population of Kreischerville began to change as did the employment situation. The federal census of 1900 routinely listed "day laborer" as the occupation of many residents, although there were still several small service businessmen in town. As the more limited operation of the brick works after 1899 diminished the immediately local employment possibilities, more workers traveled to the White dental works and the Atlantic Terra Cotta Works in Tottenville.^ A significant addition to the predominantly German population was the influx of many workers from Hungary and neighboring areas in Central Europe. In 1900 most of the recent Hungarian immigrants in Kreischerville were single men who boarded in the homes of Anton Killian and John Lasiacasca on Arthur Kill Road, George Lasco on Androvette Street, and others. Hungarian families soon occupied other types of housing in the village, including the many double houses; the Magyar populadon and its social institutions would remain a visible portion of the population of Kreischerville during the twentieth century.
The St Peter's German Evanselical Reformed Church of Kreischerville
Following an attempt to establish a German congregation in Kreischerville in 1879, the St. Peter's German Evangelical Reformed Church of Kreischerville^ was incorporated March 13, 1882, with Jasper D. Heitman and Christopher Bie! as trustees and William Beekman and Philip Eckert as deacons. The group was formally organized under the direction of the Reverend Leopold Mohn, who was the pastor of the German Evangelical Church in Hoboken as well as director of the "Martha Institute," a private German-American school associated with that church. The name chosen by the congregation, St. Peter's Evangelical Reformed Church, reflects the diverse Protestant denominations represented by die German
immigrants The use of the neutral name, "Evangelical," which in German usage was equivalent to "Protestant," suggests that the German-speaking congregation probably included Swiss and Alsatian members who had been Calvinists or Reformed, as well as Lutherans. The St. Peter's congregation soon supported a Women's Society, a Society for the Support of the Poor, and a Young People's Society.
In May 1883, the firm of B. Kreischer & Sons acquired from Lewis Androvette a four-acre lot on the north side of Winant Place which bordered the lot on which the Kilmeyer store stood. On July 1st of that same year, a church building was formally presented to the congregation by Mr. Kreischer. "St. Peterskirche," as it became known to Kreischerville residents, was reported to have cost $15,000 and was furnished with an unusually good organ, and carved pews and wainscoting. The Kreischer family conspicuously occupied a pew at the front of the church that faced the choir. When the prominent industrialist died in 1886, Kreischer's funeral was held in St. Peterskirche prior to burial in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. Balthasar Kreischer's will stipulated that his heirs hold the church property in trust for the congregation as long as the family business was carried on by his sons; since the Kreischer firm was sold to Peter Androvette in 1899, in compliance with that provision, the Kreischer heirs conveyed the church property to the congregation the following year.
The construction of a church building by Balthasar Kreischer in the village bearing his name was characteristic of the common practice of paternalistic-oriented industrialists to provide churches, libraries, and community hall buildings in company towns. However, the establishment of a German congregation and the role of benefactor played by Kreischer seem to have occurred at a rather late date in the development of the industrial community of Kreischerville - thirty years after the brick works were opened. The delay may have been related to the dominance of the German-American immigrant community by secular community groups rather than religious ones, and the lack of a truly dominant German Protestant denomination.
Or perhaps the Baptist and Methodist congregations in the village had, but no longer, served the community's religious needs Nevertheless, Kreischer's ability to reinforce the German heritage he shared with much of his workforce, by worshipping with them in their native tongue in a church building he provided, was a final step in the development of KreischerviHe as a quasi-company town. Kreischer's will also provided for the use of the church as a school, a provision that remains unexplained. A public school had been established in KreischerviHe by the mid-1870s; Kreischer may have been referring to instruction in the German language. St. Peter's German Evangelical Church at KreischerviHe was one of several churches established on Staten Island by the sizeable German population that began to settle there after 1850; the congregations included the German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Port Richmond ; the German Evangelical Church at Stapleton ; the German-English Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul, West New Brighton ; and the German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church in Linoleumville .
The German congregation of St. Peter's Church was served throughout its history by one pastor - the Reverend Jacob Ganss. During December 1882, Ganss first preached in Kreischerville, and in 1883, the year he was ordained at New Dorp by the Reformed Church of America , he was called as pastor of the church. During his early years on Staten Island, the Reverend Ganss also served nearby congregations; aRer presiding at a late morning service on Sundays in KreischerviHe, he preached in Bergen , New Jersey during the late afternoon and at an evening service in Hoboken.
The Reverend Jacob James Ganss , a native of Germany, graduated from the University of Mainz, Germany, and did post-graduate work at the University of Basel, Switzerland, before immigrating in 1880, at the age of twenty-one, to the United States where he first settled in Brooklyn. Ganss soon became a tutor at the Dr. Mohn's Martha Institute in Hoboken, where he was also a student in languages. The Reverend Ganss also served a German congregation in Perth Amboy which was enroHed in 1908 as a congregation in the Reformed Church of America; by 1914 the Reverend Dr. Ganss was preaching at the growing St. Paul's Evangelical Reformed Church in Perth Amboy during the morning and to the smaller congregation on Staten Island in the afternoon. The Reverend continued to serve the Perth Amboy Church from his home on Staten Island until his death in 1930.
A Second Congregation — The Free Magyar Reformed Church
By 1915 a Hungarian congregation had been meeting regularly in the St. Peter's German church. With Reverend Louis Nanassy presiding, the congregation incorporated in June of that year as the Magyar Reformed Church of KreischerviHe New York and Vicinity and afHHated with the German Reformed Church.Through the assistance of the Reverend Jacob Ganss, the Hungarian congregation was able to purchase the church and dedicate it for their use on September 1, 1919. Around the same time, the congregation called as pastor the Reverend Joseph Nagy, who had immigrated in 1911 from Hungary; with his wife, Helen, and their two children, he resided at 19 Winant Place in what is now the kitchen and bathroom portion of the Parish Hall.
In 1922 the Reverend Kalman Toth was installed as pastor, and as the church flourished, plans were made to erect a rectory; the project was realized during the summer of 1926 when a dwelling was built by George Robinson to plans provided by builder/architect Royal Daggett." A division in the church occurred in 1933 when the Reverend Toth left to establish another church in Rossville. The congregation in Charleston then reincorporated as the Free Magyar Reformed Church of Staten Island, New York; since that time the church has been affiliated with the Hungarian Reformed Church in America.
The congregation in Charleston maintained an active religious and social program, furthering the goals of the Hungarian community. Services were conducted in the Hungarian language until October 1985, at which time the Hungarian and English services were combined. The church provided Hungarian language classes for children of the congregation Rom the early 1930s through the early 1950s. The church and the parish hall, with its stage, remain in regular use for worship and as the setting for church-related and social events; when there is no resident pastor, the rental of the rectory helps support the small, independent congregation.
The history of the Magyar church in Charleston illustrates the important role that churches played in the lives of immigrant groups. During the Rrst years of the twentieth century, a period of heavy immigration from Hungary, many Hungarian, or Magyar, churches were organized.' The Magyar churches represented several denominations: Roman Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Greek Catholic , and those affiliated with the Reformed Church in America.
These Hungarian churches in America were noted as particularly careful to maintain the religious traditions of their native land, as well as the Hungarian language which was often taught in church-related schools. In some places, the Hungarian church was the only Magyar "territory" - as property owned by the immigrant group - and conceptually it was the one place where the immigrants could truly fee! at home. Many congregations celebrated Hungarian national holidays and consciously tried to serve as a bridge between the old traditions and the new way of life in America. The churches sponsored service clubs, which with the Magyar fraternal organizations, were important social links for the immigrant community.
In the aftermath of World War 1, the Hungarian churches in America, many of which were formally affiliated with and assisted in building programs by the Reformed Church of Hungary, were advised in 1920 to afEIiate with either the Reformed Church of the United States or the Presbyterian Church. In 1924, seven congregations which did not wish to so align themselves formed the Free Magyar Reformed Church in America as an independent denomination. The Free Magyar congregations were located in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan. The denomination, with which the Charleston church affiliated in 1933, has remained one of the smaller ones in the United States, with thirty member churches today.
Description
The St. Peter's German Evangelical Church, Parish Hall, and Rectory are located on a slight rise on the north side of Winant Place in the village of Charleston. The church building and attached parish hall, at 19-23 Winant Place, and the rectory at 25 Winant Place form a complex united by a fence consisting of posts built of brick of various shades, some with Kreischer markings, that are spanned by lengths of chain-link fencing and gates along the front edge of the yards.
The church building is a one-and-one-half-Story structure with a gable end facing the street from which a spire rises above the ridge-line. To the east of the church extends an entry hall that joins the sanctuary with a small dwelling which is used as a kitchen and coat hall. To the rear of the sanctuary and the dwelling extends the parish hall. The sanctuary portion of the church and the south facades of the wing to the east are sheathed with white aluminum siding ; the wood elements of the porch, the tongue-and-groove porch flooring and steps, and the foundation , are painted.
The wood porch that extends across the facade of the church has a shed roof with a central bay which projects as an intersecting gable roof The porch is constructed with square posts and beams that are modeled extensively with chamfering. The posts that terminate with capital blocks are flanked by paired brackets at the roof eaves; the posts are connected at balustrade height by a single chamfered horizontal wood member. From the king-post-like bracing at the apex of the porch roof hangs a sign with the name of the church and date of 1916.
The exposed rafters of the porch roof have carved ends Wood steps, flanked by modem metal handrails, lead to the central entrance which has paneled double-leaf doors topped by an arched fanlight which is divided by muntins and has leaded glass with a diamond pattern. A rose window, the leaded glass of which incorporates two rondels, is centered in the gable face within an arched enframement. At the front edge of the gable ridge rises a spire which consists of a square tower supported by a flared base; the belfry area is now covered by horizontal louvers. The tall, pyramidal wood spire is sheathed on the top portion with copper and on the lower portion with asphalt material; the spire is terminated by a ball finial and lightning rod which terminates with a star.
The main body of the church is pierced by arched windows set high in the side facades, just below the projecting boxed eaves; these windows have sash divided into thirds on the exterior and are fitted on the interior with historic leaded colored glass windows. The upper portion of the roof, which is sheathed with dark-colored asphalt shingles, is pierced by several small gabled dormers, the faces of which are covered with aluminum siding. A tall chimney constructed of several shades of Kreischer brick rises Rom the rear portion of the main block.
The three-bay enRance hall to the east of the sanctuary has a brick stoop leading to the entrance in the west bay. There is a bulkhead cellar entrance adjacent in the east bay of this portion of the complex. The dwelling portion of the structure has an irregular pyramidal roof Rom which a chimney extends. A small shed-roofed wood porch with an X-braced balustrade extends at one side of the Ront facade of the structure.
Windows in the south and east facades of the entrance hall and kitchen portion of the complex have one-over-one aluminum sash. The exterior walls of the parish hall are sheathed with asphalt sheets. The exposed rafter ends at the eaves of the parish hall are carved on the east and west walls. The parish hall interior is lit by three sets of grouped tall windows -- in the east wall and at the east and west ends of the north facade — which have four-over-four double-hung wood sash . There is an exterior door near the middle of the north wall of the hall and a door takes the place of one of the windows in the east wall.'
Concrete walks extend along the fence and lead to the main entrance of the church and the door in the entry hall. A flag pole stands to the east of the walk and the posts that supported an announcement board remain west of the walk.^ The portion of the yard in Ront of the entry is paved with granite blocks adjacent to the building. The remaining portion of the brick walk leading to the porch entrance in the east wing is edged with granite and brick curbing. Brick paving edges much of the church complex; a brick-lined gutter along the west side of the church leads to the street A driveway separates the church Rom the rectory.
The rectory, a two-and-one-half-story house with a gable-roofed main block, is sited close to the church, leaving a large yard to the west. The rectory, sheathed in aluminum siding , is on a foundation that is a combination of smooth and rock-faced concrete block; lattice screens enclose the porch foundation between the concrete block piers. The porch has a closed balustrade and square posts supporting the hipped roof that nearly spans the facade. Steps constructed of various shades of Kreischer brick lead to the porch. The central entrance has a storm door and modem wood door. The three-bay facade has window openings with one-over-one aluminum sash; there is a smaller window with similar sash centered in the attic gable face. Wood steps lead to a rear entrance. To the rear of the house there is a fenced play yard and a garage and shed building which is clad in asphalt sheathing.
- From the 1994 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
I find myslef sitting in the same place i was a year ago and remembering Sakura (to the new members that did not know her she was also a flickr member) who passed away almost the same time last year.
_______________________________________________________________________
"Existence" is strange.. we are here then we are not. Makes me think about things that matter family & friends... People in general and how we treat one another. If I die today what impression have i left on this world? on people? We never know when we will travel to the "other side".. (if you believe in it).
There is a quote that goes something like.. "never leave anything you could say today for tomorow." i cant remember for the life of me where i got it from but i know its from somewhere. And never leave something you could do today for tomorow...
im just thinking and remembering.. *sigh*
Thought of experimenting with something and this was the closest best option available. An unedited shot. Little cropping and tone enhancements!
This photograph was taken at 11:10am on Wednesday 4th May 2016 off Sooke River Road in the grounds of Sooke Potholes Provincial Park, a free to visit seven hectare provincial park on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
.
.
Nikon D800 160mm 1/125s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Hand held with Nikkor VR vibration reduction on. Nikon back focus button enabled. AF-C Continuous point focus with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.Nikon AF Fine Tune on (+5)
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Nikon DK-17M 1.2x Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC card. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW Photo/ 15.4" Notebook Backpack camera bag.
.
.
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 23.45MB
.
.
PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D800 Firmware versions A 1.10 B 1.10 L 2.009 (Lens distortion control version 2)
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
The parish came into existence following the decision of the Diocesan Council, in the fall of 1998, following the repeated insistence of the faithful from the Drumul Taberei neighborhood, who were disappointed by the lack of places of worship in this neighborhood.
Thus, at the initiative of the priest Nicolae Burlan, a disassembled wooden church was brought from the Vicovul de Jos commune in Suceava county and reassembled on a plot of land belonging to the Ministry of National Defense located in Brașov Street, no. 21C, sector 6.
Later, interventions were made at the City Hall of the Capital, which ceded a 3000 square meter plot of land for the purpose of building a church and which was given in exchange to the Ministry of National Defense for the equivalent area on which the wooden church is already located.
The wooden church was consecrated by His Holiness Teodosie Snagoveanul, Vicar Bishop of the Archdiocese of Bucharest at that time, on July 26, 1998.
The shrine of the church is Saint Pious Parascheva, (in Greek "paraschevi" means "Friday") whom Orthodox Christianity celebrates on October 14 and whose Holy Relics are in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Iași.
Since the wooden church proved inadequate for the more than 1,000 believers from various neighborhoods who regularly participate in the Holy services, the decision was made to build a brick church, of larger dimensions absolutely necessary for a neighborhood like Drumul Taberei.
The plan of the new church belonging to the architect Florin Bucur Crăciun is in the form of an inscribed Greek cross.
From an architectural point of view, it fits into the style prefigured by the churches "Sfânta Sofia" in Constantinople and "Sfântul Nicolae Domnesc" in Curtea de Argeș.
A large central hemispherical dome dominates the spatial composition of the edifice.
A wide porch with six free and two engaged columns precedes the entrance.
Access to the church is through a portal with an arched frame, made of finely carved stone.
The vault is made up of 25 semi-arches, resting at the ends on two metal caisson rings, with other intermediate rings unfolding between them.
The covering of the altar, similar to the apses of the proscomidiary and the diaconicon, is made by a cone connected to a semi-cylinder.
On the opposite side, on the first floor, there is the cage which is accessed by stairs placed inside, in the northwest and southwest corners of the building, which also lead to the two balconies.
Early history
The site of Carisbrooke Castle may have been occupied in pre-Roman times. The existence of a ruined wall suggests that there was a building there in late Roman times. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that Wihtgar, nephew of king Cynric, died in AD 544, and was buried there. The Jutes may have taken over the fort by the late 7th century. An Anglo-Saxon stronghold occupied the site during the 8th century. Around 1000, a wall was built around the hill as a defence against Viking raids.
Later history
From 1100 The castle remained in the possession of Richard de Redvers' family, and over the next two hundred years his descendants improved the castle with stone walls, towers and a keep. This was until 1293, when Countess Isabella de Fortibus, the last Redvers resident sold it to Edward I, after which the government was entrusted to wardens as representatives of the crown.
In the reign of Richard II it was unsuccessfully attacked by the French (1377) The castle was reputably saved by local hero Peter de Heyno who shot the French commander. Anthony de Wydville, Lord Scales, later Earl Rivers, obtained a grant of the castle and rights of Lordship in 1467. He was responsible for the addition of the Woodville Gate, now known as the Entrance Gate.
The keep was added to the castle in the reign of Henry I, and in the reign of Elizabeth I; when the Spanish Armada was expected, it was surrounded by an elaborate pentagonal fortification by Sir George Carey.
Charles I was imprisoned here for fourteen months before his execution in 1649. Afterwards his two youngest children were confined in the castle, and the Princess Elizabeth died there. Most recently it was the home of The Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria, as Governor of the Isle of Wight, 1896-1944. It is now under control of English Heritage.
Carisbrooke was the strongest castle on the Island; though it is visible from some distance, it does not dominate the countryside like many other castles.
There are traces of a Roman fort underneath the later buildings. Seventy-one steps lead up to the keep; the reward is a fine view. In the centre of the castle enclosure are the domestic buildings; these are mostly of the 13th century, with upper parts of the 16th century. Some are in ruins, but the main rooms were used as the official residence of the Governor of the Isle of Wight until the 1940s, and they remain in good repair.
The Great Hall, Great Chamber and several smaller rooms are open to the public, and an upper room houses the Isle of Wight Museum. Most rooms are partly furnished, but on the whole it is the fireplaces and other features of the rooms themselves which generate the most interest.
One of the main subjects of the museum is King Charles I. He tried to escape from the castle in 1648, but was unable to get through the bars of his window.
The name of the castle is echoed in a very different structure on the other side of the world. A visit to the castle by James Macandrew, one of the founders of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, led to him naming his estate "Carisbrook". The name of the estate was later used for Dunedin's main sporting venue.
The Main Gate
The gateway tower was erected by Lord Scales who was lord of the castle at the time in 1464.
The Chapel
The chapel is located next to the main gate. In 1904 the chapel of St Nicholas in the castle was reopened and re-consecrated, having been rebuilt as a national memorial of Charles I. Within the walls is a well 200 feet deep and another in the centre of the keep is reputed to have been still deeper.
The Well-House
Near the domestic buildings is the well-house with its working donkey wheel. As it is still operated by donkeys, the wheel is a great attraction and creates long queues. The well is also famous as the hiding place of the Mohune diamond, in the 1898 adventure novel Moonfleet, by J. Meade Falkner. Wyndham Lewis, who lived on the Isle of Wight as a child, cites the donkey wheel at Carisbrooke as an image for the way machines impose a way of life on human beings ('Inferior Religions', published 1917).
The Constable's Chamber
The Constable's Chamber is a large room located in the castle's medieval section. It was the bedroom of Charles I when he was imprisoned in the castle, and Princess Beatrice used it as a dining room. It is now home to Charles I bed as well as Princess Beatrice's large collection of stag and antelope heads. This room was used as the castle's education centre up until recently.
The Earthworks
Surrounding the whole castle are large earthworks, designed by the Italian Federigo Gianibelli, and begun in the year before the Spanish Armada. They were finished in the 1590s. The outer gate has the date 1598 and the arms of Queen Elizabeth I.
Wikipedia