I Finally Went to church...

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Yeah I admit that its been a long time...too long...but interestingly enough this post is not about what was said inside the church, but more about the woodwork inside the church. The thing was it was not super ornate, or of the highest professional woodworking order, because it was completely Shaker Style with a flair for the Utilitarian. Still the woodwork was pretty cool to see.

This church was built in 1742.

Specifically the church was made by German settlers in 1742, then in 1795 torn down, hauled across the river on the ice to the other side, pulled into place and rebuilt. While the overall design was simplistic...hey these were German Settlers who were trying their best to carve out a spot in a harsh world, and who were trying to grow crops to feed themselves instead of building ornate woodwork...there was something truly amazing to see. And that was shaker style frame and panel construction throughout.

It was just simple straight but joints with only a few pieces of trim, but wide, wide panels, some up to three feet wide without so much as a glue line. These were flat panels, in place for 216 years and they were flat, unharmed and with hardly a knot in them. Now tell me where you can get a panel like that these days? Tell me where you can find floor boards that are 2 feet wide or better from one side of the church to the other? Tell me were you can find thick hand hewn beams.

And the wood. Pure pumpkin pine. Now I have seen plenty of pumpkin pine in my life (the name for virgin eastern white pine) but not an entire building made from it. The pews, the flooring, the walls and even the pulpit area which was wine glass shaped and elevated above the main floor...were all made from pumpkin pine. The wood had such straight grain and narrow, narrow growth rings that it almost looked like mahogany. The wood was just so different. Light, straight grained and worn from 216 years of use.

Now how in the world could I take this all in when I was supposed to be listening to what was being preached? Well the hour long service was in German and I could not understand one word of it. :) It was cool to see though. Here is a picture outside of the church. The inside was not allowed to be photographed because its considered sacred. :( Here is what it looks like from the outside though. Incidentally some of the headstones are in slate and written in German as well.

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Whoops...I double posted. I wanted the pic to be smaller as the thread above was hard to read in its huge size. Whatever one is better suited to the forum can be kept.

Sorry for the double post Mods. It was not intentional.

(Click to enlarge)

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Travis,

I added the pic for you...a bit bigger, but not huge....:D

(Greg Cook)
 
Well Travis, In my personal opinion, going to church is a good thing even if you are just admiring the woodwork. My brother-in-law bought a house in Grand Rapids, MI. that was one of the first homesteads in the whole area. I think the land was deeded around 1730ish. Anyway, I was over for a visit and my brother-in-law had just put in a new furnace and was cleaning out a basement room. He offered me a few pine boards 1x12" x 16' long. I looked at them and realized that they had zero knots and tight growth rings. Truely old growth lumber. Probably white pine. I'm saving them for something that deserves them.
 
Travis! LTNP (long time no post), Good to see you back. There's a bunch of German settled towns here in Missouri. Have a pretty good idea of the style you described. They sure knew how to build stuff.
 
Yeah I have been pretty busy lately. Logging has been cranking since everyone wants to burn firewood these days instead of buying oil to heat their homes, so I've cut 34 cords in the last few weekends. Then there are the farms. In total there is 555 cows to milk now, and with hired help hard to find, I have been filling in as needed on the weekends. Still building boats too though I have told them...begged them really...to lay me off, but they've laid off other people instead. :(

As for the church, it was pretty cool. The wife has family that was part of the German Settler's and she's right into genealogy and all that, so she wanted to go. It was neat to see that's for sure, but we all agreed...it had to have been some cold in there in the winter even with a little woodstove running.

PS Greg: Thanks for adjusting the picture.
 
Pirated Pics

I should have known the Mrs would not be able to keep her camera at bay when it comes to her ancestors and stuff. Anyway she snapped a few inside pictures so you can see what I saw (sort of) though we were not supposed too.

I will warn you now, the pictures don't do it justice, and what I was amazed at was not the detailing of the work, it was just the overall magnitude of big pumpkin pines and the simple woodwork. But in some ways, you have to respect simple too, especially in the 1700's when you are trying to make a homestead. This building is over 200 years old!!

The church as three levels, two of which are used for church services, while the attic area is huge in size,planked over and was used for storage. There is a couple of old bibles here too, one given to the church by the Keizer of Germany in the 1700's and personally signed by him wishing the Germans the best of luck in the new world.A collection of family bibles resides here too from the first family's that arrived.

As for the cemetery, note the slate headstones (old) with some written in German. One apparently talks about a fellow that was killed by a falling tree. There are many, many veterans here too, from the French and Indian Wars, Revolutionary War...right up to the Vietnam War as its still a active cemetery.

Thankfully this place is part of the National Historic Sites so it should be protected for the future.

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Since some people seem to be interested in old church buildings, and I think I am okay with the CoC Rules since I am talking about old church buildings and woodworking and not religion in general, I will post this church located in my town.

This church was built in 1832 and like the German Lutheran Meetinghouse, this one had services only once a year. (The german church is the first sunday in august, and this one is the first sunday in september)

The Amish were really interested in this as well when they came here. They wanted to buy my Uncles farm which is just located a ¼ turn to the left. So the second picture shows the view from this church. It pretty much screams quaint New England charm in my opinion with the dirt road, rolling hills and farm tucked into a big field. I offered to buy the farm but my Uncle won't sell. :(

Now if I get the chance to upload some photos, I will get some of the church my wife and I got married in. That is a beautiful and ornate church. The stain glassed windows came over from Italy since the sea captains of the era built it. We got some wedding pictures in front of the stained glass windows but since a gale was blowing that day, they were a touch on the dark side.

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I'm not a mod, but IMHO, you are talking history, woodworking, architecture, etc. Very interesting. That sure is a very traditional sanctuary. High pulpit and enclosed pews. Those doors keep out drafts on cold days.
 
That sure is a very traditional sanctuary. High pulpit and enclosed pews. Those doors keep out drafts on cold days.

I kind of wondered what those high pews were for. That makes sense as this church is located on the coast...a very breezy location. Even in church we were discussing with fellow church-goers just how cold that church would be with no insulation and Maine's frigid Maine winters. A woodstove was tucked in the back, but it was a pot bellied stove and I know that was not original to the 1700 something church.

As for winter, it looks like a dousy this winter. The beehives are high off the ground, the leaves on the maples are already changing and it hit 40 degrees this morning. It's only 8-20-08 for goodness sakes, this weather is two weeks early!!
 
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