Friday, February 7, 2014

Losing a Little Landmark - Deconsecrated and Ready for the Mansions

The little place felt like a discovery every time I saw it.

The last service was in August, the pastor and congregation have moved on. Now there's one less church in Brookhaven Heights and soon there will be one less church building. Like the Homer Hood house the difference made it special. This is what delights architecture tourists.

There's room for two or three houses on that lot and I won't care a flip about them.

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"Most landmarks and focal points in cities - of which we need more, not fewer - come from the contrast of use radically different from its surroundings, and therefore inherently special-looking, happily located to make some drama and contrast of the inherent difference ... noble buildings ... set within the matrix of the city, instead being sorted out and withdrawn into 'courts of honor'"- Page 228, ”The Death and Life of Great American Cities” - Jane Jacobs, Vintage Books Edition 1991

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I "discovered" it last February, a modest little church on the corner with a shelter out back.

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It was a going concern, neat as a pin. Trinity Baptist had been there 19 years, before that I don't know.

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Though modest it was a breath of fresh air amidst the original houses and the teardowns.

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On Wednesday the steeple was gone, the marquee painted over, the developer signs in place.

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As you approach on Etowah from the west, you peer around the cyprus hedge and catch the church on a little green.

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It's handsomely plain.

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They removed the tables and old pews from the shelter.

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The shelter is irresistible to me.

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As it was last February with tables and orange pews.

It's still there. Go see if you are in the neighborhood.


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