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| Home > History > Archives > May/June 2003 |
| From the Archives |
| May/June 2003 |
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Questions About when was this photograph taken, and what important things does it tell us about Christ Church?Answers This photograph of Christ Church is dated 1884. If you look closely just below the bottom right side, you can see faint writing that reads “Miller’s Palace Car Photo 1884.” This date makes this the oldest photograph of the church we have in our archives. |
| The photograph is significant for many more reasons, however. In general, it shows the deteriorated condition in which the church found itself by the late nineteenth century. Trees and bushes stand overgrown around the churchyard and right next to the church itself, particularly on the southeast (to the woman's right) and west sides. The north door appears dirty and unkempt, the entire church and its grounds the victim of neglect and disuse. More specifically, the photograph indicates that by this point, most of the glass in the windows had been knocked out (another photograph taken at the same date, with the same woman in front of the church but from the north side of the building, shows virtually no glass in the any of the windows—compass-head and oxeye). Besides the windows, the Carter tombs have also succumbed to the ravages of time: they are seen here broken in many pieces on the east side of the church. Just visible on the right edge is the brick wall which enclosed the Kelley tombs. The brick wall which once surrounded the churchyard is gone, and a dirt road runs along the east side of the church. Taken in 1884, the photograph also gives one an idea of what the church looked like with a wood-shingle roof, before the present slate roof was installed in 1897. Notice here there is no lead flashing running down the edges of the roof, as there would be after the slate went up some thirteen years later. | |
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