American Folk Art Buildings
architectural imagination and storied places rendered small
TYPES
Churches
Over a quarter of the buildings in this collection are churches -- a higher percentage than found in larger communities. The ecclesiastical imperative to make a good church is strong in any size, as surely is an impulse to somehow honor by rendering small. Important to place and history, churches often show some of the best buildings in town, though perhaps too little seen. Full on Sunday or not, they ever enrich our streets and vistas. Those of traditional American styles -- familiar to memory and history, usually spired, expected in our places somehow -- compel most strongly.
Arresting interiors in good number affirm that the churchly impulse, small as large, impels
good attention in as well as out.
Cleanliness. Godliness.
Spaghetti trim strips. Macaroni roof tiles.
Eleven quite small and mysterious churches from Maine, some with indistinct words underneath. The far lower right is marked as the Little Brown Church in the Vale, Iowa. Others are identified by street and not town; one is noted to have burned in 1930.
Mars Hill
Baptist Church
Rev. A. Langford
Pastor
Barely visible red words
4" high
The First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, Connecticut, has compelled construction twice.
Above, the smaller is 20" high, rougher in detail and style. Below, the larger is 48" tall and quite wonderful.
27" long
Big. 38" high. Two confessionals too.
